Tradition: Adios, good-bye, so long...
Did anyone else notice something strange about this New Year's Day? As far as I can discern there is not one college bowl game being played today. Not one. For those under the age of 20 I will relate to you that all the major bowl games used to be played on New Year's Day. It was an orgiastic football feast lasting from 10 a.m. till after 10 p.m. A time for male bonding of the highest order and for the women to sit in the other room cooking and gabbing. In other words quality family time. At the end of New Year's Day you would know [most likely] who was the National Champion and the next day the holiday's were over and it was back to work.
Now? The bowl games began two weeks ago with the Avocado Bowl, Jell-0 Mold Bowl, Roto-Rooter Bowl....ad infinitum. If your team finished the regular season with a 6-5 record, no problem you were bowl bound. This is in some ways humerous to those of us who have been watching college football for 46 years. But mostly it is very sad. Crass commercialism has finally sacked the tradition in college football. This trend continues and in fact gets worse. I heard several days ago that The Peach Bowl, after all these years, will now be known only as the Chick-fil-AŽ Bowl. How catchy, will the bowl championship ring have a drumstick on it? A fowl wind blows in Georgia and in the tradition of college sports.
Did anyone else notice something strange about this New Year's Day? As far as I can discern there is not one college bowl game being played today. Not one. For those under the age of 20 I will relate to you that all the major bowl games used to be played on New Year's Day. It was an orgiastic football feast lasting from 10 a.m. till after 10 p.m. A time for male bonding of the highest order and for the women to sit in the other room cooking and gabbing. In other words quality family time. At the end of New Year's Day you would know [most likely] who was the National Champion and the next day the holiday's were over and it was back to work.
Now? The bowl games began two weeks ago with the Avocado Bowl, Jell-0 Mold Bowl, Roto-Rooter Bowl....ad infinitum. If your team finished the regular season with a 6-5 record, no problem you were bowl bound. This is in some ways humerous to those of us who have been watching college football for 46 years. But mostly it is very sad. Crass commercialism has finally sacked the tradition in college football. This trend continues and in fact gets worse. I heard several days ago that The Peach Bowl, after all these years, will now be known only as the Chick-fil-AŽ Bowl. How catchy, will the bowl championship ring have a drumstick on it? A fowl wind blows in Georgia and in the tradition of college sports.
