12.29.25
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Why the death of bowls may be premature …

Since the time Temple was caught with its pants down on an invitation to play in the Birmingham Bowl (today at 2 p.m.), the conventional thinking was these so-called minor bowls are dead.

If you put $10 on North Texas laying the 7, as I did, this hurt. Otherwise, a terrific game.

As Mark Twain once said, “Reports of my death have been premature.”

At least that’s the way I see it.

Yes, plenty of 5-7 teams joined Temple in turning down bowl invitations, but hopefully the Owls learned a lesson from the whole fiasco.

The next time the Owls are 5-7–which is hopefully a long ways away–hang by the phone and be prepared to say yes. (Long ways away meaning hopefully the Owls have winning seasons from now on…)

Lessons are to be gained by the experience.

Sort of like kicking a field goal with about 20 seconds left to beat Navy at Homecoming. But that’s was a story for another day.

Today, we celebrate the bowls because, from what I’ve seen so far, the games have been terrific and, at least from an American Conference standpoint, there haven’t been as many opt-outs as I thought might.

North Texas’ best quarterback and running back decided to participate in a 49-47 win over San Diego State.

Louisville and Toledo cared enough to get involved in a donnybrook knock/down, drag/out fight.

Hawaii coach Timmy Chang eschewed what would have been a sure field goal from the best kicker in the country (nicknamed The Tokyo Toe) despite having to use his backup quarterback on the last play of the game because the starter had to come out for one play due to an injury. All that backup did was throw a game-winning touchdown pass.

The crowd of 15,000 at Hawaii–which looked bigger because the Rainbow Warriors have an appropriate-size stadium–went crazy. By comparison, Temple had twice as many fans for Homecoming and while it was a decent atmosphere, they rattled around in a 70,000-seat stadium that was never built for college football.

ECU got absolutely screwed on an inadvertent whistle but survived to beat Pitt.

Terrific drama all around in the bowl games and those were just a few.

In my mind, much more compelling television than shows I never watch (The Batchelor, The Real Wives of Atlanta, etc.) and, because I love college football in general and G5 football in particular, I get a kick out of every time a G5 team beats a P4 one. Plus, the sports programming on ESPN next months shifts to wrestling, volleyball and the kind of bowling where you put a couple of fingers in a heavy bowl and roll it down a lane to hit pins.

That’s the kind of bowling I hope goes the way of Mark Twain.

I hope the college football version sticks around for a while.

Friday: Grading Our 2025 Predictions

Monday (1/5): Temple’s Unsung Hero

Friday (1/7): Is it sustainable?

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