STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Oh, my goodness. Years ago, college football's bowl season used to end on New Year's Day. Not even close anymore. Beginning today, 14 bowl games will be played over the next week, ending next Thursday with the national championship game. Commentator John Feinstein joins us now to discuss all the bowls, the major and the not-so major. Hi, John.
JOHN FEINSTEIN: Good morning, Steve. Happy New Year.
INSKEEP: Thank you. Happy New Year to you. Five so-called major bowls, the ones that make up the Bowl Championship Series, but a bunch of others still to go as well.
FEINSTEIN: Yeah, exactly. Only two of the BCS bowls will be played today among the five bowls. The Rose Bowl, which, thank goodness, is still played on New Year's Day. They don't move that one around because it is the granddaddy of them all. And then the Sugar Bowl will be played tonight. But the other three BCS bowls are stretched out across the week, as you said, ending with the Alabama-Texas national championship game.
INSKEEP: And along the way we also get to see the PapaJohns.com Bowl and lots of other very important bowls.
FEINSTEIN: The list is endless. I mean, imagine going to the International Bowl in Toronto as a reward for a good season, which will happen with South Florida and Northern Illinois tomorrow.
INSKEEP: Now, with that said, I mean, we can mock this. It's excessive. It goes on forever. But there are some dramatic storylines in some of these bowl games.
FEINSTEIN: You also have Bobby Bowden coaching in his final game at the age of 80 in the Gator Bowl. That's certainly a story people are going to be watching. And the Rose Bowl is a Rose Bowl. If there's one bowl game I will watch, Steve, if it was Columbia versus Dartmouth, it would be the Rose Bowl.
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FEINSTEIN: And that's no putdown of Columbia or Dartmouth. I just want to say that for the record.
INSKEEP: Ok. Fine. Fine. Just because it is the real thing, it's got such tradition and it's a beautiful setting usually.
FEINSTEIN: It doesn't have a corporate name stuck on the beginning of it. Thank God for that. It's the Rose Bowl. And you're right. The setting is extraordinary.
INSKEEP: Now, the Fiesta Bowl comes up on Monday, and that's gotten a lot of attention because of the teams in a game.
FEINSTEIN: Yes. It's being referred to by a lot of football people as the ghetto bowl, because TCU, out of the Mountain West Conference and non-BCS conference, and Boise State, out of the WAC, another non-BCS conference...
INSKEEP: Can I just say that's the Western Athletic Conference, you're not saying they're whack. But go on, go on.
FEINSTEIN: They say go play one another. Leave us alone. Take your money and we hope you never go undefeated again.
INSKEEP: And very briefly, John Feinstein, what about the national championship game?
FEINSTEIN: Well, Alabama dominated Florida in the SEC Championship game. Texas was lucky to beat Nebraska. I think most of us expect Alabama to win this game. I don't actually see any reason why that would change. Although, Texas pulled a huge upset the last time it played for the national championship, beating USC five years ago.
INSKEEP: John, thanks very much.
FEINSTEIN: Thanks, Steve.
INSKEEP: Comments from John Feinstein. And if you can't get enough of him here, go to his blog Feinsteinonthebrink.com.
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INSKEEP: This is NPR News.