Why go bowling in 2007?
By Staff
Paul Finebaum
Sports Columnist
Of all the misleading words in the English language, perhaps the most ridiculous are bowl eligible. It's even dumber than the people who run college football saying the BCS works and we don't need a playoff.
You hear "bowl eligible" all the time, particularly down the stretch in the college football season. But what does it mean?
It means that somehow, despite having a lousy, stinking season, you can con people into believing otherwise by heading off to some undesirable locale and make believe you have earned a just reward for a job well done.
This happened in college basketball years ago when the NCAA field ballooned in size. However, at least in hoops, you have a chance to end up with a good result if you pull a shocker in the first or second round.
But not in college football.
So what if Alabama beats Colorado in a meaningless bowl game in Shreveport?
Does that suddenly turn this into a good season? And then you get the "r" word used ad nauseum. It's a "reward" for the seniors.
Do you think spending the holidays in Shreveport two consecutive years is a reward? I lived in Shreveport for 14 months right out college and it felt more like a death sentence. I still have nightmares of having my car breaking down late at night in Bossier City. Medication and afternoons on a shrink's couch simply can't get me past this.
And for Alabama fans, who travel well to bowl games – or at least we're told that by babbling broadcasters – the Tide will be making its third trip to the lovely northwest Louisiana town is six years. If you're a fan of the Tide, not a whole lot has changed over this time other than Shreveport has become more unattractive. It's not like this place has added any new art museums or five-star restaurants. The place still has the same number of greasy spoons and strip joints the last time you visited.
Will there be anything different this year than last in Shreveport, other than the absence of Joe Kines, last year's interim coach, being a lot more entertaining and engaging than this year's head coach, Nick Saban.
You will hear the arguments from the experts about the benefit of more practice time. That's understandable, at least in principle, and almost every coach swears by the extra practice time. However, by December, some think coaches have had plenty of opportunity to see who can play and who can't. Besides, it's not like the players go away now and don't come back until the spring game. They are in the weight room and the coaches know exactly what is going on. Anyway, I think this team needs a break from Saban right now as opposed to being yelled at for three more weeks.
The main reason coaches want to go to bowl games is because it looks good.
You're part of the action versus being left at home looking like a total loser. It's built into the psycho-babble of college football where broadcasters go on about "this being the ninth year in a row Alabama has gone bowling," or something like that. Actually, this will be the fourth year in a row Alabama has gone bowling, which is the longest streak the Tide has had since the '90s.
There's another aspect of well. Ending the season on a high note.
Should Alabama suddenly find a rhythm or maybe have a young player perform well in the bowl game, desperate fans can lock on to this during the dreary off-season.
And this year, what's the biggest gamble? Alabama ending the season with a fifth consecutive loss and a 6-7 record or rolling the dice and trying to beat someone, Colorado in this case, to turn this mess around? Does the risk outweigh the reward?
I don't know about you, but this Alabama football season has gone on long enough. It started with the first game of the 2006 season and never ended, with Mike Shula's firing and Saban's hiring in early January. If you ask me, a reward would be staying home for the holidays and leaving well enough alone – not going to Shreveport for something called the PetroSun Independence Bowl and risk making this mess any worse.
