Meanwhile...

Although I suddenly find college football considerably less interesting than staring dumbfoundedly into my daughter's eyes, nevertheless a bunch of bowl games are happening today. And things are going well so far for the hometown team, as Tennessee leads Wisconsin 21-7 near the end of the first half.

Later, of course, it'll be USC vs. Illinois in the Rose Bowl and Georgia vs. Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. Loyette says, "Fight on Trojans, and Go Warriors!" Okay, actually, Loyette just sort of let out a sleepy squeak, but that's how I interpret her sentiments. :)

Also about to begin: the Sabres-Penguins outdoor hockey game, with 73,000 crazed Buffalonians packing the Bills' iced-over football stadium. Kevin at Bfloblog calls it "the biggest sporting event to occur in the City of Buffalo in my lifetime."

Now if you'll excuse me, Becky and Loyette are both napping at the moment, and I'm going to try and do the same. I haven't gotten much sleep in the last 36 hours (something I know will be quite common for the next several weeks/months/decades), and I gotta rest up before the Rose Bowl!

Comments

[Antonia]

Are you back home now?

[Brendan Loy]

Nope. Still at the hospital till tomorrow. But we have Wi-Fi here, and a TV. :)

[PenguinSix]

My advice is to go home and sleep on the bed one last time for at least 8 hours straight. You won't get the opportunity like this for a few years.

The next few days are going to be rough on you both (especially as she is probably in the mood to basically do nothing) so you're going to need all the sleep you can get.

Have fun.

[Mad Max, Esquire]

Too bad there aren't more successful companies named Pointless, Meaningless and Insignificant. Then they could become corporate sponsors for most of today's Pointless, Meaningless and Insignificant Bowl Games.

[Mad Max, Esquire]

You should be sleeping mostly through the night in about six months. I wouldn't sweat the sleep thing. You get used to being cranky and exhausted (or maybe you just learn to live with it).

[David K.]

Blah blah blah, the games are pointless and meaningless now Max? Cause the Fiesta Bowl is all about fighting world hunger and all...

Perhaps some of the games are a little extraneous, i think you should have to be better than .500 to earn a bowl game, but the games today are hardly bottom feeders, same as yesterday for the most part. But the games are largely about making money for the sponsors, entertaining the fans, and rewarding the players.

[yea]

michigan loses to the defending 1-aa champion and beats the defending 1-a champion in the same year. i assume that has never happened before and i doubt it will ever happen again.

[jc]

I wonder if a newborn is a good enough reason to get a prescription for Provigil? :)

[Brian Foster]

USC really needs to get itself a dance team so its marching band doesn't have to embarrass itself like that anymore.

And for the love of all that is holy and good, lose the sunglasses. Despicable.

[Mad Max, Esquire]

David K-

I get the impression you will have an issue with anything I say, which reflects more poorly on you than on me.

As for my comments, I watched a bit of the Emerald Bowl between Maryland and Oregon State the other day. There weren't enough fans to fill the lower tier of a converted baseball park. I'm not sure how this is meeting the needs of fans, but I know it is diluting the importance of real bowls. I also don't like the idea of BCS bowls featuring teams that weren't even ranked during the year while no-name bowls feature teams that were competitive for most of the year.

In other words, I think the current bowl system sucks. I think the Top Ten ranked teams should be playing each other in the BCS bowls (regardless of some BS tradition). If you want to meet the needs of fans, that would go a long way toward doing it.

[David K.]

If you want to believe that, thats your choice Max, but no, I just happen to disagree with you on this, regardless of how we might agree or disagree on other things. What is sad is attempting to read into this as if I had some sort of personal vendetta against you.

How does the Emerald Bowl dilute the importance of the Rose Bowl? Which unranked team made it into a BCS Bowl? And how does the top 10 ranked teams lead to a better game? Did you not watch the Florida-Michigan game today? Florida, out of the supposedly tough as the the NFL SEC with child prodigy Tim Tebow at QB couldn't stop unranked Michigan. UCLA (unranked) almost beat #17 BYU, Texas stomped ASU even though they were ranked 8 spots lower, same with Auburn over Clemson. In fact only 1 top 10 team isn't in a BCS Bowl and the Rose Bowl decided that their fans and the financial benefit of their Bowl benefited more from a USC/Illinois matchup. But no matter how you rolled it ONE of the top 10 was going to get left out because of the two team limit anyway. You can throw that rule out to if you want i suppose, but it would never happen. Why? Because the other conferences aren't going to give up that much money, period. Every year we get good games and blow outs and most of the games this year have been fun to watch, we already have to put up with the BCS trying and only half suceeding in setting up 1-2 matches every year and some of those have been pathetic. Why? Because the rankings are subjective. There's more to football than the number in front of your teams name.

[Briandot]

Having just been robbed/burgled in Buffalo on Saturday, I'm very glad the Sabres lost.

[Sandy Underpants]

I'm enjoying the bowls because I'm a fan and I'm playing the Bowlmania thing at ESPN.com and doing pretty well. But, if ever there has been a New Years Day that has left fans with an empty feeling and more questions than answers, it has to be today. Florida gets beat by the worst bowl team, and Michigan looked great doing it. USC looks spectacular against the only team that beat Ohio St., Missouri kills one of the 2 teams that beat LSU, and Georgia looks great against a crappy team and they call the game the Sugar Bowl!!! Right now everyone is looking ahead to the 2nd round with USC vs. Georgia and Michigan taking on the winner of Oklahoma-WVU. Unfortunately the best teams in bowl week don't play each other.