Grandma's Bowl...

Tonight's main TV event is the Fed Ex Orange Bowl from Miami, Florida or as it is known this year in this household GRANDMA's Bowl!

Both of my sister's children attended Penn State University...were in the traveling band there. My son (the Pirate) and daughter-in-law and my son-in-law all went to Florida State University. Duchessadele graduated from the FSU Law School but attended the University of Florida as an undergraduate. Her Gators defeated Iowa 31 - 24 yesterday in the Outback Bowl.

The undercurrent story in the Orange Bowl is of course the two head coaches. Penn State's Joe Paterno and FSU's Bobby Bowden have been running neck and neck for several years now in a race to be the alltime winningest coach. Currently Bobby Bowden is 6 wins ahead of Joe Paterno in the official total with 359 to 353. Eddie Robinson coached Grambling University to 408 wins before retiriing in 1997.

The game is also the "poster child" for what is wrong with the "Bowl Championship Series". Florida State with a 2005 season record of 8 and 4 is in the game because it won the ACC Championship game. Normally a team with 2 losses would be lucky to get into one of the five major bowls. But the Orange Bowl is delighted because both teams "travel well" (they bring lots of well healed fans with them who will spend a lot of money in Miami). Penn State (ranked #3) is heavily favored over FSU (ranked # 22).

If Grandma is favoring one School over the other she isn't saying. She watches both teams when their games are televised here but because FSU is in another region it isn't on TV as much..