Posted on: Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Tragically, 6-5 can still get you Zip
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
Got your chips? Some drinks? Batteries for the remote?
Good, because the bowls have enough 6-5 teams — 13 of them — lined up shoulder pad to shoulder pad to deck the halls from today (the Wyndham New Orleans Bowl) to New Year's Eve (Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl).
It is one of college football's earliest bowl beginnings and widest lineups and what better way to kick off the whole 21-day, 28-bowl parade than with the New Orleans Bowl, the grandson of them all, pairing Southern Mississippi (6-5) and North Texas (7-4)?
So much for being bowled over.
But, hey, you can never start the drumbeat for the Jan. 4 FedEx Orange Bowl, matching Southern California (12-0) and Oklahoma (12-0), too early. And, ESPN can't run the Dale Earnhardt movie every day.
If it sometimes seems like every Tech, State and A&M that managed to squeeze out a 6-5 record is going bowling this year, well, that's not quite accurate. Amazingly, Akron (6-5) got left at the curb, stranded by Hawai'i's comeback win over Michigan State, which filled the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl's second slot and denied the Zips the 56th and last spot in the bowl lineup.
Being overlooked was no easy task in a year in which Clemson (6-5) and South Carolina (6-5) both turned down bowl opportunities after their season-ending brawl, and five teams from the Mid-American Conference received invitations.
And, believe it or not, this passes as progress in the quality vs. quantity debate. A step up, even, considering there were six schools that got in with .500 records last year.
Pity the Zips, who might have "peaked" a year too soon. This year's leftovers, they might be a hot item in 2005 with the same record. Next year, if all the current bowls pass NCAA muster with minimum attendance of 25,000 or 70 percent of stadium capacity, and the three bowls that have applications pending before the postseason football licensing committee get approved, there could be as many as 62 bowl spots to fill.
With just a pool of 118 Division I-A teams to choose from in 2005, a lot of anxious bowl people could be calling Hawai'i Bowl executive director Jim Donovan for prayer advice.
Of course, what are the chances of the Silicon Valley Football Classic luring — or even managing to shanghai — 25,000 people to watch Troy and Northern Illinois play in San Jose, Calif., when in-state schools UCLA and Fresno State didn't come close last year?
Most likely, the Silicon Valley Classic joins the late, great Salad, Oil and Raisin bowls in the postseason graveyard of departed games.
Its demise, no doubt, will be mourned by future 6-6 and 6-5 teams everywhere.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
