New Year’s Day Is Not at All What It Used to Be

In the good old days, family and friends gathered around the television on New Year’s Day to watch, live and in color, the best college football had to offer.

Now, because of the bowl championship series, the two best bowl games aren’t even played on New Year’s Day.

The Sugar Bowl, featuring undefeated Auburn against Virginia Tech, is two days later, and the Orange Bowl, with USC and Oklahoma deciding the national championship, is three days later.

The New Year’s Day bowl games draw about the same interest as preliminary bouts of a heavyweight championship fight. The Rose Bowl, once the granddaddy of them all, is now the grand dud, at least in this part of the country.

Texas would be more fitting for the Cotton Bowl than the Rose Bowl. But what is ABC to do? It’s stuck with Texas vs. Michigan.

California vs. Michigan appeared to be a more attractive matchup, at least before the Bears lost to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl on Thursday night.

Before that game, ABC commentator Dan Fouts, who along with Keith Jackson will call the Rose Bowl game, said: “You have to play the hand that you are dealt, and that’s what we are going to do.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

It might be different if the winner of the Rose Bowl, along with the winners of the other top seven bowl games, advanced to an eight-team playoff.

The Main Event

Although the other bowls may suffer, the BCS championship game does well in the ratings.

The last two averaged a 15.0 national rating. The NCAA basketball tournament championship game the last two years averaged an 11.8, and the NBA Finals a 9.0.

An estimated 50 million are expected to watch Tuesday’s Orange Bowl.

Calling the game for ABC will be Brad Nessler and Bob Griese.

Besides Trojan flagship station KMPC (1540), there will also be ESPN’s radio coverage on KSPN (710). That’s a good option, because KMPC’s plans to have its new antenna up and running by Tuesday are now iffy because of the recent rains. As it is, KMPC’s signal does not come in well at night.

Leading up to the Orange Bowl, FSN West will televise “USC’s March to the Championship” from Miami over the next five nights. The first half-hour special will be on at 6 and 10:30 tonight, with subsequent shows on only at 10:30. FSN West will also have a post-game show Tuesday night.

There will be three special editions of ESPN’s “College GameDay” Saturday at 6:30 a.m. and Monday and Tuesday at 4 p.m., all originating from Miami’s South Beach.

*

Whatever’s Best

FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period” is being streamlined, with Tom Arnold taking over as host and main interviewer. John Salley will remain on the show, but not Chris Rose and Bryan Cox. Rose will do other assignments for FSN, as will Cox, although his contract expires in April and it’s not known if it will be renewed.

FSN experimented with the new format Dec. 13-17 and liked it enough to try it at least through the Super Bowl.

“After over 750 shows and 3,000 guests, it’s the next evolution of the program,” FSN executive vice president George Greenberg said. “Tom is a funny and entertaining host.”

Short Waves

The Clippers have hired former Clipper and Laker player Norm Nixon as a radio commentator to work with play-by-play announcer Mel Proctor. He will make his debut on Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers. Proctor has been working alone.

Channel 9 will replay every road Laker telecast at 1 a.m., beginning with Tuesday night’s game at San Antonio. Good timing, because that 5:30 game will be going up against the Orange Bowl.... On ESPN’s “NFL Sunday Countdown,” Andrea Kremer examines whether teams who have clinched playoff spots should rest their starters.

TVG will break new ground with live coverage of the Eclipse Awards on Jan. 24 from the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. “This marks a great milestone for us,” TVG President Ryan O’Hara said.

Santa Anita has found a new home for its replay shows, KJLA 57, an over-the-air station available on most cable systems. The good thing is, the shows have a set time of 7:30 p.m. They are also shown at 8:30 on HRTV, a horse-racing network.

Amid all the New Year’s Day football are consecutive golf shows on CBS. At 11 a.m. is taped coverage of the Tommy Bahama Challenge, an event pitting four young guns from the U.S. against four young guns from Europe. The captains are Gary McCord and David Feherty, so expect some levity. “It’s not your father’s golf,” said producer Terry Jastrow.... At 1 p.m. will be “A Tee Time Like No Other,” featuring David Duval and his father, Bob, and two Special Olympic athletes in team play.

*

In Closing

Best bowl game so far was Monday’s MPC Computers Bowl at Boise, Idaho, in which Fresno State rallied to upset Virginia in overtime. It was also one of ESPN’s best telecasts, with Pam Ward again showing she is an underrated play-by-play announcer.

ESPN’s worst telecast might have been the Las Vegas Bowl. The production crew had a day almost as bad as UCLA’s, and commentator Mike Gottfried seemed to have trouble enunciating all of his cliches.