(Yawn)

Well… Its finally here. Can you feel the excitement? We’re of the opinion that playing the BCS championship game on Jan. 7 is an absolutely horrible idea. We understand the calculus but it doesn’t resonate with the college football fan in us.

Fox has been using the NFL playoffs to cross-promote this game which not coincidentally is being played in the Monday Night Football time slot the night after the NFL’s wild card round concludes and in which Fox has a stake.

But that’s just the problem: the reality is that once the NFL playoffs start, nothing else matters. Talk radio and cooler talk at work was 80/20 NFL playoffs/BCS title game today…. how is that a good thing?

Fox and the BCS are banking on the symbiotic relationship that has always existed between the college and pro games but its apparent that Fox is not merely content to let the two entities stand on their own merit but have succeeded with Fox’s signature promotional and production style/techniques to effectively blur the distinctions between the two brands. And its brutally obvious by watching the bowl games that Fox has televised thus far (including last year’s), they have zero feel for the college game. Again, how is that a good thing?

Whatever interest they may have generated in this game tonight has to be offset by the fact that its is being played a week after the last (in)significant bowl game on New Year’s Day. Jan. 7? We’re so over college football. This game would’ve been much better served being played on Jan. 3 (Thurs. a good T.V. night we are told). This simultaneously maintains momentum from the New Year’s bowl games without getting drowned-out in the wake of the NFL playoffs. Now, how is that a bad thing?