College Football Bowl Games Back At State 48

Kansas’ WR Quentin Skinner went up and over a UNLV defender for a reception in the Jayhawks 49-36 victory at the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.

By G. Napier Barness III

When it is all said and done, 43 college foot- ball bowl games will be played with the 43rd and final game (No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 2 Washington) crowning the 2023-24 college football’s national champions. Arizona, state 48, hosted three of these events this year.

The Arizona Informant news- paper began covering bowl games when the Western Athletic Conference’s champion, Arizona State University, was shunned by the bowl selection committee. The year was 1971. The Fiesta Bowl came into ex- istence with our Sun Devils as WAC champions hosting and defeating Florida State University 45-38.

Before the Fiesta Bowl, all major college football teams had to vie for 11 NCAA Bowl games (that’s only 22 teams, doing the math). The major bowls at the time being the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Cotton and Sun bowls. Secondary bowls were the Liberty, Peach, Bluebonnet, Pas- adena and Tangerine bowls. During this period only the best teams were invited to go bowling. For the most part, the games were competitive.

Fast forward to today. More than 80 teams got invitations to appear in a “Bowl” game.

Now you only need six victories to become bowl eligible. Sometimes the selection committee gets it right and pits two teams against each other that will make the game both competitive and enjoyable. Some- times they don’t. At Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, the Guar- anteed Rate Bowl pitted the Kansas Jayhawks (8-4) against the Running Rebels of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) (9-4).

Kansas is a member of a Power 5 Conference (Big 12). UNLV is a member of Mountain West Con- ference. On paper it looked like a competitive matchup. On the field it wasn’t.

The Jayhawks won 49-36. The winners amassed 591 yards of total offense in spite of a record 210 yards in penalties. Kansas QB Jason Bean completed 19 of 28 passes for 449 yards and six touchdowns. UNLV was down 28-10 at the half.

On New Year’s Day, the 2024 Vrbo Fiesta Bowl was played out in Glendale. The Oregon Ducks (11- 2), ranked eighth nationally, faced the Liberty Flames (13-0) ranked 23rd. If you did not follow college football you would think that this would be a competitive contest. The Ducks play in the soon-to-be debunked Pac 12, another Power 5 Conference. Their only losses came at the hands of the Washington Huskies (14-0). Both losses went down to the wire with the Ducks losing by merely three points in both games.

Liberty is a member of Conference USA. That conference is the home of such football powers like New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky and UTEP. The Flames were averaging more than 40 ppg against that competition.

Dr. Jerry Farwell’s school took the opening kick-off and drove for a touchdown. They missed the PAT. It was a rap after that as the Ducks took flight to 46 unanswered points. It wasn’t even that close. Oregon QB Bo Nix completed 28 of 35 passes for 363 yards and five touchdowns.

Your mind tends to wander during blow-out football games. Checking the rosters, I discovered that 340 players were listed (85 per team) for the four teams that played in the Phoenix area bowl games. Of which, only five players had roots in State 48. Four attended UNLV with the fifth going to Oregon.

“C’mon, Arizona, we can do better”. In the press box, I only saw one other African-American male at the Guaranteed Rate Bowl and no brothers at the Fiesta. I did meet several young people from Northern Arizona University’s journalism school who were covering the game for a grade. The Fiesta Bowl also had several students and an instructor from ASU reporting the game. We need to get our kids in these programs to gain firsthand experience.

I met a young man while going into Chase Field for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. His name was Troy Flowers. I didn’t remember Mr. Flowers. He said he remembered me. He said he used to see me covering football games at Westview High School. He saw me tak- ing pictures of the players from the sidelines. He remembered talking to me about it. He said talking to me gave him the inspiration to want to be a photographer. He stated that the Informant actually gave him his first credit for a published photo.

I didn’t recall any of this, but it did make me feel good that we had a positive influence on someone.