Bowl Game Lineup: Too Much of a Good Thing

Yes, there is such a thing as too much football.

Seven bowl games on New Year’s Day is about four too many.

While the NFL presents a nice, neat postseason tournament, what the colleges present is a mess.

Try watching seven games within an 11-hour span. It’s enough to make your head spin worse than any New Year’s Day hangover.

The first game Monday was the Hall of Fame Bowl game. NBC had to cut away from its coverage of the Rose Parade, but at least it didn’t run into the overlapping problems that ABC did.

The Hall of Fame Bowl game ended, NBC wasted little time switching to the Fiesta Bowl.

It was nice and clean, far better than ABC’s switch from the Florida Citrus Bowl game to the Rose Bowl game.

ABC took its time making the switch. ABC started off by showing a promotional spot for the upcoming Rose Bowl game. Thanks, but we knew it was coming.

Then came a promo for ABC Sports, then a ‘thank-you” promo to an airline that provides it with free travel. Then there were two promos for ABC shows, followed by a news brief.

What next? Three consecutive commercials.

Finally, an introduction for the Rose Bowl game, followed by a taped interview with Bo Schembechler.

Then came more ABC Sports graphics and two more commercials.

Oh, by the way, the Cotton Bowl on CBS was still going on. Arkansas scored on a long pass play and after a failed two-point conversion attempt, the Razorbacks trailed Tennessee, 31-27, with 1:29 left.

OK, we were finally going to see the Rose Bowl game kickoff, right? Nah.

First there was a Big Ten promo, more ABC graphics and then finally a glimpse of the Rose Bowl, where the crowd was finishing singing the National Anthem.

Then came an introduction from announcer Keith Jackson, and another taped piece on Schembechler, this one showing a 1971 pep talk.

Next was another commercial, then a Pacific 10 promo followed by one more commercial.

The teams finally took the field, and Jackson and commentator Bob Griese then offered a little pregame analysis, as if there already hadn’t been enough.

Meanwhile, in the Fiesta Bowl game, Florida State missed a field-goal attempt and trailed Nebraska, 7-0.

Finally, the Rose Bowl game kickoff came, 18 minutes after the end of the Citrus Bowl game.

One play after the kickoff at the Rose Bowl game, Florida State recovered a fumble to set up its first touchdown to tie the score on the way to a rout of the Cornhuskers.

At least we were down to only two games, the Cotton Bowl game having ended.

It was quite a task trying to watch the Hall of Fame, the Citrus and the Cotton Bowl games all at the same time.

The Cotton Bowl game was the last of the three early games to start.

The Citrus Bowl game began shortly after ABC went from Pasadena to Orlando, Fla.But it didn’t take long to realize there was going to be a time squeeze later in the day.

Certainly Citrus Bowl game announcer Gary Bender sensed it. As officials discussed a first-quarter penalty, Bender said: “Come on, fellas, we’ve got a lot of football to play today.”

If you happened to be watching the Hall of Fame Bowl game you saw Ohio State’s Zack Dumas level Auburn’s Stacy Danley.

Announcer Don Criqui first said: “That’s got to be the hardest hit of the ‘89-90 bowl season.”

Then, after viewing a replay, Criqui said: “It’s the hardest hit I’ve seen in football in years.”

Indeed it was.

A little later in the game, Criqui, talking about Auburn’s Shayne Wasden’s punt returns of 30 and 34 yards, said they broke the Orange Bowl game record.

Maybe you can’t blame Criqui for being confused. He worked the last eight Orange Bowl games.

Speaking of flubs, O.J. Simpson, during halftime of the Hall of Fame Bowl game, referred to Notre Dame’s George Gipp as George Kemp, or something like that. However, Simpson did catch the mistake and corrected himself.

In referring to Gipp’s death, comparing it to the death of Colorado quarterback Sal Aunese, Simpson said it occurred a few years ago.

NBC colleague Bob Costas, fearing Simpson’s attempt at sarcasm was probably lost on most viewers, added: “It was more than a few years ago. It was so long ago that a young Ronald Reagan could play Gipp (in the 1940 movie, ‘The Knute Rockne All-American’).”

During halftime of the Hall of Fame Bowl game, Gayle Gardner -- yes, she still works for NBC -- did a nice taped interview with Miami Coach Dennis Erickson.

And Gardner, during halftime of the Fiesta Bowl game, offered an excellent feature on the once-troubled Colorado football program and the death of Aunese this past September.

CBS, meanwhile, deserves kudos for a halftime segment it showed during the Cotton Bowl. It chronicled the highlights of college football during the 1980s, including California’s 1982 kickoff return against Stanford.

NBC broke a story that Notre Dame defensive coordinator Barry Alvarez would become coach at Wisconsin.

The network had Ralph Wiley interview Alvarez later in the day, but because of technical problems, had to cut away from it earlier than planned.

On this long day and night of football, the overall coverage and the announcing was fine.

But something needs to be done about the logjam. The way things are now, it’s impossible to see everything.

Just trying is a real job -- and no fun.