By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

Finally, the college football post-season bowl conglomeration has come to an end.

I was sitting in front of the television at Cape San Blas, Fla., cheering and jeering as Oklahoma and Florida State battled for the National Championship (so-called) in the FedEx Orange Bowl.

What's with this FedEx thing, anyhow? I remember when the Orange Bowl was just the Orange Bowl, not a patsy for a commercial plug for a multinational corporation. All of the bowl games these days, it seems, have been given over to corporate prostitution. For shame.

The mighty and once hallowed Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Rose Bowl all have sold out to corporate greed and sponsorship just as surely as NASCAR has. I keep expecting to see an STP decal on a quarterback's helmet any day now. But at least the games are still pretty exciting.

In the Orange Bowl (I refuse to dignify the harlotry by including the corporate sponsors) Oklahoma, 12 wins and 0 losses, tangled with last years' national champ, 11-1 Florida State. In the Sugar Bowl, The University of Florida, 10-2, went to battle with the University of Miami who, at 10-1, hoped to claim a portion of the national title.

The ancient Rose Bowl featured the 11-1 University of Washington butting heads with 8-3 Purdue. And, with a combined total of six losses, Tennessee (8-3) fought Kansas State (10-3) in the Cotton Bowl.

Even the Gator Bowl had two reasonably good teams with 10-1 Virginia Tech playing 9-2 Clemson. But from there it all went downhill in a hurry.

At least 19 (I repeat, 19!) other so-called bowl games were a part of the end-of-season offering. Among them were the Independence Bowl, the Citrus Bowl, the Outback Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, the Peach Bowl, the Sun Bowl, the Liberty Bowl, the Music City Bowl, the Blue-Gray Classic, the Las Vegas Bowl, the Oahu Bowl, the Motor City Bowl, the Humanitarian Bowl, the Mobile Alabama Bowl, and the Aloha Bowl (which as far as I can tell by the fans in the stands went virtually unattended). Did any team in America NOT get to play in a bowl game?

But what, pray tell, what in the name of Knute Rockne is the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl? I kid you not; there is such a bowl game. In fact, two teams who were barely over .500, East Carolina (7-4) and Texas tech (7-5), played in this classic of a game in Houston. Between them, these two mediocre teams lost 9 games prior to the "bowl" game.

Then there was the Silicon Valley Classic (the geek bowl?) featuring Fresno State (7-4) vs. Air Force (8-3).

There was also the Insight.com Bowl at Phoenix where Pittsburgh (7-4) encountered Iowa State (8-3).

But the real stinker of a match-up has to be in the Micronpc.com Bowl in Miami where Minnesota, a team with a barely winning record at six wins and five losses, met up with North Carolina State who won seven and lost four.

What do the fans cheer in these games? Perhaps it's, "We stink less than you! Go team!" Or maybe, "We're number 103, we're number 103!"

Once upon a time, the really good teams, those who were undefeated or maybe those with one, at most two, losses, went to the post-season bowls in the hope of besting another good team. Once upon a time, attendance at a bowl game was an honor reserved for the best of all the major college teams. But now, a 6-5 team can meet another not-quite-putrid team in an advertising gimmick masquerading as a "bowl game."

Who wants to tell their grandchildren, "Yup, I played with Raccoon State (5-5-1) in the Friends and Lovers Massage Parlor.com Bowl in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., when we whipped the mighty powerhouse, Green Pond Scum College (5-5-2)"? It just ain't right.

Here's my suggestion: All you teams who lose more than two games during the regular season STAY HOME! What do you think this is? The National College Basketball Championships?

I mean, I know that every team in the country, nearly, gets to play in that thing, but this is FOOTBALL, for crying our loud.

Most football teams that lose five games in a season fire their coach, not send them to a so-called "bowl game."

And do something about those corporate sponsorships. Pretty soon, if the trend continues, UCLA, who went 6-5 this year and played in the Sun Bowl, might just have to face Fresno State in the Tampon Bowl. It just ain't right. [David Epps is rector of Christ the King Church in the south Atlanta metro area. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.ChristTheKingCEC.com.]

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