It's late December and they tell us it's the most wonderful time of the year. But not on the college football gridiron. Get prepared for another two-week binge of lackluster matchups, rife with players you never have heard of and teams you have never seen on national television.

It all kicks off tonight with the New Orleans Bowl, which has relocated to Lafayette, La. after Hurricane Katrina caused significant damage to the Superdome, the previous site of the game. Two 6-5 teams, Arkansas State and Southern Mississippi, will play in a stadium a Sun Belt school calls home. Nothing grabs ratings like two mediocre squads battling it out in a facility half the size of a Southeastern Conference stadium. But ESPN will carry the game, even though it would never sign on to televise a nonconference matchup between these two schools.

Courtesy Honolulu Advertiser

And that is the problem college football during bowl week. Games that would never attract any interest during the season are featured as must-see television in late December.  In reality, however, nobody outside of the participating schools' fan bases wants to see North Carolina State face off against South Florida or Colorado State play Navy. There are so may bad matchups that only the most die-hard fan could tell you which team is playing in which bowl, if they actually had heard of the bowl in the first place.  

After all, the names, locations and sponsors of these lackluster postseason affairs seem to change every year. Who knew there was a Meineke Bowl? Does the winner get a trophy molded in the shape of a muffler? If they do, will anybody be there to see the presentation?

Everyone knows that the number of postseason games in college football has proliferated because the schools want money and the smaller conferences want the exposure their big brothers are getting. But the bowl landscape has become inundated with matchups that will likely turn away fans. While it's a nice to see a team like Arkansas State make its first bowl appearance in 35 years, no one is interested enough in the Indians to really care. The only games that anybody wants to watch are the four BCS bowls. Otherwise, 'tis the season to be bored by college football.