Play-by-play man Sean McDonough will call three of the more intriguing games this bowl season. Some of his ESPN colleagues won’t be as lucky.
They will be sent to small cities around the country to see teams from small conferences or teams from big ones with .500 records. And in one instance, not even .500.
“I like the idea of bowl games being a reward for an excellent season, now in the case of UCLA we have an under .500 team in a bowl game,” McDonough said of the Bruins, who received a bowl waiver after losing to Oregon in the Pac-12 championship and finishing 6-7. UCLA will play Illinois in the New Year’s Eve Fight Hunger Bowl in a battle of teams that fired their coaches after the regular season.
“I would probably agree with the people who say there are too many bowl games,” McDonough said. “I really think it should be a reward for an excellent season and right now we are rewarding the mediocre seasons. College to me is supposed to prepare you for the real world and in the real world you don’t really get rewarded for mediocrity.”
ESPN and their family of networks now dominate the bowl season. ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will televise 33 of the 35 games, including all the BCS games. CBS broadcasts the Sun Bowl, which pits Georgia Tech against Utah this year, and FOX has Arkansas-Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing the number reduced,” McDonough said. “I don’t know if ESPN would agree with that because it obviously provides a lot of programming for us, but there’s probably a few too many.”
But McDonough has no complaints about his schedule. The Syracuse graduate will be calling the Insight Bowl (Oklahoma-Iowa) on Dec. 30, the Fiesta Bowl (Oklahoma State-Stanford) on Jan. 2 for ESPN, and the Sugar Bowl (Michigan-Virginia Tech) on Jan. 3 for ESPN Radio. McDonough is particularly pumped for the No. 3 Cowboys and No. 4 Cardinal, and would not trade that game for any other game, not even the biggest one.
“I know a lot of people are looking forward to the national championship because it’s the most meaningful, but I am not as excited about that matchup as I would’ve been had Oklahoma State been paired with LSU,” McDonough said. “We’ve seen this before, where I think the prospect of a wide-open offensive team like Oklahoma State matched up with LSU would have been much more intriguing. Selfishly, I am happy to have Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl because they are a great team that’s exciting to watch. It should be great.”
If only there was some way to determine the national champion on the field, as opposed to counting on the polls to determine which two teams should play for the title.
“I’d like to see a playoff,” McDonough said. “The best event in college athletics is the NCAA tournament and I think a smaller football version of that would be as great, or even better. If the bowl system is so important then find a way to incorporate it.”