Border War? What about the Egg Bowl?

Published 10:44 pm Thursday, November 22, 2007

Before breaking down the rivalry games that have always mattered most — Kansas vs. Missouri, Boise State vs. Hawaii — let’s address a few that tend to get overlooked.

n Auburn and Alabama are playing in something called the “Iron Bowl.” One team has lost three games and the other is coming off a home loss to Louisiana Monroe. The Alabama coach, Nick Saban, drawing an annual salary of $4 million, compared the Tide’s fifth defeat to the catastrophes of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.

The school attorney is thinking of adding a “stupidity clause” to the coach’s contract.

n The Egg Bowl? They say Mississippi and Mississippi State play this every year around Thanksgiving but we’re not sure why. The only “egg” involved this year is on Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron’s face. He just placed 20 players on probation for pilfering pillows and radios from team hotels.

One more defeat and Ole Miss can strike a deal with Motel 9 (losses).

n Boston College vs. Miami. Saw it once in person, back in 1984. In the end, a short guy threw a long pass. If you want to watch short quarterbacks now, check out Todd Reesing of Kansas and Missouri’s Chase Daniel. They’re both headed for The League (Six feet and under).

n Nebraska vs. Colorado. An old scrapbook clipping revealed that, in 2002, at Boulder, Nebraska earned a trip to the national title game with a momentum-building, 32-point loss to Colorado.

n Help us out here. There are two games in Florida involving multiple loss schools so we’re not clear which is the better: Florida State at Florida or Florida Atlantic at Florida International? One of the schools is ranked and someone on television recently suggested this year’s Heisman Trophy winner could emerge from the game at Gainesville.

n Notre Dame (2-9) vs. Stanford (3-7). Ran across an old ticket stub once from a time when this match-up got people so fired up they took trains to the game. It was from the 1925 Rose Bowl.

n Texas vs. Texas A&M. These schools apparently don’t like each other much. Wonder what the fuss is about?

n Clemson vs. South Carolina. We couldn’t find much on this one except something about a “Chicken Curse” that dates back decades but apparently has nothing to do with Colonel Sanders.

n Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma. A Google search on the Oklahoma State coach led to a YouTube clip of him holding up a newspaper and screaming at no one in particular.

Now, the main attractions:

n Kansas (11-0) and Missouri (10-1) play Saturday night at Arrowhead Stadium with both schools trying to secure their first Big 12 Conference North championship since the league expanded in 1996.

So what’s changed?

Kansas is ranked No. 2 in this week’s Bowl Championship Series standings and is two victories from playing in the national title game on Jan. 7.

Missouri is No. 4 in the BCS and also likely two wins from a title-game berth if you believe a win Saturday and another over Oklahoma or Texas on Dec. 1 will vault the Tigers over BCS No. 3 West Virginia.

“It’s a head-on collision and it’s finally here,” Daniel, Missouri’s diminutive quarterback, said of the looming showdown.

Neither team was ranked in the top 25 entering the season. Neither team saw this collision coming.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Daniel said. “No way.”

So how did it get so big?

“It’s a big game because we made it a big game and Kansas made it a big game,” Daniel said.

n Boise State (10-1) vs. Hawaii (10-0) today is about football, but it’s also about politics. If Hawaii ends up 12-0 after two more wins and doesn’t clinch a major bowl berth, Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson is going to be upset.

Benson will not be thrilled, either, should Boise State finish 11-1 and not make a BCS game.

Hawaii and Boise State need to finish ranked in the top 12 to receive an automatic berth. Hawaii is No. 15 this week; Boise is No. 19.

How mad Benson gets depends on what happens. He is the commissioner who once threatened legal action for greater access into the BCS. A deal was struck a few years back that relaxed the bid requirement from top six to top 12.

Last year, Boise State, which finished No. 8, needed the rule change to get the chance to beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

Will Hawaii get in?

“I still have confidence in the system,” Benson said.