Treat Yourself

Erik Anjou was nice enough to send along a DVD of 8: Ivy League Football and America. The "director's cut," runs 114 minutes and is a treasure for anyone who loves Ivy League football. If your family or friends slipped up and you didn't get a copy of the film for the holidays, spoil yourself and buy one at the 8 website. You won't regret it.

I watched the Rose Bowl yesterday on a fellow alum's wide-screen, plasma TV. Penn State didn't play well, but I can't say I was surprised by the outcome. Disappointed, yes. Surprised, no.

I love the bowl season. It starts with schools like Kentucky in bowls like the Liberty Bowl and builds in importance each day until New Year's Day when it ends in a bang with the Cotton, Rose, Orange and Sugar Bowls featuring the best teams in the nation.

What's that you say? The AutoZone Liberty Bowl is today? AutoZone?

Not only that, Buffalo is playing Connecticut in something called in the International Bowl tomorrow. Ball State and Tulsa are playing in the GMAC Bowl in Mobile on Tuesday night. And the national championship game is next Thursday night in Miami, but isn't even a bowl game.

Wonder how I know all that? I had to look it up because I didn't have a clue.

It used to be so simple and neat on New Year's Day and everyone knew the rotation. Cotton, Rose, Orange and Sugar. I suppose I was OK with the Fiesta Bowl joining the party, but when the imaginatively named GMAC Bowl is played after the Grandaddy of Them All you'll have to excuse me if I've lost interest.

End vent ;-)