Obie gets to take off the suit (probably), but staging December and January games can be a full-time gig. (AP)

We joked Monday about how we would’ve loved to work for the Fiesta Bowl during the John Junker heyday, because who doesn’t enjoy attending $30,000 birthday parties? But you, gentle readers, may be as surprised to learn that bowl employees work more than four days a year as our own mother was to learn that we work more than four months. While recuperating from the crush of bowl season, Campus Union spoke with bowl worker bees and executive types busy putting bows on their 2011 games while laying the groundwork for the 2012 postseason. Here’s what we learned.

Months of moving parts

Every postseason college football contests maintains a year-round calendar of sorts, though we were surprised on both ends of the spectrum by just how many and how few year-round employees are retained by certain games. (For comparison’s sake: The Outback Bowl employs five year-round staffers; the Music City Bowl has nine, most of whom double up with duties to the Nashville Sports Council; and the Orange Bowl has 30, with plans to bring on an additional nine full-time positions this year to accommodate preparations for hosting the BCS title game.) The timeline varies wildly based on available personnel, resources, the organization’s presence in the community and how the game approaches its own team selection process. The first scout I personally laid eyes on last season was a very nice lady representing the Champs Sports Bowl in Morgantown in Week 3 during LSU-West Virginia. Both squads, of course, would go on to win their conferences and play in BCS bowls, but that early in the season, bowl scouts share the same disadvantage as the rest of us: All they have to go on is preseason rankings and their own prognostications.

Still, for a game like the Chick-fil-A Bowl, which draws from two of the more voluminous conferences, scouting all potentially eligible teams in person in a single season is a daunting task. Volunteer CFA scouts go out in Week 1 to begin assessing various SEC and ACC squads, though the bowl’s selection committee does not convene until November.

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The Alamodome is the only building in North America with two permanent Olympic-sized ice rinks; Robert Griffin III could surely run on those. (Cal Sport)

The 2011 Alamo Bowl is just a day away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an Xs and Os breakdown, check out Stewart Mandel’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? Sponsored by an oil and gas company and staged in San Antonio, the Alamo Bowl is indelibly Texan (looking at you, TicketCity Bowl!) — even if it doesn’t have a belt buckle for a logo (trying way too hard, “Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas”!).

• Where will this game be played? San Antonio’s Alamodome, former home of the Spurs and currently playing host to the hatchling USTA Roadrunners.

• Is the Alamodome built over top of the actual Alamo, because that would be a nice way to be able to see the Alamo when it is raining. It is not. The two structures are actually about a mile apart.

• All right, what about a replica of the Alamo, erected at midfield, that each team must fight its way through to reach the opponents’ territory? Shades of Legends of the Hidden Temple! I like where your head’s at, gentle reader.

• When is it on television? Kickoff is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, December 29. The game will be televised on ESPN.

• Whom does it feature? Another Pac-12 and Big 12 matchup, with the second pick from the former and third from the latter.

• What about this year? The Heisman winner stays home in Texas! RGIII and 9-3 Baylor will host (as both the geographical and designated home team) the 7-5 Washington Huskies.

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