exhibitionists

Today at noon there is a college football bowl game. Tomorrow, Sunday night, at 8 there is another college football bowl game.

The one today pits two very mediocre teams, Kentucky 6-6 and Pittsburgh 7-5 against each other. Pittsburgh's success is such that they fired the head coach that led them to this bowl. Tomorrow Boston College will play the University of Nevada. Nevada's claim to fame this year is that they beat Boise State when the kicker from Boise made two very unfortunate mistakes at the end of the game. I am not sure what Boston College's claim to football fame is this year. Boston College--which is actually not in Boston but in a neighboring suburb--had a 7-5 record but they, like Pitt, and Kentucky, and Nevada--do not deserve to be showcased.

These games are nothing more than exhibitions scheduled to satisfy a voracious audience. They are scheduled as they are for an interesting reason. Today the NFL playoffs will begin at 430. A game will be played at 430 and another at 8. Kentucky is playing with Pitt at noon in a silly exhibition today because so many fans are nervously and excitedly waiting to watch the NFL at 430. They have ants in their pants awaiting kickoff. They need a shot of football to allay their nerves before the 430 tilt.

Why is BC playing a silly exhibition game tomorrow at eight? Because two more NFL games are scheduled from 1-8 tomorrow. The networks are betting that fans will have the shakes on Sunday night and will need some football like a junkie requires a fix.

I will be interested in seeing if there are many fans in the stands for these college games. I have noticed, even in some of the bigger bowl games that the stands are empty. The bowl/exhibition season is for tv, voracious fans, and shekels. They have all the legitimacy of Boston College's name. The bowl tilts are really not a game. They are somewhere close to a game. Just like Boston College is somewhere close to Boston.