Everything you wanted to know about postseason college football but were too wrapped up in Britney Spears’ 25th birthday celebration to notice:
Was that a misprint, or has Rice really earned a bowl invitation?
It’s true. The Owls will meet Troy in the New Orleans Bowl, their first bowl appearance since they bowed to Kansas, 33-7, in the 1961 Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston. Trivia: KU quarterback John Hadl and running back Curtis McClinton signed professional contracts on the field immediately after the game, Hadl with the San Diego Chargers and McClinton with the Kansas City Chiefs.
How did San Jose State earn a bowl bid? That program has been in the pits for years.
Believe it or not, the Spartans compiled an 8-4 record this fall and defeated Fresno State for the first time in 15 years. Now they’ll meet New Mexico in the inaugural New Mexico Bowl. Trivia: San Jose State coach Dick Tomey, now 68, was on Pepper Rodgers’ Kansas University staff from 1967-70.
Is the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth sponsored by the Army, Navy and Air Force?
No, and it isn’t sponsored by the Coast Guard, either. The actual sponsor is Bell Helicopter. Armed Forces is the bowl’s theme. For example, active-duty personnel will receive free tickets and veterans can buy them for half price. Trivia: This bowl was theme-less and sponsor-less when Kansas thumped Houston, 42-13, last December.
The PapaJohn’s Bowl? What is that?
Birmingham is back in the bowl business, thanks to sponsorship by the pizza chain that may be planning to introduce a new steel and pepperoni offering as part of the hoopla. Trivia: If you want to see a statue of the Vulcan, you must go to Birmingham.
Didn’t Kansas once play in a bowl game in Birmingham?
Sure enough, back in 1981, they billed the Hall of Fame Bowl as “Goin’ with Fam to Birmingham,” but Don Fambrough’s Jayhawks bowed to Mississippi State, 10-0, and the bowl went belly-up the next year. Trivia: That’s the only time KU and Mississippi State have ever met in football.
Does it punctuate the fact there are too many bowl games when we find Central Michigan playing Middle Tennessee State in the Motor City Bowl in Detroit?
Not when you consider this is a bowl that considered Kansas until it was forced to take Middle Tennessee State because the Blue Raiders had a better record (7-5) than the Jayhawks (6-6). Trivia: Central Michigan’s 2007 opener will be at Kansas.
Will the Texas Tech-Minnesota clash in the Insight Bowl be an aerial circus?
When Texas Tech has the ball, it will be. But Minnesota coach Glen Mason, a Woody Hayes disciple, bases the Gophers’ attack on three yards and a cloud of rubber granules. Trivia: Mason spent nine seasons at Kansas, tying him with Jack Mitchell for the most years spent coaching the Jayhawks.
How did it happen that Oklahoma, the Big 12 champion, will be playing Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl? Shouldn’t Boise State and Ohio State, the only unbeaten NCAA I-A teams, be playing for the national title?
Sorry, but Mr. Potato Head is not a member of the BCS committee. Trivia: Idaho and Oklahoma are two of the eight states whose names begin and end in a vowel.
