You may have to excuse me for a moment as I write this column, odds are good I could be invited to a bowl game at the last minute.

That fabulous tradition only available in college football &8212; the bowl game &8212; has fallen on hard times in recent years. Not only has the BCS served only to confuse people rather than determine a true national champion approximately half the time, but the lower bowls continue to be deluded by the addition of more and more meaningless games.

This is hard for me to say, as I&8217;ve always been a huge fan of bowl games. Say what you will about them, but teams get extra practice time and half the teams invited get to finish the year on a high note. While that may not sound like much, getting to work out for an extra two or three weeks and gaining momentum with a win are big for a football program.

Unfortunately, it&8217;s gotten out of control. When a team can make a bowl game by simply reaching .500, and Toronto, Ontario, Canada is hosting a game between Cincinnati and Western Michigan on Jan. 6, things are out of whack.

Take, for instance, Florida State, Miami and Alabama. Three traditional powerhouses, to be sure. However, none of them have the ability to beat even an above-average team this season, and all three received bowl bids with 6-6 records.

This must certainly eat at coaches in past years. Mississippi State and Ole Miss each missed out on bowl games in the last 10 years with 7-4 records &8212; the Bulldogs in 1997 and the Rebels as recently as 2001.

This season, there are 119 teams playing football at the Division 1A level. Of those, 64 will go to bowl games. Only nine teams with bowl-eligible records missed out on a game, and all of them were 6-6. Kansas is the only team from a BCS conference to not make a postseason game.

A bowl game used to be a reward for a good season. Until 1965, they didn&8217;t even count in the final rankings. If we&8217;re going to let this many teams play, it may be more constructive to go back to the old system, or simply make enough bowl games for everyone to participate.

Heck, Natchez could probably host a bowl game to be played at Jack Spinks Stadium at Alcorn if they could line up a sponsor and pay the schools enough. If Boise, Idaho, can, why not us?

At some point, the geniuses running college football and the ones running ESPN Regional Television (the ones responsible for the outstanding Papajohns.com, International and New Mexico bowls) aren&8217;t stopped soon, we&8217;re going to start playing these things on Thanksgiving weekend and not stop until sometime in February.

The 2006 college football season could very well go down one day as the end of bowl season as we know it, and as hard as it is for me to say, I think that would be a welcome occurrence.

Happy New Year.

Tim Cottrell is the sports editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached by phone at 601-445-3632 or by e-mail at

tim.cottrell@natchezdemocrat.com

.