Idle bowl thoughts

Congrats to Michigan State on winning the 100th Rose Bowl -- knocking off the Stanford Cardinal. This was MSU's first Rose Bowl win since a guy named the Gipper was packing his bags in the oval office back in 1988. It's been a while. Already the headhunters are sniffing. Might MSU head coach Mark Dantonio jump ship for the vacancy at Texas?

The Tostito's Fiesta Bowl was both highly entertaining and dreadful. The U of Central Florida squared off against Baylor. With UCF being a 17 point underdog going in, the announcers were quick to offer up excuses if UCF didn't fare well. After all, they've only had a football program since 1979, they lamented.

Hogwash. 1979? That's 35 years. A lot of teams that didn't even come into existence until well after 1979 have not only gotten better, but won world championships. Like the Miami Heat, Baltimore Ravens, Florida Marlins, etc. In that respect, college football is no different. Players come and go every year (as do some coaches and managers), and time marches on. It's not like UCF just fell off a turnip truck last year and jumped into big time football. They came up through the lower ranks and have been a Division 1 program since 1996. Eighteen years. That's plenty of time to get it together. So the talking heads could have spared us the limp-wristed apologies just in case things didn't turn out well.

But they did turn out well. UCF beat Baylor by 10 points. That's a 27 point difference in what the odds-makers had predicted. So much for what the "wise guys" know. Like Maxwell Smart used to say, while holding his thumb and forefinger about a quarter inch apart -- missed it by THAT much. Right.

Dumbest commercial ever Dept. During the Fiesta Bowl, Jimmy Kimmel aired a two-part ad for Tostitos. The first installment evidently targeted the Forest Gumpish demographic. Surely, the network folks would come to their senses and pull the plug on part 2. Alas, they did not. Several minutes later, that was broadcast as well. And somewhere, I suspect many comatose patients shook their heads and maggots vomited. Bringing on Erik Estrada of the long departed CHIPS cop show for a cameo appearance? Does Ben Stein's former boy wonder have no shame?

Speaking of wise guys --

In the Gator Bowl, Georgia was favored by 9 over Nebraska. They lost by 5. A difference of two touchdowns. And since when are there any gators in Jacksonville? One has to go a ways further south before they run into those critters.

In the Rose Bowl, Stanford was favored by 6.5 over MSU. They lost by 4. A ten point swing.

In the Capital One Bowl, Wisconsin was favored by 1.5 over South Carolina. They lost by 10.

It appears the number-crunching geniuses in the back rooms of Vegas don't know any more about this stuff than you or I.

But never fear. The GoDaddy.com Bowl is yet to be played. Wait a minute. Isn't that loveable losing race car driver Danica Patrick the face of GoDaddy these days?  And the hunky boys from Ball State are going to show up to compete?

Perfect. There's spreads, and then there's spreads.........