CBS’ Bryan Fischer directs you to the seven-minute mark of this CBS Sports video, where you will find NHL commissioner Gary Bettman making the following statement regarding the Winter Classic: “To have imagined that the event would be this spectacular, particularly when you’re there, to imagine that we would own New Year’s Day, which used to be for college football, nobody could have imagined it.”

Securing “ownership” of Jan. 1 became a little easier, we suppose, when no college football games were played on New Year’s Day 2012. Hockey’s case is somewhat weakened, however, by not having played on New Year’s Day 2012 either for fear of competing poorly against Sunday NFL games.

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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 Insight Bowl trophy is awful, but as a former pizza bowl, the institution deserves protecting.

Lauded in this space just a month ago for clinging to its dot-com sponsor for a decade following the collapse of the tech bubble, the Insight Bowl suddenly finds itself set adrift, in a basket on a strange doorstep, with a note pinned on its blanket reading “free to good home, for money.” A quick adoption fact sheet, for those of you considering placing this lovable game  under your organization’s banner:

• Family history: Less than ideal. Cousin to the famously corrupt Fiesta Bowl, and at times seems neglected by caretakers. The website is relegated to a folder on the Fiesta Bowl’s site, and should interested parties click through to buy merchandise, they’re redirected to the Fiesta Bowl store, which is (sorry, OU fans ) currently splashed with Cowpoke victory swag, wall to wall, with a lone lousy banner ad strung up for Sooners products.

• Trauma history: Relentlessly awful trophy. Aired for a time on the NFL Network. Has been known to lash out at the teams themselves. Has not received all its shots, but after hosting Tim Brewster two years in a row you’re pretty much inoculated against the big stuff.

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Many considered the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl between 6-7 UCLA and 6-6 Illinois a mockery. (They weren't wrong.) (Icon SMI)

A report by CBS’ Brett McMurphy on a fledgling movement among college football’s power brokers to restrict postseason eligibility to teams with winning records has touched off flights of fancy over which bowl games are most shrilly begging to be offed. Our pals at SB Nation have charted out the seven games ripest to be snuffed out in a world where 7-5 is the absolute floor for winter ball. And we say to you, titans of our industry: Stay your scything hands, and let the corrupt decadence of the postseason fester and flourish for what little time its current form has left.

George Mallory would watch the New Mexico Bowl

From the McMurphy report: “Fewer bowls would actually benefit the overall bowl system, a non-BCS bowl official said. ‘It would make the existing bowls more valuable and drive up the sponsorships and television ratings for the survivors,’ the official said.” We find the truth of this difficult to ascertain. So because the Mountain Dew Icy Shardblast Bowl on December 19 is now a thing of the past, we are, as consumers, expected to be more excited for the DO YOU GUYS KNOW HOW TO POST VIDEOS TO FACEBOOK Bowl (presented by Facebook) on the 20th?

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Le'Veon Bell's two short-yardage touchdowns helped Michigan State force overtime. (US PRESSWIRE)

Snaps from the Jan. 2 slate’s non-BCS bowls, of which the Big Ten managed to win just one of four…

• No. 12 Michigan State 33, No. 18 Georgia 30 (3OT): Hail, Sparty the redeemer! At the end of a very long afternoon for the Increasingly Inaccurately Named Big Ten, following three dissimilar but equally dispiriting losses by conference squads (more on those down below), MSU pulled one out for the honor of Jim Delany and middle America.

The game began in most ignominious fashion, with the Spartans’ first drive culminating in a safety by all-everything Dawg Brandon Boykin, and two spectacular field-enveloping plays (an 80-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Murray to Tavarres King and a 92-yard punt return by Boykin) giving Georgia a 16-0 halftime lead. Le’Veon Bell made up most of that ground for the Spartans in the second half with two short-yardage touchdown runs, and by the end of his second scoring effort, the game was tied 27-27 with 14 seconds to play in regulation.

Which is about where the trouble started, although Dawgs fans fed up with conservative playcalling on offense might have a good argument that Georgia’s last drive of the fourth quarter sealed its fate. Here, as predicted in this week’s Bowl Breakdown, special teams came into the spotlight in a big, bad way. UGA kicker Blair Walsh, a Groza finalist in 2010 but not himself in 2011, missed a 42-yard field goal attempt (on third down, no less) in the first overtime period, after Bacarri Rambo’s interception of Kirk Cousins snatched away State’s chance to strike first. Walsh connected on a 47-yarder in the second period, as did MSU’s Dan Conroy. Walsh’s final attempt, to match Conroy’s third-period three-pointer, was blocked.

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The 2010 Insight Bowl trophy was a sight to behold. (AP)

The 2011 Insight 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 George Schroeder’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? The Insight Bowl is sort of like the Fiesta Bowl (and is even played in the Fiesta Bowl’s former home), only smaller and dingier. You have to credit its survival instincts, however: How many other former bowl games named after dot-coms have retained their title sponsors?

• Where will this game be played? Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.

• Golly, who plays there during the regular season? Don’t get cute, now.

• When is it on television? Kickoff is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET on Friday, December 30. The game will be televised on ESPN.

• Whom does it feature? At one point or another, four of the big six conference have had tie-ins with the Insight Bowl; current affiliated conferences are the Bigs Ten and 12.

• What about this year? We’re edging into the province of teams with respectable records: 7-5 Iowa and 9-3 Oklahoma will make the trek to Tempe.

• Who will call the game? Sean McDonough, Matt Millen and Heather Cox.

• You know, it’s only been a couple years, but I’m already running out of jokes regarding Matt Millen getting paid more money than I’ll make in five years to tell me how a football team should be doing things. This, we fear, is a lost cause. ESPN kept Craig James on the payroll until the bitter, drawn-out end, which says to us that smaller ridiculosities like Millen are just entirely beneath their line of sight.

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Skye Dawson's 42-yard TD reception gave TCU the win in its final game as a non-AQ team. (Louis Lopez/Cal Sport Media)

No. 16 TCU 31, Louisiana Tech 24 [BOX | RECAP]

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — TCU’s band appeared unprepared for the Horned Frogs to exit the tunnel and commence Poinsettia Bowl festivities. The PA system in what we’re apparently calling Snapdragon Stadium was blaring Walking in Memphis as the boys in purple and white hurtled onto the field, setting a tone of tentative incongruity that suited tonight’s proceedings admirably. Had either team’s fits been fittier or their starts startier, a Frogs blowout or Bulldogs upset would have been entirely within reach. Alas, the first meeting between the Horned Frogs and Bulldogs was not a memorable one.

From two conference champs in such a fine setting for sports, an audience hungry for quality ball deserved better. But really, can you blame the Frogs for sulking, if that’s what was so wrong with them in the first half? On paper, this is a team that deserved a better bowl. The Frogs can’t be happy with the hand they’ve been dealt, even with the win. Penalties, interminable replay reviews and lackadaisical special-teams play were the hallmarks of the evening. Apart from the scoreboard, LaTech might have more to feel proud about walking away. “Good losses” can be a term of careless condescension. Not tonight.

To be fair, the Bulldogs did get the face-plant party started in the first quarter. Ryan Allen, announced over the loudspeakers as the reigning Ray Guy Award winner, punted on the Bulldogs’ first possession, and landed it just outside the end zone. Tech promptly followed this up with an offsides penalty on the very next play that moved the Frogs’ feet out of their own end zone, and fumbled toward the end of the quarter to set up TCU’s first scoring drive.

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Marshall shocked the Beef 'O' Brady's viewing public by upsetting favored FIU 20-10. (ZUMAPRESS.com)

• Marshall 20, Florida International 10: Forget “need input,”  this game could’ve used about three times as much output. The Golden Panthers were pinned deep and often by the Thundering Herd in last night’s unacceptably lo-fi Beefobradys (currently accepted spelling after our available supply of apostrophes was exhausted in previewing this game) Bowl. FIU gained just 251 net offensive yards and was held scoreless through the entire second half, while Marshall went on a relative hot streak, piling on 10 points in the fourth quarter to put the game away. [RECAP | BOX]

• That’s a wrap on the sweatervest era: Ohio State’s NCAA sanctions in the matter of Terrelle Pryor and his Tat Five Orchestra were released yesterday afternoon: Additional probation, additional scholarship reductions, a one-year postseason ban and a five-year show-cause penalty for Jim Tressel. Read the NCAA’s statement here, and one from the inexplicably still-employed Gene Smith here. Charles Robinson hints the Buckeyes got off easy, relatively speaking; Spencer Hall hopes the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl will be worth it for the Buckeyes.

• Fresh coaches, bought and sold! Busy couple of days on the carousel: Ellis Johnson to Southern Miss is official. Hawaii native Norm Chow will return home to coach the Warriors. Yale’s coach has resigned amid an investigation into his resume. Coastal Carolina has made a very interesting hire; no word on Mr. Moglia’s feelings re: the respective football strengths of cats and dogs. Somebody tell T. Boone to shake his considerable change purse at Mike Gundy, already. Everett Withers will sign on in Columbus following the Independence Bowl. And Andy Staples has a modest proposal for Akron.

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The NCAA will hand down sanctions to Ohio State Tuesday at 3 over the wide-ranging illegal Buckeye benefits scandal. (AP)

• Actual news to emerge to-day! I’ll be on a plane to San Diego when it happens, but the NCAA will dispense sanctions in the general direction of Ohio State regarding Terrelle Pryor and his Tat Five Orchestra at 3 p.m. ET. Get your homespun bingo cards ready! Suggested squares: “Jim Tressel show-cause,” “Gene Smith cries on camera” and “Boise State somehow ends up being sanctioned in Ohio State’s place.”

• Fresh coaches, bought and sold! South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson is reportedly the new head ballcoach at Southern Miss. It would be Johnson’s first head coaching gig at the FBS level. He has served on Steve Spurrier’s staff since 2008, and before that was Mississippi State’s coordinator since 2004.

• Good news for good guys, I: Michigan State’s Arthur Ray, offensive lineman and cancer survivor, has won the 2011 Discover Orange Bowl/FWAA Courage Award.

• Good news for good guys, II: Two Louisiana Tech standouts, wide receiver Quinton Patton and linebacker Adrien Cole, have donated their Poinsettia Bowl gifts to the Make-A-Wish foundation.

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Louisiana-Lafayette fans (and mascot Cayenne) celebrated the Ragin' Cajuns New Orleans Bowl win over San Diego State in style. (Icon SMI)

• Bowltyme! Important takeaways from the first three contests of the college football bowl season: Wyoming fans are people you want to party with. Louisiana fans, even more so. Maybe give Louisiana’s S&C coach a wide berth. Illegal stemming: It’s a thing! Penn Wagers: doin’ Penn Wagers things. A Cowboys extra point attempt very nearly triggered our long-standing “hit both uprights and the crossbar and you win the game” rule. It was the play of the day, until the last play of the night. And I know you’ve found yourselves wondering: Just how are these three contests like artisanal pork products? [Recaps: Temple 37-Wyoming 15; Ohio 24-Utah State 23; Louisiana 32-San Diego State 30]

• A souvenir football on every mantel: In non-FBS goings-on: Mars Hill’s Jonas Randolph is having a pretty good week. Pittsburgh State wins its second DII title in program history. Wisconsin-Whitewater captures a third consecutive Division III national championship. And the States of Sam Houston and North Dakota will vie for the FCS title in January.

• Fresh coaches, bought and sold! Amid speculation he might leave for the Pitt job, Paul Rhoads has re-upped with Iowa State. Reportedly out of the Akron and Southern Miss coaching searches, respectively: Pat Narduzzi and Kirby Smart. And take a minute today to read about the effect outgoing Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker had on one former player. And Gary Crowton will do … something … at Maryland.

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