The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

No, not really. But I couldn't think of a better title to introduce my blog for this bowl season, one where I won't be watching every game. In fact here are the rules:

There are no rules - no watching every game and my sons don't have to help me out.  They were next to no help last season, watching one game out of the 41. You'd think they'd be dying to help, maybe even take on the task of BowlQuest considering they will both be out of school in time for the two week run of games. Carry on the legacy of the old man's lunacy, make it their own. Nope.

The old rules:  Watch at least one live quarter of every game and I can lean on a son to watch when I cannot.  Rule 2 came in handy when I do morning show fill-in (I'm in radio for any Russian hackers...)

I even just bought them a vehicle, finally dumping our minivan. Not even that got any takers.

Boy No. 1 had the nerve to tell me he'd rather not have an SUV and preferred a sedan.  At 6' 6" I don't think he's driven too many sedans, at least ones that can fit a small forward. Boy No. 2 is even larger and this fits him, so that's that and Merry Christmas.

So why am I not doing BowlQuest XI?  Last year was no fun.  With the new playoff format the games are now condensed into a two week span and since greed rules the day, I cannot tolerate 40 games. There is absolutely no reason for that many bowl games except ESPN likes the programming.  People cannot cut the cord fast enough and the first channel to go is the Worldwide Leader.

ESPN has the rights to every game except the Sun Bowl - they're no dummies.  They know live sports is the only thing keeping their fleet of channels alive unless you really like hearing Steven A. Smith yell and name drop.  People are on vacation the last two weeks of the year and ESPN owns a glut of meaningless games that can cloud over the conversation when Uncle Chet shows up in his Make America Great Again cap.

What am I going to do?  Probably watch most of the games in some fashion and maybe write about some of them.  I'll probably miss a game or four.

None of our lives will be worse for the wear if I miss Toledo vs. Appalachian State in the Camellia Bowl.  The bowl game website even invokes the memory of Rosa Parks and her important stand for equality because what could embody the social rights mission of Mrs. Parks more than a dopey bowl game on December 17th.

And there's this - Michigan State.  If I had any zeal for doing an 11th BowlQuest the Spartans killed it with the most disappointing effort in Mark Dantonio's run as head coach.  This was the worst Spartans team since my freshman year when this guy was head coach.  Do a Google image search for Muddy Waters and guess what comes up?

Our current coach. That's how bad this season was. And to compound the football pain my son and money go to the University of Cincinnati.  Here's their now ex-coach.

Yeah, it's been that kind of season, go to hell college football and get a job.

We've got a final a final four of Alabama vs. Washington and Ohio State vs. Clemson.  I've yet to hear anyone mention that two teams featuring purple in their uniforms could play for the title but we can all wish right?

Normally I would have reviewed all the bowl match-ups but I don't really care but will get around to it and do some kind of half-ass preview or not.  Who knows, new territory. 

By the way, the most wonderful time of the year is late summer - baseball, football, maybe a day off for Labor Day, still grilling and having a beer outside. Winter sucks, here's proof.