Spotlighting Sports


Mark Glenn


They range from meaningless, to boring, to who cares and to championship caliber.

I'm talking about the bowls, of course. In its hard to find wisdom, the NCAA certified a record 32 bowl games.

That means 64 teams or more than half for the Division I schools will be playing in a bowl game.

Naturally, that creates some interesting if not bad matchups. Usually I think a day with football is better than a day without football. But that's not always the case with bowl games.

When I broke it down, I decided on about nine games I want to see and few others I might take a look at if I don't have any thing else to do. The influx of the mostly bad matchups begin on Tuesday.

The must see games

BCS Title game: Ohio State vs. Florida: Urban Meyer is trying to become the third second-year coach from Ohio to win a national championship in his second year at a school. Bob Stoops did it in 2002 and Ohio State's Jim Tressel did in 2002.

Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Boise State: The last time the Sooners went out west it didn't work out well. Stoops has a priority of making sure that Pac 10 officials are not used in this one. Seriously this is the biggest game in Boise State history. They are playing for the so-called mid majors to prove they belong in the BCS. Should be the last game that Adrian Peterson plays as a Sooner.

Sugar: Notre Dame vs. LSU: There are two kinds of football fans. Those who love Notre Dame and those that hate them. Nothing in between. The Notre Dame haters should love this one.

Rose: USC vs. Michigan. Good matchup between two tradition rich schools. Both teams are coming off devastating losses, but this should be a good game to watch.

Holiday: This one is interesting to me. Both teams are 9-3. California losses were to Tennessee, Arizona and USC by a total of 35 points. Texas A&M lost three games by a total of six points and beat Texas. Cal is favored but who knows.

Independence: Oklahoma State vs. Alabama. This is interesting simply because it involves a state school. OSU has the opportunity to play a tradition rich program and could come away with a big victory. Just wondering if Alabama will have a head coach for 2007 by kickoff time.

Cotton: Nebraska vs. Auburn: The main problem hear is that the game kicks off at 10:30 a.m. But still Nebraska and Auburn are two good football schools. Don't be surprised if the Huskers pull off an upset.

Alamo: Texas vs. Iowa: This really doesn't like a good matchup because Iowa is 6-6 on the year and 2-6 in the Big Ten. But the Longhorns may have a problem getting up for this one. It appeared they would be heading for the Fiesta Bowl and a nice trip to Arizona. Instead they get to board a bus and head to San Antonio.

Armed Forces: Tulsa vs. Utah: This does involve an Oklahoma school and a friend of mine, Keith Patterson and former Altus High assistant coach is the defensive coordinator at Tulsa. So I think I'll take a look at this one.

Those are the ones I think are worth watching. As I have said in the past 32 bowl games is simply too many.

Maybe when the time comes, I will watch more games than I plan on, but right now I not that excited about most of the matchups.