The debate over which bowl is college football’s NIT has taken a few unexpected twists and turns here in recent days, with the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus forcing chaos upon two, so far, of the three traditional contenders for the informal title. Let’s go through the three:
Gator Bowl
The Gator Bowl entered bowl season with a lot of hype. It was set to feature a team that beat Alabama and a team that beat Virginia, each ranked, each among the best teams that weren’t actually the best teams in the sport. Factor in the 11:00 AM local kickoff time and the game’s location in Jacksonville, and the NIT aura was intense. Perhaps too intense. Texas A&M couldn’t handle it. Texas A&M is gone now. From the universe. The school no longer exists. Sad way for it to go (I was rooting for someone to make Reveille do a thumbs-down, breaking the spell and liberating the hypnotized masses), but it was bound to happen eventually.
Reasonable people can disagree over whether what happened next was good or bad for the bowl’s NIT case. On the one hand, the matchup’s a lot worse than it was. Just another crappy bowl, when it used to be a surprisingly decent bowl. On the other, 5-7 Rutgers, previously on the couch, is now participating after a brief period of uncertainty that featured Bret Bielema lobbying for inclusion and Bret Beilema getting excluded, and that sure feels like the NIT, even if feelings aren’t always our most trustworthy compass on these things.
Sun Bowl
The Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, as it is colloquially known, was always the third horse in the race. Washington State was going to play Miami, but Miami exited the field on Sunday, leaving the famed Frosted Flakes mascot presumably growling, This is not grrrrrrreat. Thankfully for Tony (and those in his vicinity, don’t try to tell me that cartoon tiger doesn’t have an anger problem), Boise State had an outbreak of their own, so Central Michigan is popping over from the Arizona Bowl to play in El Paso. If you’re feeling CBI feelings…I’m with you. I love the Sun Bowl, but it just isn’t getting it done, and this chaos is more sad than exciting.
Citrus Bowl
Ok, first, can we all agree that Vrbo is pronounced V.R.B.O.? Don’t gaslight me, rental-by-owner platforms. We don’t pronounce Airbnb “air-bnnnnb.” Really messed up. Fucked up, even. I would use the f-word to describe this maneuver. Fucked. Up.
In a strange turn of events, the Citrus Bowl is being broadcast on network television (ABC, and did I use “network television” correctly there?) while the Fiesta Bowl, kicking at the same time, is on ESPN. I don’t know how that happened, but I like it, and I also like that this game’s over/under is college football’s first ever negative total, as Iowa is so likely to lose points rather than score them themselves (and Kentucky feels like it is even if that isn’t exactly true) that Vegas is prepared for the universe to split in two. Splitting the universe? That’s NIT if I’ve ever seen it, and while these teams aren’t quite as decent-not-good as Wake Forest and Texas A&M, they’re pretty close. The Citrus Bowl is the bowl to beat this year, folks. It’s in the driver’s seat as we enter the home stretch.
