Happy Football Day!
Any day spent watching nine hours of football is probably a good one. The Rose Bowl, after more hype than I can recall seeing for a bowl matchup in recent years, was anti-climactic. Being an Ohio State man myself, I had to repress the dirty revulsion I felt from actually pulling for Michigan against the unsufferably arrogant "Men of Troy," as they style themselves these days. Go Blue, roll those Trojans. Only the fourth time ever I've cheered for Michigan in a game against some even greater evil, and Michigan has rewarded me by losing three of those. Maybe I should become a Michigan fan full time, which clearly would sabotage their program and drop them precipitously to the ignominious level of Northwestern. The only good thing about today's Rose Bowl was that seeing Michigan humbled does act as its own reward.

The Orange Bowl, surprisingly, was good. In a game I had exactly zero interest in watching, I found myself glued to the game for most of the last three quarters. After we were subjected to Jessica Simpson during the typical cartoonishly overwrought Orange Bowl Halftime Show (motto: "Just Like a Circus, But Our Clowns Aren't Funny"), Florida State lost on a watered-down version of Wide Right III, or whatever number they're up to by now. Poor Xavier Betia; he reminds me a little bit of Matt Frantz in 1986 but without the triumphant return a year later [/obscure football reference]. Betia hooked Wide Left the kick at the buzzer which would have beaten Miami in the 2002 regular season, and missed Wide Right today (though not at the buzzer). I'm surprised Bowden can find anyone to kick for him anymore, since the most memorable accomplishments of Florida State kickers end up immortalized in names like Wide Right III and end in the deportation of Polish kickers for drug use. And, speaking of unsufferable arrogance, it would have been nice to see Miami taken down another notch, though Florida State hardly projects the image of demure gentlemanly sportsmanship themselves, so I would probably have been disappointed with either possilbe outcome of the game.

Now the really important game is tomorrow night's Fiesta Bowl. We Buckeyes await eagerly, of course, clarification of whether Kansas State's all-world quarterback Ell "Aspiring to be Kobe Bryant" Roberson is--ahem--available to play, or whether he's in jail on a sexual assault charge. I wonder if a booster paying a quarterback's bail constitutes an improper benefit under NCAA rules; probably they would prefer to be silent on the "propriety" of such a sordid transaction. But, as I understand it, Roberson was doing whatever he was doing with this woman at 4:30 AM, while the team rules call for an 11 PM curfew. Should such a flagrant disregard of team rules be overlooked for the star quarterback? I'm pretty sure if a second-string offensive guard was guilty of such an infraction of team rules, he'd be benched for the coming game by most head coaches. Kansas State has an unwanted opportunity to show everyone how serious they are about discipline, and the obsolescant notion of rules applying to everyone.

Maybe they could sidestep the issue by saying that he wasn't out past curfew, he was just up really early and on his way to church when this thing mysteriously just happened to him. At least, from Ohio State's perspective, he seems to have his attention, shall we say, divided.

Go Buckeyes!