A Bowl Game in New York City?

They’re going to put a college bowl game in New York City? Are they out of their minds?

I was at the last bowl game, the Gotham Bowl, in December of 1962 at the old Yankee Stadium. We got into the bleachers free by showing our high school Government Organization (GO) cards. Actually, we didn’t even have to show them, the guys at the gate just took the word of the 100 or so kids there that we were told we would be let in free.

Nebraska beat Miami 36 to 34. It was a damn good game but there couldn’t have been more than 500 people in the stands and we froze our asses off the whole time. Except for the freebies in the bleachers, it was probably all relatives of the players.

There are two very good reasons not to have a college bowl game in New York City. The first is that it’s usually too freaking cold and the second is NOBODY in NYC cares a whit about college football.

You MIGHT get a few thousand in from New Jersey if Rutgers plays or a few thousand from upstate New York if Syracuse plays.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, it will be a team from the Big East against a team from the Big 12. I can, sort of, understand the rationale of the Big East. They consider New York home turf, but what the hell is the Big 12 thinking?

I predict two years at the most this fiasco will survive. That’s how long the Gotham Bowl lasted, 1961 and 1962.