Observations of a College Football Bowl Addict

It's already started. Have you checked your local program guide on TV? NO freaking college football.

There is, however, a bunch of overrated NFL players playing to the tune of 20+ mil a year while the 25-bucks-an-hour-NFL-secretary just got the pink slip because of the current state of our economy. The NFL is trying to save some money, and instead of trimming the fat off of players who shoot themselves in the leg or make it rain in strip clubs, the folks who barely make ends meet get to stand in the unemployment line.

Merry freaking Christmas! Love, Roger Goodell.

We do have tons of NBA games -  living in So Cal and married to a Lakers fan (what the hell was I thinking?) means only one thing - endless ass-kickings by the Lakers over sub-par teams to make the Lakers fans feel good about themselves...until they play an Eastern team, of course.

Nothing like getting knocked back into reality (see Indiana Pacers for reality check), is there? Nothing has changed, the Lakers are soft. The East will kick their butts because Pau still can't stand up to the big men in the paint. And it really is Kobe and the four dwarfs. Trevor Ariza should be in the starting line-up. Why can't the genius Phil Jackson see that?

But wait! This was about football wasn't it? The bowl season, where we get to see some truly deserving teams get a pat on the back, a few "atta boys", some killer swag, and a chance to be treated like kings for five days.

Nothing like seeing the Fighting Irish dictate which bowls they will bless us with. The Irish have finals 'til December 20th, so of course, a bowl scheduled around that date won't be acceptable. Let us also take note of the fact that the earlier the bowl date (which begins on December 20th), the suckier the bowl. Coincidence?

The Irish get a date with the Hawai'i Warriors on Christmas Eve, and while this will be a big deal for some Midwest boys to relax in some tropical attire, two things come to mind here.

One, any photographer who shoots (with a camera, of course) Charlie at the beach in a speedo should lose his job. Second, the Irish fans should be packing some heat, because the Hawai'i fans are just brutal in the bleachers- more so than their team's ranking of dead last in penalties. No. 120th in the nation they are, and a large proportion of them are for personal fouls. Aloha, Irish fans. Philly fans have nothing on Warriors fans. (The Irish are "favored" by 1.5 pts, by the way. Can there be any bigger insult?)

The Independence Bowl stinks, mainly because neither conference's tie-in qualified for a berth. Yippee, bring on Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech. I kid you not.

The Texas Bowl got major bad news in that they wouldn't get Notre Dame, and instead get to offer this tantalizing match-up: Western Michigan and Rice.

The PapaJohns.com Bowl (and you know it's bad when there's a dot com in there) will treat us to N.C. State and Rutgers. Another ACC and Big East dud. Isn't the Orange Bowl bad enough? Why must we suffer through these conferences' match-ups? Why?

Alabama vs Utah? Dud. Va Tech vs Cincy? Dud- although this could be the only bright spot for Ohioans this year.

* Please note, hubby has now opened a paperback which means only one thing- the Lakers are losing to the lowly Sacramento Kings.

Best bowls are the Rose, Championship Game, Holiday and Poinsettia. The rest I'll watch because dammit, I have to wait nine months to see live college football games again. I'm not ready to handle that.

Five months before Media Days. Six months before spring games. And an endless season of baseball.

God help me.

The Lakers host the Celtics on December 25th at Staples Center. Merry Christmas, does anyone know a good divorce attorney?

It could get dicey here. Kings 113 Lakers 101.