Joy’s Not a Part of This Season

I’m all revved up over the Motor City Bowl.

I just watched it on cable, and am happy to report that Marshall defeated BYU in Pontiac.

Or did Pontiac beat BYU at Marshall? Maybe it was Marshall Pontiac gunning down BYU in a deserted auto plant.

Whatever, it was a great college football game between bitter rivals with plenty at stake.

I hated to say goodbye to the Aloha Bowl.

This year it featured longtime rivals Wake Forest and Arizona State, hooking up in Hawaii, on Christmas. We huddled around the TV, there being nothing like inviting 120 anonymous football players into your home for the holidays. And afterward, we all ate from a gift basket of gaily wrapped pork products.

I can’t stop singing about the Music City Bowl.

It’s being played Wednesday, at Nashville, by teams with a combined record of 12-10, Kentucky versus Syracuse.

They may not be highly ranked, but the game will certainly make country music’s top 10.

I bought Music City tickets, but now I can only bawl.

I thought them schools was playin’ each other in basketball.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

You can spend one day watching Louisville in Boise, and another watching Boston College in Tucson, and end your vacation well rested.

You can spend your New Year’s Eve watching Southern Mississippi in Memphis, although, to be fair, that is probably no different from watching Memphis in southern Mississippi.

If you’re really smart, you can spend New Year’s Day by spending $110 to watch a block of Wisconsin cheese melt all over some Palo Alto liverwurst.

I’m blooming over the Rose Bowl.

As this fine pile of bowl games blows around our living rooms like crinkled tinfoil candy wrappers, however, some would disagree. Some would even use this occasion to call for a national championship tournament.

They would say that by designating one game as the national championship game--the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 4 between Florida State and Virginia Tech--the college football and TV people have ruined the 22 other bowls.

They would say that the lack of appeal for every game but the big one proves that those bowls should become playoff games as part of a round of 16.

Even before the national championship game was hatched, they say, there were at least several games that could have had an impact on that title, and the little bowls were filled by teams with big hopes.

Heck, they remind us, even the Holiday Bowl once gave us a national champion.

They say the college presidents’ biggest argument against a national playoff system--that it takes players away from their studies--is nullified when you consider that bowl teams spend a week at the bowl cities, and several weeks preparing for those meaningless games.

If they are going to have to practice and play through New Year’s Day anyway, why not give more than two teams a reason for all this work other than, “Shut up! You’re getting a cool Federal Express blanket.”

To all these critics, I say this:

I’m licking my chops over the Outback Bowl.

Georgia plays Purdue in . . . well, actually, I have no idea where it is being played, other than in perhaps a moderately priced suburban steakhouse, which I doubt.

But Georgia against Purdue? How long have we waited for these two teams to meet? How long have we wondered about this matchup of a great football power from Indiana (well, not really) against a longtime football stronghold from Georgia (OK, not quite).

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been looking forward to it for at least two sentences.

The BCS people--college athletic officials and TV types--also have an answer for those critics.

They remind us that last year, 12 of the 20 bowls enjoyed an increase in attendance, and that 88.8% of the seats for pre-New Year’s Day bowls were sold.

More important--in fact, of prime importance--is that TV ratings for all bowls increased 3.1% from the previous bowl season.

This matters because, as with everything in sports, there will not be a true national college football playoff until TV decides it needs one.

As long as hometown fans and alumni can bring in ratings for 22 bad bowl games that appeal to few others, TV doesn’t need one.

So what if, by the time the top two teams do meet in the first week of January, they will have been inactive for so long, the game clanks around like a season opener?

Who cares that the other bowls are as boring and phony sounding as a game show that carefully picks its contestants and its audience?

Not I.

I’m positively acidic over the Florida Citrus Bowl.

Talk about your pulp friction.

Michigan State, with a new coach, essentially opens its 2000 season against a Florida team that is still in the process of giving up on its 1999 season.

Two teams competing in different seasons, sharing only the truth that they have nothing to play for. They are pulled away from their families and friends during the holidays so they can play anyway, all this in hopes that enough of those people watch the game so TV can make enough money to do it all again next year.

College basketball has March Madness. College football has a march to madness.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.

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ROSE BOWL

WISCONSIN (9-2) vs. STANFORD (8-3), Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Channel 7

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STANFORD BALANCE

The Cardinal’s rejuvenated running game has made Todd Husak a more effective passer.

Page 4

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TOE-HOLD IN WISCONSIN

Kicker Vitaly Pisetsky took an interesting route to college football--from Moscow to Madison. Page 4

ALSO

BIG-TIME VICTORY

Marshall ends its third season in Division I with a 13-0 record after defeating BYU, 21-3, in the Motor City Bowl.

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