Twistity Sports Exclusive: BOWLED OVER

 
So we’re all looking forward to the first four-team college football playoff and high-quality matchups of Alabama-Ohio State and Oregon-Florida State.

Three of them have lost just once, and FSU is 13-0. That’s the good stuff. Bama-OSU in the Sugar Bowl, Oregon-FSU in the Rose Bowl. Yum.

There are, however, 34 bowl games. That means 68 teams get one more shot at  being mediocre or worse. Six wins qualifies a team for its day in the postseason sun and these teams with .500 records are happy to continue on their semi-horrid paths.

The good folk of Shreveport, La., no doubt are preparing their finest gustatory delights for the Independence Bowl and competitors Miami and South Carolina, both 6-6. The Hurricanes haven’t won a bowl game since 2006, losing their last four. And they go into this bowl on a three-game losing streak. Ooh, must-see TV. Much like the Texas Bowl, featuring Texas (6-6) and Arkansas (6-6).

Illinois (Heart of Dallas Bowl), North Carolina (Quick Lane Bowl), Virginia Tech (Military Bowl), Penn State (Military Bowl), Pittsburgh (Armed Forces Bowl), Tennessee (Tax-Slayer Bowl) and Oklahoma State (Cactus Bowl) round out the 6-6 teams that get to continue practicing and playing so that next year they can be 7-5.

If you grew up on the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, even the Liberty Bowl, the current array of games creates a deep longing for such second-tier fun as the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl (yes, they moved the Bluebonnet Bowl into the Houston Astrodome, and, well, you get what you get). Where have you gone, Poulan WeedEater Bowl? Gone, replaced by others just as drab.

So let’s hear it for the eponymous Miami Beach Bowl and Boca Raton Bowl. Won’t want to miss the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Then there’s the Belk Bowl. And the Foster Farms Bowl. And, of course, the GoDaddy.com Bowl.

Me? I’m rooting for Cheerios in the Cereal Bowl.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .