COLLEGE BOWL GAMES

Six days to Christmas and 13 to 2022.  Only 15 days till the U.S. Congress reconvenes.  Less than 50 days to the Beijing Winter Olympics and around 45 weeks till the mid-term elections.

From the Sunday New York Times:

All vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protection against serious illness from Omicron, which is the most crucial goal. But only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced with a booster, appear to have success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world.

The other shots — including AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and vaccines made in China and Russia — do little to nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, early research shows. The gap could have a profound impact on the course of the pandemic.

So what should you do?  Get vaccinated and boosted with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines!!!

The U.S. Congress adjourned for the year yesterday.  Terrible year?

• 
  It began horribly with the attack by Trump-inspired protesters on January 6.  But the coup failed, so that's a plus.  For the next ten months House Democrats will make sure that voters understand that Democracy was threatened with the Capitol riot inquiry to affect the November elections.

• 
  Democratic Senator Joe Manchin single-handedly killed the $1.75 trillion social welfare bill.  President Joe Biden appears confident that something will pass next year.  Further, the Congress did approve:
• A $1.9 trillion pandemic aid plan.
• A $1.2 trillion  bipartisan infrastructure package.
• The Senate confirmed 40 judges, the most of any president since Ronald Reagan.

This could well be one of the most boring postings I'll ever release for many of you, but I'll attempt to inject some humor.  First of all, there are 250 institutions offering Division 1 level football.  

• The 129 Football Bowl Subdivision consists of the "top" 11 conferences.  The National Champion emerges from this group.
• The 125 Division Football Championship Subdivision provides fewer scholarships.

Here is something you don't know.  The Next College Student Athlete organization was formed in 2000, linking high school students to colleges to assist in recruiting.  Here is their ranking of the top D1 football schools, which has nothing to do with who plays in bowl games;

• #1    Stanford
• #2    Florida
• #3    Princeton
• #4    UCLA
• #5    Michigan
• #50  Rutgers

Columbia University is #28 and has an annual tuition of $59,430, the highest on this list.  Stanford is at a paltry $51,354.

Okay, now to the college football bowl season.

• 
  There will be 44 games, including the College Football Playoff and national championship game.
• The season started on December 17 and will end on Monday, January 10 with that national title.

• 
  The first bowl game ever was the Rose Bowl in 1902 (Michigan edged Stanford, 49-0), becoming annual in 1916.
• The per team payout is between $4 million and $6 million for the more important bowls (Rose, Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Peach and Fiesta).
• However, the Citrus Bowl gives $8,550,000/team, and the Alamo Bowl $7,975,000.  This payment drops to $225,000/team for the Bahamas and Camellia Bowls.
• Each team significantly benefits with individual gifts, a short vacation at a prominent hotel and the opportunity to get a head start for the next season.
• 
  There have been more absurd college bowl names, but the two worst apparently are the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl and Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl.  What is a cheribundi?  A tart cherry juice beverage high in phyto-nutrients and antioxidants.
• Note that these bowl names have largely lost their prominence, for the following sponsors now dominate:
• Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.
• The Bahamas Bowl was once the Popeyes Bowl, but it lost sponsors,
• 
  Now it is the VRBO Citrus Bowl.  How many of you knew that VRBO stands for Vacation Rentals by Owner?
• Some of the more comical:
• Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl.
• TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.
• Guaranteed Rate Bowl, which kept its original name from 1989.  Same for Cheez-It Bowl since 1990 and Lending Tree Bowl from 1999.
• 
  The only exception is the Rose Bowl, which is now known by the 108th Rose Bowl Game presented by Capital One Venture X.  Venture X is Capital One's newest travel card.
• Note that there is also the Capital One Orange Bowl.

The Easy Post Hawaii Bowl deserves a story. 

• 
  First, Hawaii is the only team in a bowl game this year that lost more games than they won.
• In short, there were 83 bowl-eligible teams, but only 41 bowl games.  This left one team out.  But NCAA in their wisdom decided, heck, why not add another bowl so that the one eligible team can find a home.  In a remarkable stroke of luck, Hawaii had a 6-7 record as #84.  We play Memphis on Christmas Eve.
• I have to believe that ESPN had a hand in adding this 42nd bowl, for they are linked to the Hawaii Bowl, one of 14.  If Hawaii did not play, no one would have shown up for the Easy Post Hawaii Bowl.

• 
  As it is, the maximum capacity of the emergency site for this bowl game on the University of Hawaii campus is 9000 or so.  But it would have been embarrassing if only a few hundred showed up, if that.
• What is Easy Post?  Never heard of them, but on checking, found out that they (using their words): a fast, reliable and flexible multi-carrier shipping API that integrates 100+ global carriers such as USPS, FedEx and DHL.  If you didn't know, API stands for Application Programming Interface.

Want more info?

• Nine games have already been played, including the FCS ones,  Scores?
• The Mountain West Conference is the only one undefeated this year so far, with a 2-0 record.
• Score of the championship game earlier this year?  Alabama 52, Ohio State 24.

• 
  The 10January2022 championship game will be played in Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana.
• Details on each bowl game?  Click here. 
• There are five games on January 1, but the important ones occur New Year's Eve with:
• #1 Alabama vs #4 Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl.
• #2 Michigan vs #3 Georgia in the Orange Bowl.
• Cincinnati is the first non-power five conference team to earn a position in the playoffs. 
• There will be three other bowl games on December 31.

• 
  Here is one betting line:
• Bahamas Bowl, Toledo was the favorite to win by 9 points, but lost to Middle Tennessee by 7.
• Cure Bowl, Coastal Carolina was the favorite by 9.5 points, but beat Northern Illinois by only 6.
• Boca Raton Bowl, Appalachian State was the favorite by 3 points, but lost to Western Kentucky by 21.
• New Mexico Bowl, Fresno State was the favorite by 13.5 points, but only beat UTEP by 7.
• Independence Bowl, BYU was the favorite by 8 points, but lost to UAB by 3.
• Lending Tree Bowl, Liberty was the favorite by 7, and beat Eastern Michigan by 36.
• LA Bowl, Oregon State was the favorite by 7.5 points, but lost to Utah State by 11.
• New Orleans Bowl, Louisiana was the favorite by 5.5 points, and beat Marshall by 15.
• If you had gone with the gambling prognosticators, you would have lost money.
• Same betting line of selected future games:
• December 24, Hawaii Bowl, Memphis 3.5 points over Hawaii.
• December 29, Alamo Bowl, Oklahoma 3.5 points over Oregon.
• December 31, Cotton Bowl, Alabama 14 points over Cincinnati.
• December 31, Orange Bowl, Georgian 9 points over Michigan.
• January 1, Fiesta Bowl, Notre Dame 2.5 points over Oklahoma State.
• January 1, Rose Bowl, Ohio State 6.5 points over Utah.
• January 1, Sugar Bowl, Baylor 1.5 points over Ole Miss.
• January 4, Texas Bowl, LSU 2.5 points over Kansas State.
• January 10, CFP Championship if the above prevails, Alabama predicted to beat Georgia by 7.

Well, that was painful.  As this is Sunday, good time to share an IDIOT problem in Heaven:

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