Excuse the Interjection

Friday, Dec. 30, 2005 | 7:49 a.m.

This week's topic: Would college football be better served playing all BCS games on the same day?

Ron Kantowski's take: You mean like the old days? Absolutely. I can still remember my dad telling me to shag the little 9-inch black-and-white TV from my bedroom and to stack it on top of the console, so we could watch the Cotton Bowl and the Sugar Bowl at the same time. Of course, I also think the World Series should be played during daytime.

Jeff Haney's take: Well, my dad used to watch the Mummers parade down Broad Street in Philadelphia on New Year's Day, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea. Those days have gone the way of rabbit ears and tinfoil. Give me slickly produced college football during prime time on weeknights, when each game stands alone as a major event.

RK: Ah, I see you've been drinking the BCS Kool-Aid. A slickly produced stand-alone championship game is one thing. But there's nothing slick about a Sugar Bowl pitting Georgia against West Virginia, which could only stand alone in Athens and Morgantown. On Jan. 2 (egad!).

JH: No doubt we have a glut of Jan. 2 bowls this year. That's because New Year's Day falls on an NFL Sunday -- and the NFL rules the modern-day sports world with an iron fist, not even bothering to cloak it in a velvet glove. The NCAA has no choice but to kowtow. And as my name isn't Jim Tom Pinch, forgive me if I don't bemoan the Cotton Bowl's faded splendor.

RK: I can see Joe Montana leading Notre Dame down the field against Houston -- and announcer Lindsey Nelson's loud sports jacket -- as if it were yesterday. Somehow, the Cotton Bowl got trumped by the Fiesta Bowl. It had to be the weather -- or the money. Which is really what prompted moving the big bowl games from their tradition Jan. 1 dates, isn't it?

JH: Yes, and money is also behind those regular-season games that take place on Thursday and other nontraditional football nights. I like those as well. While I too remember watching bowl game after New Year's bowl game back in the Lindsey Nelson era, they tended to blend together in a haze brought on by too much sparkling apple cider and Hickory Farms ring bologna.

RK: Progress is like Roosevelt Leaks, the old Texas wishbone fullback. You can't stand in the way of it. Still, give me a leather helmet and the Cotton, Sugar, Rose and Orange Bowls back-to-back-to-back-to-back, and I'd be happier than Woody Hayes on third-and-one.

JH: I'm still holding out for a college football playoff involving 16 -- yes, 16 -- teams. So I'm hardly a BCS flunky. But that's another issue for another day. Until then, I'll gladly settle for Penn State-Florida State on Tuesday night followed by Texas-Southern Cal on Wednesday.