…but word comes this morning from the mighty Orson Swindle at EDSBS that the Pac-10 has done a deal to put a team in the Alamo Bowl.
Now, I will leave it to my wife to lay out the merits of the Alamo Bowl (hint: if you’re experiencing bonding between the football players and the band geeks, your bowl may suck) but I am not sure that sending the #2 team to San Antonio is any great improvement. I had something in mind more like the Citrus Bowl or the Cotton Bowl or some such, not some indoor play-on-a-rug-on-ESPN-some-weeknight kind of bowl. If you’re just trading San Diego for San Antonio? Let me tell you something, there is nothing – NOTHING – in the entire state of Texas that should ever be seeded over San Diego. San Diego is a 1 seed. San Diego is the ’27 Yankees. Texas is the ’62 Mets.
The other problem is that it doesn’t improve the matchup – it’s still #2 Pac-10 vs #3 Big 12, which is a no-win situation. But then, the Holiday Bowl is going to be #3 Pac-10 vs #5 Big 12 now (Insight Bowl swooped in to geth #4 Big 12) which means that once again, Pac-10 teams will be playing down in all their bowls but one.
You’d almost think the Pac-10 didn’t acknowledge the existence of any bowl but the Rose Bowl…OH WAIT…
I haven’t commented yet because I’ve been at a loss for words. I don’t have many now, so suffice it to say I’ve been shaking my head. A lot.
The Alamo Bowl has hopefully worked out some of the kinks since the early 90s when Texans had never even heard of a “vegetarian” or of religions other than “Christian” or races other than “white.” Giving them that benefit of the doubt w.r.t. logistics with the team’s school’s students… the Alamo Bowl isn’t a bad game, but it sure as hell ain’t any better than the Holiday Bowl. Like you, I’m pissed off that this was all they could do. I want to see the Citrus Bowl at the very least.
What worries me, and I think it’s a fair concern, is that the more easterly bowls have such a huge bias against the Pac 10 that they aren’t “playing fair” and even giving the Pac 10 a shot to negotiate.
But as you know, what I really want to see is all bowl tie-ins (except for the Rose (because of its long enough history) and a potential 4 game playoff system (aside from the bowl games) complete destroyed. Toss up the game matches into the air every year and give all bowls at least a little bit of flexibility to choose whom they want. Let schools and their fans go to different bowl games now and then. I’d bet you $100 bucks that there are U$c fans how yawn at the thought of going to the Rose Bowl… again. It’s in their backyard for crying out loud, what’s the fun in that? You don’t get to travel to any where new and exciting (for varied values of “exciting”).