Diplomacy And Bowl Games Today…

Eighty years ago today, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that it would be “a date that will live in infamy” and that a state of war existed between the US and the Empire of Japan.  We know how that turned out…

Today news broke that President Biden will indeed enforce a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in China because of China’s actions with regard to human rights’ abuses.  Unfortunately, I believe we know how this will turn out too…

Yesterday, I focused on the CFP pairings.  The two semifinal games will be played as the Cotton Bowl and the Orange Bowl games this year.  However, there are forty other bowl games on the calendar which brings us to a minor math calculation.

• 42 bowl games => 84 teams to take the field
• There are 130 colleges that play Division 1-A college football.
• Therefore, 64.6% of the teams make it to bowl games.

Please keep that simple math in mind when you hear someone bloviate about how important the regular season is in college football and/or how all those bowl games are important as “rewards” for teams not quite of the caliber of the CFP teams.  A large number of college bowl games are meaningless and are of only marginal interest to anyone other than the TV network that gets to put a live sporting event on the air for 3-4 hours.  I would not suggest that you tune into many of those games for more time than it takes to see a “crowd shot”; in most of the games, the number of fans interested enough to buy a ticket and show up in the stands is meager at best.

Let me present nine bowl games here – in alphabetical order lest anyone think that I have spent sufficient energy to come up with some sort of rank ordering – for which I think there is little potential interest:

1. Alamo Bowl:  Oregon vs Oklahoma.  Oregon’s coach left to go to Miami and Oklahoma’s coach left to go to USC.  Even the head coaches of the two teams do not care about this game.
2. Cheez-It Bowl:  Clemson vs. Iowa St.  This is a big comedown for Clemson who had become accustomed to a CFP slot as opposed to an assignment in afterthought bowl game.
3. Citrus Bowl:  Iowa vs Kentucky.  This game will be the college football equivalent of an Ambien pill; you will not be able to stay awake from start to finish.
4. Duke’s Mayo Bowl:  UNC vs S. Carolina.  Other than this being a “Border War Game” who cares?  UNC underachieved its lofty pre-season ranking, and S. Carolina surprised everyone by winning 6 games…
5. Fenway Bowl:  UVa vs SMU.  Virginia’s coach resigned and will not be there for the game; SMU saw its coach leave for a nearby rival and too will have someone else at the helm.  Here are two more coaches who do not care about these bowl games…
6. Hawaii Bowl:  Hawaii vs Memphis.  Hawaii is 6-7; Memphis is 6-6.  The two teams come to kickoff at a combined record below .500.  Moreover, it is a mathematical certainty that the two teams will leave the field at the end of the game with a combined record below .500.  How enticing is that?
7. LA Bowl:  Oregon St. vs Utah St.  Let me go out on a limb here and make a prediction that “State” will win this game…
8. Myrtle Beach Bowl:  ODU vs. Tulsa.  Both teams finished the season at 6-6;  ODU started the season at 1-6 and then won their last 5 in a row.  Note that this game has not attracted a “presenting sponsor” demonstrating the attractiveness of this event to the advertising/promotional mavens…
9. Pinstripe Bowl:  Maryland vs Va Tech.  I am sure there are plenty of folks in the Bronx who care about this matchup.  By the way, the fact that Tech was invited to this “prestigious event” was not sufficient to save Tech’s coach’s job…

Lest I be accused of ignoring those few bowl games outside the CFP that might be interesting if not important, here are 4 games of that nature:

1. Fiesta Bowl:  Notre Dame vs Oklahoma St.  Both teams had a chance for one of the CFP slots going into the final week, but both were “overlooked”.  Maybe this is the “Miss Congeniality” bowl game this year?  Notre Dame is a 2-point favorite in the game as of this morning.
2. Peach Bowl:  Michigan St. vs Pitt.  These are two good teams; Pitt is the ACC Champion and Michigan St. defeated the Big-10 Champion.  Currently, Pitt is a 4-point favorite in the game.
3. Rose Bowl:  Ohio State vs Utah.  These are two good teams; had they played each other early in the season, it might have been my Game of the Week.  They have a common opponent in Oregon.  The Buckeyes opened as 6.5-point favorites in this game.
4. Sugar Bowl:  Baylor vs Ole Miss.  Baylor averaged 32.6 points per game this season; Ole Miss averaged 35.9 points per game this year.  There should be fireworks here.  Baylor is currently a 1-point favorite.

Finally, I apologize for repeating this observation as a closing but since today involved so much college football commentary, here is H. L. Mencken on the subject:

“College football would be more interesting if the faculty played instead of the students – there would be a great increase in broken arms, legs and necks.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………