There was a time when the holidays and college bowl games went together like Burns and Allen, Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy. Unfortunately, (and thanks to the Bowl Championship Series), the college football bowl games may soon go the way of those great comedic teams. Slow death.

I remember a time when I watched all the major bowls. From the Sugar, Cotton, Gator, and Rose, to the night game at the Orange Bowl – they were all a major part of my holiday season. For football nuts, it was must-watch television. Not so today. Oh, I did catch a couple minutes of a few games – but only as I bumped into them while flipping channels. To be honest, I didn’t even know when the bowls were scheduled. Hell, I even had to check again as to when the Championship game is being played. (January 8th? What’s that all about?)

It’s time the NCAA and their BCS system wake up to the reality of modern day sports and develop a playoff system. From their comments, NCAA officials believe all sports leagues ruin their regular season by having a playoff system, which includes their other NCAA sports. And, the thought of “saving the integrity of the bowls” – whom are they kidding? Did they see the empty seats at many games? Having the bowls be part of a playoff system would add more importance to them – not less.

Developing a playoff system utilizing the bowls is not rocket science. We can’t bring back Abbot and Costello, but we can revitalize the bowls before corporate sponsors bury them by pulling sponsorships.

Wake up NCAA and bowl organizers – your bowl games are on the road to nowhere.

With similar genes and miles of videotape to imitate, it’s little wonder why sons walk in the cleat prints of their famous fathers. In “The Sons Also Rise,” Jim Weber gets us re-acquainted with some last names like Elway, Montana and Simms.

The Sons Also Rise

After a thrilling season of football upsets and an epic championship basketball game, we’re reminded why we love college sports. But, which college can boast the #1 sports program? In a HOFN.com exclusive, Jim Weber ranks this year’s top athletic programs.

See how they rank at HOFN.com …

Okay…let me get this straight. Last Saturday QB Demetrius Jones dressed for Notre Dame’s home game against Penn State, which the Irish lost. This Saturday ESPN reported that Jones has enrolled at Northern Illinois University where he hopes to play football next year. Now, I am not an expert on NCAA regulations. However, assuming that Jones is not paying his own tuition, room, board and fees to attend NIU, am I supposed to believe that within five school days (Sept 10 –14) the following events took place:

1. Jones contacted NIU and initiated contact with the coaching staff who would have told him he needed a release from Notre Dame.
2. Jones contacted the Notre Dame athletic department and asked for a release from his scholarship.
3. The release was granted.
4. Jones filled out an application to NIU.
5. NIU reviewed the Jones’ application and financial paper and granted him admission for classes at NIU which began on August 27.
6. Charlie Weis learns the Jones’ has “missed the bus” for the Friday team trip to Michigan. Somehow he is surprised (see item # 2)

Someone out there, please explain to me how all this can happen. There is nothing at the NIU admissions website that indicates that such a rapid transfer of students is even possible. Maybe Jones has only enrolled. Maybe he won’t begin classes until January. Maybe he will be coming to school as a walk-on player, paying his own way. But I doubt it. Every single stinking word of this story. Where is the NIU Athletic Director? Where is the NIU President? Where is the NCAA?

And why am I starting to think that Charlie Weis is the mirror image of his mentor Bill Belichick?

About a year ago, Erik Boal wrote a piece for HOFMAG.com about Jimmy Clausen, the hot shot California high school quarterback who predicted four national championships for Notre Dame when he committed to play football for the Irish beginning in September of 2007.

Well, Claussen made his college debut as the third string quarterback in Notre Dame’s embarrassing 33-3 loss to Georgia Tech at South Bend on Saturday. Forget a national championship. It’ll be interesting to see if the Irish can win more games than they lose this season. As for Charlie Weis, it looks as if the honeymoon is over for this career assistant coach. He was lucky he inherited Brady Quinn from Tyrone Willingham because his record in recruiting good players to Notre Dame has to be questioned. Weis appears to be just another blowhard.

Speaking of embarrassing debuts, how about Appalachian State sticking it to Michigan at Michigan. Lloyd Carr is another coach who had every resource in the world. Although he won 77 percent of his games at Michigan, he too must be considered an underachiever. See ya Lloyd.

ESPN announced on Friday that it was getting out of the “scripted programming business” after The Bronx Is Burning. ESPN’s problem wasn’t the format. The problem was the projects they picked and the actors they cast. Really, Tom Sizemore as Pete Rose in Hustle was dreadful. Brian Dennehy as Bobby Knight was even worse. Despite the dumbo ears, John Turturo was terrific as Billy Martin in The Bronx Is Burning. Yet again, terrible casting of Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles, and especially Max Casella as the classy Dick Howser sucked all the credibility out of ESPN’s latest and final effort at scripted programming. Meanwhile ESPN’s sister network, ABC, launched 11 new series this summer and all of them failed. I’m guessing they can’t wait to unveil Cavemen on October 2. Wanna bet Cavemen is cancelled before the World Series is over?

How great is the FedEx Cup, golf’s first playoff series. Tiger Woods at #1 doesn’t even play in the first event, #3 K.J. Choi withdraws from the second week, and it really doesn’t matter one way or the other. The only thing that becomes more obvious every day is that Tiger Woods is golf. He is bigger than his sport now. Jack always had to contend with Arnie, or Trevino or a Tom Watson. If Jack had a bad couple of tournaments people still watched. If Tiger misses an event, the networks might as well broadcast bars and tone.

Speaking of classy champions, golf lost one this weekend with the passing of former Master’s champ Gay Brewer. Brewer was a classy decent man.