Time to go bowling
Well, it’s Wednesday after the college football conference championship games and Sunday’s College Football Playoff final four announcement. Is your favorite team in?
We’re big college football fans in our household, and I’ll admit we spend way too much time talking about football, but I love it! It’s been fun to anticipate all of the scenarios and debate who should be in and who would be left out of the playoffs.
With only four teams in the CFP, Florida State got left out in the cold, leaving lots of fans eager for next year’s expansion of the playoffs to 12 teams. Twelve seems like plenty of teams to finally get a good championship tournament going in football. I told my husband that any team that isn’t close to making the final 12 probably wouldn’t have a realistic shot at winning the title anyway, but you know that whoever is team No. #13 after next year’s final rankings will still be screaming that the whole system is unfair.
This football season went way too quickly and I’m already sad we’ll have to wait until next Labor Day weekend to tailgate again. Still, it’s time to enjoy all of the fun college bowl games during the next few weeks.
I remember as a kid being so excited to wake up on New Year’s Day and watch the Tournament of Roses Parade from sunny Pasadena and then see the Rose Bowl game later in the day. The Orange Bowl always had some fantastic halftime extravaganza, and the Sugar Bowl seemed to have exciting big games year after year.
Luckily, we can still watch the Rose Parade New Year’s morning, then enjoy the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl as the playoff games that evening. What’s crazy is navigating the rest of the 43 bowl games – that’s right, 43! They commence on Dec. 16 with the Myrtle Beach Bowl and wrap up with the National Championship game more than three weeks later on Jan. 8.
What always makes me laugh is the sponsorship of some of these bowls. No longer is it just the Sugar Bowl, now it is the CFP Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The Rose Bowl’s title is even longer as the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game Presented By Prudential!
Some of the names are funny, like the Avocados From Mexico Bowl, the Famous Toastery Bowl, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, the Bad Boy Mowers Bowl, the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
Of course, my favorite bowl this year will be the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, not only because the name is funny but also because my WVU Mountaineers will play in it against North Carolina. The payout for the winning team is listed at $4,780,000 and – better yet – the winning coach gets showered with Duke’s Mayonnaise rather than Gatorade!
Who says college football isn’t fun anymore?
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery@yahoo.com.