College bowl season ready to take over

Tis the season to get bowled over. Yes, a total of 28 college football bowl games in 16 days.

And what a bowl season it will be! Yo better run through the carry-out or grocery store for your favorite snacks and sandwiches now to avoid missing one second of the most wonderful time of the year.

It all begins Tuesday with the New Orleans Bowl which isn’t going to be played in New Orleans but Lafayette, La., due to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to the New Orleans Superdome.

Well, the site doesn’t matter because the game matches the Arkansas State Bill Clinton Women Chasers against Southern Mississippi. All I know about this game is Marshall should have beaten Southern Miss.

Wednesday’s GMAC Bowl is in Mobile, Ala., and has UTEP and Toledo. The draw here is UTEP’s quarterback is Jordan Palmer, brother of the Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer.

What would make someone really want to watch this game is if Mark Twain’s daughter Shania was one of the cheerleaders.

(I know they’re not related, but they both use pseudo names).

Thursday is a doubleheader.

First, play the Las Vegas Bowl at Caesar’s Palace and put odds on every play. That might draw a crowd.

How would you like to tell your mean, nasty, rock ‘n sock ‘em team they’re playing in the Poinsettia Bowl. Most of the tickets for this game were bought by the Ironton Garden Club.

If you’re still awake on Friday, try the Fort Worth Bowl. They named this bowl after the city where the game is being played. How original. Maybe next year they’ll move the game to Butte, Montana.

The next two bowls are complete opposites. Saturday’s game is the Hawaii Bowl played in Honolulu, but Monday’s game is the Motor City Bowl in Detroit.

Sorry, but I can’t imagine wanting to visit Detroit in the summer, let alone the winter.

The competition picks up next Tuesday and the bowls look pretty interesting from that point on through the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4.

So why so many bowls instead of a playoff? Just look at the payouts. When each team can take home any where from $750,000 to $14 million, why would you want playoffs?

Obviously, the strong programs will be in the playoff system while teams like Akron, Akransas State and Houston are forgotten.

Like it or not, college football will have as many bowl games as, well, Kellogg’s has cornflakes.

Hey, cornflakes go in a bowl, too.

Jim Walker is sports editor of The Ironton Tribune.