Bowls Could Use a Storyline

Your TV guide to Bowl Week-And-Half 2000-2001 . . .

MONDAY, DEC. 25

Ch. 7 Aloha Bowl--Game Show 12:30 p.m.

Arizona State Sun Devils, having defeated UCLA in the finals of last month’s “Who Wants To Spend The Holidays Anywhere But El Paso?,” enjoy their grand prize: Christmas in Hawaii.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 27

ESPN Motor City Bowl--Suspense 1 p.m.

As Marshall plays Cincinnati in a football game in Pontiac, Mich., the manhunt continues to search for someone who cares.

ESPN Galleryfurniture.com Bowl--Politics 5 p.m.

After a recount shows that earlier claims of 28,000 tickets sold in the Houston area were off by 23,800, field reporters seek out 4,200 Houstonites and ask, “You really paid to watch Texas Tech and East Carolina?”

THURSDAY, DEC. 28

ESPN2 Humanitarian Bowl--Consumer Affairs 10:30 a.m.

Program investigates charges of false advertising levied against a bowl game played in Boise during the holidays that calls itself “humanitarian.”

ESPN Music City Bowl--Travelogue 1 p.m.

Stars Don Nehlen as a legendary old football coach from West Virginia who travels to Nashville for his last game. Meanwhile, in West Virginia and Mississippi, fans race against the clock to take their cars off blocks, push them off the front lawn and see if they can get to Nashville in time for kickoff.

TBS Micronpc.com Bowl--Finance 4 p.m.

Twelve suspended Minnesota football players, reinstated just in time for the big game against North Carolina State after paying back a credit-card debt of more than $1,600, are given tips on budget and financial planning.

ESPN Insight.com Bowl--Classic Sports 4:30 p.m.

Iowa State plays in its first bowl game since 1978, which happened two years after Pittsburgh won its last national championship with Tony Dorsett, shown in slow-motion flashback sequences on his way to the 1976 Heisman Trophy.

FRIDAY, DEC. 29

ESPN Liberty Bowl--Documentary 10:30 a.m.

Students of USC football learn more about Colorado State Coach Sonny Lubick, 63, participating in his fifth bowl game in eight seasons, this time with a 9-2 team that lost two games by a total of seven points. Subtitled: “The Coach The Trojans Let Get Away.” Closed-captioned for Mike Garrett and others hard of hearing.

Ch. 2 Sun Bowl--Re-run 11 a.m.

Wisconsin Badgers defeat UCLA Bruins in a college football bowl game. Previously aired 1999 and 1994.

ESPN Peach Bowl--Thriller 2 p.m.

Making a rare bowl appearance, the Louisiana State football team arrives in Atlanta for the big game against Georgia Tech. But the team bus is commandeered by a leftover volunteer from the 1996 Olympics. Will the Tigers make it to the Georgia Dome by game time? Or will they wind up at the Gator Bowl instead?

ESPN Holiday Bowl--Sightseeing 5:30 p.m.

Oregon football Coach Mike Bellotti heads to Southern California, takes a look around, keeps on going to San Diego.

SATURDAY, DEC. 30

ESPN Alamo Bowl--Fantasy 5 p.m.

Northwestern Class of ’80 builds time-travel machine that goes haywire and mistakenly transports sad-sack football team ahead 20 years into a bowl game against Nebraska.

SUNDAY, DEC. 31

FSN Silicon Valley Bowl--Music 3:30 p.m.

Destiny’s Child performs live, headlining Halftime Intermission Show. Warmup acts: Fresno State, Air Force.

ESPN Independence Bowl--Comedy-Drama 5 p.m.

There are laughs all around as former Texas A&M;/current Mississippi State Coach Jackie Sherrill returns to face A&M; 12 years after leaving the program high and dry and on NCAA probation for booster improprieties.

MONDAY, JAN. 1

ESPN Outback Bowl--Home Improvement 8 a.m.

Lou Holtz restores badly tarnished South Carolina antique, buffing it from a neglected 0-21 to a 7-4 sheen and a New Year’s Day bowl berth. Co-hosted by John Cooper, who has never won the Big Ten championship outright in 13 seasons with Ohio State and is here to ask questions and take notes.

FOX Cotton Bowl--Brush With Greatness 8 a.m.

Kansas State plays 1998 NCAA champion Tennessee, about as close as K-State is ever going to get to a national championship game.

Ch. 4 Gator Bowl--Coming Attractions 9:30 a.m.

Virginia Tech’s Michael Vick and Clemson’s Woodrow Dantzler preview the 2001 Heisman Trophy race.

Ch. 7 Citrus Bowl--Crime Drama 10 a.m.

Not starring James Whitley, the Michigan captain recently kicked off the team for a concealed weapons charge.

Ch. 7 Rose Bowl--Adventure 1:30 p.m.

A plucky band of Purdue college students try to find buried treasure in Pasadena using nothing but a 34-year-old map left them by Bob Griese.

Ch. 7 Fiesta Bowl--Popularity Contest 5:30 p.m.

It’s TV ratings over football ratings as Notre Dame shows Oregon State that 10-1 seasons come and go but resting on one’s laurels is forever.

TUESDAY, JAN. 2

Ch. 7 Sugar Bowl--Mystery 5 p.m

If Miami is No. 2 in the Associated Press rankings and the only team to have defeated Florida State in 2000, why is Florida State in the national championship game and Miami relegated to the runner-up bowl against Florida?

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 3

Ch. 7 Orange Bowl--Science Fiction 5 p.m.

In a parallel universe where computers rule humans, a mock championship spectacle is foisted upon the public when the master circuitry is infected by the BCS virus. Butch Davis, Santana Moss investigate, to little avail.