BOWLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL:

by Orson on Dec 27, 2005 2:57 PM EST

Name: The Insight Bowl

Motto: "College Football Like You've Never Seen It!" Despite the unnecessary exclamation mark, they're right on this one--we've never seen Rutgers play in a bowl game before, so touche', Insightsters.

Intrusive Corporate Sponsor: Insight Enterprises, who dropped the ".com" from their name when the bubble went ploof! and having the suffix instantly decreased your company's share value by half. The resulting, .com-less bowl name is among college football's most reflective and philosophical-sounding; watch as blissed-out audience members stroke their beards and thoughtfully pat their body-painted chests after each score tonight.

Tradition rating: Going just one year further than today's other bowl game, the Insight Bowl roared into the world in 1989 under the moniker of "The Copper Bowl" before adopting its more modern-sounding corporate name. (The move from bowls named after commodities to ones bearing corporate names has to have a anthro-economical thesis waiting somewhere in there, right?) 1989 was memorable for a number of reasons, but none sticks in our brains more so than watching the news on Chrismas Day and seeing Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu shot live on television along with his wife. It taught us two valuable lessons: one, if you're an asshole, people will go as far as killing you live on tv; and two, don't ever piss off a Romanian.

Tradition rating: Dead Ceausescu.

Setup: Pac-10 vs. Big East

Location: Tempe, Arizona. An underrated college town with easy access to bars. We once crowd-surfed at a reggae show there before being dumped at the feet of a Gigantor-sized biker there, who promptly threw us back up onto the crowd without so much as a grunt of effort. You may be saying: crowd surfing at a reggae show? See, there's plenty of fun to be had in Tempe.

Matchup quality: 2 Wyckked. The e'er mercurial Arizona State Sun Devils don't even leave home to face the amped-up Rutgers Scarlet Knights, playing in their first bowl game since the Garden State Bowl in 1978. ASU's a letdown team with better talent going up against a Rutgers squad that couldn't be more frickin' excited about being here, man. Frickin' awesome.

What to watch for: ASU tossing it all over the place on their home field, loads of hardass running by Rutgers, and playing "Pro/Con" when the cameras pan the stands and the jarring contrasts between the pillow-pale Jersey girls and the bronzed, already weathered looking ladies of the desert. We think the CFN boyz are off their nutter for calling a Rutgers victory, so ASU by 10 in a game that's closer than it should be.

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Ploof!
That’s also the sound that comes from me when I make twosies.

by trot on Dec 27, 2005 4:05 PM EST reply actions

FYI — The game is played in Phoenix, not on ASU’s Sundevil Stadium in Tempe (although it is only a mere 10-15 minute drive).

Also, Tempe underrated as a college town? Hmmm

by ASU Grad on Dec 27, 2005 5:15 PM EST reply actions

Hey, we were drunk within ten minutes of getting there. That solved it for us. As for underrated…ever been to Clemson? Or Starkville? Tempe’s just fine.

by Orson Swindle on Dec 27, 2005 5:24 PM EST reply actions

Zubaz Power! 14-7 Scarlet Knights. What a crazy world.

by bitterhorn on Dec 27, 2005 9:04 PM EST reply actions

My friend at the game reports 8,000 Scarlet Knights fans are (or were at one time) in the stadium (didn’t see any of my students), which is a better showing than I expected. Maybe that $25,000 went to good use after all. Too bad the Rutgers secondary is just not in the same league as the ASU receiving corps, because the Scarlet Knights really held in there, despite the fact that they were obviously fading badly in the second half.

As a lover of defense, I have actually had my head in my hands on a few (or more than a few) plays in this one. Kids, you can’t tackle standing up. I guess I should be thankful that this game didn’t outscore the Hawaii Bowl. Then again, it didn’t have the benefit of OT (and there were only 84 points in regulation in that game).

/will UCLA-Northwestern outdo them all?

by ACC_Expat on Dec 28, 2005 12:42 AM EST reply actions

ESPN’s Brent Musberger basically sounded like he was applying for the job of Director of the NJ Division of Travel & Tourism last night after gushing about Rutgers University and the 10,000 enthusiastic fans clad in scarlet. Famed RU alum James Gandolfini was present for the coin toss, but no sign of other grads like David Stern, Calista Flockhart and Sistah Souljah.

The Newark Star-Ledger has a pleasant bunch of articles on the Scarley Knights’ First Big Stephere – including a series on some reporter’s roadtrip from the Garden State to Arizona State.

by The Contrarian on Dec 28, 2005 2:06 PM EST reply actions

Of course the ESPN folk love Rutgers and talk it up as best they can—one could argue that the Scarlet Knights are actually the best hope for decent college football in the NJ/NY/CT area (and unlike Syracuse and UConn, which are both located in icky towns that are, like, sooo far away from “the City,” New Brunswick is a train ride away). ESPN would looooove to draw that tri-state audience to college football. Still, Musberger was painfully obvious; I was merely bemused, but I could see where it could be annoying.

/The Brent is 1000x more annoying when doing basketball

by ACC_Expat on Dec 28, 2005 5:29 PM EST reply actions

Haven’t watched the broadcast, but was at the game. What a good time. So this is what College Football is really like, huh? I always thought it had something to do with sitting in below freezing empty rainsoaked stadiums and losing to Temple by a field goal. That, bamboo shoots under my fingernails and car batteries hooked up to my nipples. I could get used to this other stuff.

It’s funny you mention all the Musberger love. Most Rutgers fans swear that ESPN hates us and the Big East, and there is a large conspiracy to trash us in the media. Of course, if you’re a Rutgers fan, you probably are wearing a tinfoil hat, or at least should be.

Either way, was a fun game to attend, and if we would have put some defensive backs on the field instead of 7 linebackers, we might have been in good shape. Or at least blitzed once in a blue moon with any of them.

Either way, Frickin’ Awesome. Now get off my lawn.

by KevinFromNB on Dec 28, 2005 11:53 PM EST reply actions