Folks want turkey pot pie on New Year's Day

The bowl ratings are in and they were up, generally, across the board with the notable exception of the Orange Bowl which offered up a less-than-scintilating Va. Tech vs. Cincinnati (down 27%). And the highest rated bowl game…?

If you guessed the bowl that has retained as best it can in the new BCS world, its brand image and the bowl represented by two conferences that have for the most part resisted the BCS-driven compulsion for conference expansion, sit yourself at the head of the class for picking the Rose Bowl. (The Rose Bowl’s 11.7 rating beat out the BCS championship game’s 10.4).

These two conferences, particularly the Pac-10, have taken a lot of heat over the years for not “getting hip to the times” (we have spared soon-to-retire Pac-10 conference commissioner, Tom Hansen, no quarter for much of his decision-making over the years) and falling in line with rest of the conferences with respect to the BCS agenda.

Ironically, its been the east coast media establishment that has accused the exclusively west coast conference of “elitism” and “snobbery”.

We’re glad, though, the two conferences have dug-in their heels as best they could. Outright refusal to sign on to the BCS is certain doom but we find being a constant pain-in-the-ass to the BCS to have a certain dignified and laudatory appeal.

There is a reason ABC, in its’ negotiations with the BCS held onto the Rose Bowl as its lone BCS bowl game. In the system we have now with 30+ bowl games and the largely sundered traditional conference tie-ins that produce un-compelling matchups, the notion of college football-as-comfort food takes a hit. The Rose Bowl, however, is pure meat and potatoes: Pac-10 vs. Big 10, West Coast vs. Midwest. (And it never hurts that it also happens to be the most photogenic of all the bowl games.)

Never underestimate familiarity when it comes to big-time televised sporting events where you hope to cast a wide net for viewers for your advertisers. Even Mom knows that Ohio St. has one of the greatest fight songs of all time and that USC trots that damn white horse around the field every time the Trojans score.

P.S.: With respect to the ratings, it did not go un-noticed that ABC/ESPN broke out all the stops in promoting the Rose Bowl as the signature event of its Holiday calendar.