RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Commentator John Feinstein joins us now. Good morning. Happy New Year.
JOHN FEINSTEIN: Good morning, Renee. Happy New Year.
MONTAGNE: And was there not a time when New Year's Day marked the end of the college football season?
FEINSTEIN: And as you mentioned, even though there are six games today, it won't be until the 7th of January that the college football season finally ends, and we'll have a bunch of sort of meaningless games in between today and that championship game.
MONTAGNE: Today's games - which though are actually worth turning on the TV for?
FEINSTEIN: So I want to see Hawaii play with their quarterback Colt Brennan against Georgia. And then, of course, the Rose Bowl always has the most tradition, even though it's not a particularly great match-up, because Illinois is a three-loss team playing Southern California, but it's still the Rose Bowl.
MONTAGNE: It's a little remarkable, though, that already 21 bowl games have been played. Look back for us, please.
FEINSTEIN: They need to centralize officiating and make it more professional and make officials accountable, for the sake of the players and the coaches.
MONTAGNE: Any one of those games stand out for you?
FEINSTEIN: Yeah, Penn State/Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl, because Joe Paterno coached these 500th college football game. Imagine that, Renee. They only played 12, 13 games a year, and he's coached 500 games. And it was nice to see Penn State with Paterno, who turned 81 last week, still bouncing up and down on the sidelines, winning that game.
MONTAGNE: Now, just got a few seconds. The championship, let's get back to that, between Ohio State and LSU.
FEINSTEIN: Yeah, they both sort of got there by default because everybody else lost. A lot of people think LSU is going to win the game easily, but I think Ohio State, which got embarrassed by Florida in the national championship game last year, will really come ready to play, and this will be a very close, competitive game.
MONTAGNE: Close, competitive - any predictions who will win?
FEINSTEIN: Well, I'm going to go with Ohio State, just because I like to pick upsets. Everybody is picking LSU. So you know me, Renee, I'll pick Ohio State.
MONTAGNE: All right. Well, thanks, John.
FEINSTEIN: Thanks, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Talk to you a lot in the New Year. The comments of John Feinstein, whose latest book is "Cover-up: Mystery at the Super Bowl."