2 JAN 07: SOUTHERN JUSTICE

Before we begin, please don't be misled by our title. We will NOT focus on Jim Wetherington's inauguration until Wednesday....

Instead, we're talking "Bowl Day USA" here - and it was easy for me to pick a team to support in Monday's Cotton Bowl. Auburn is located close to Columbus. And the Nebraska Cornhuskers historically have squashed my old school Kansas in football like corn meal for a muffin.

Auburn pulled out a 17-14 Cotton Bowl win in Dallas, despite having only 46 yards of offense in the first half. The Tigers were saved by having plenty of POT -- you know, 14 Points Off Turnovers.

But ouch, the Fox Sports announcers at the Cotton Bowl had my jaw dragging the floor at times. Pat Summerall is a legend, but he declared the game had "a sellout crowd, of course" - even though the attendance was well under capacity, at less than 67,000. Maybe Summerall bought all those empty seats.

Then there was Fox Sports analyst Brian Baldinger, who declared a Cotton Bowl player attended Butler County Community College in "El Diablo, Kansas." Kansas natives like I winced, because the school is in El Dorado. Even in Kansas, cities would NOT be named after the devil.

If you watched the Cotton Bowl on WXTX, you also saw a clip of Carrie Underwood appearing before military personnel on a USO tour. An e-mailer last week [24 Dec 06] asked us what celebrities were doing for personnel in Iraq. Maybe they're trying to arrange more free streaming audio of bowl games.

But oh yes, there was a football game - and Auburn took the field at the Cotton Bowl by having players link arms with Coach Tommy Tuberville. What a nice show of unity. And what a nice opportunity next season, for a Lowe's sponsorship.

How weird was it to see a "B. Jackson" running for Nebraska, against Auburn? His name is Brandon Jackson, and he scored a touchdown. From what I've seen recently of Bo Jackson, he might have trouble running with boxes of his sweet potato pies.

Lest we forget, it actually was the "AT&T Cotton Bowl" - and you'd better get used to the AT&T logo which was all over the field, because the merger with BellSouth is now final. When they put the word "connected" all around the field, that includes the board of directors.

We should not overlook the referee of the Cotton Bowl, who officiated his last football game. He's the Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois -- as in Chicago. He may have been surprised no boosters tried to bribe him, to fix the outcome.

Things didn't go as well for Georgia Tech in its Bowl Day game. The Yellow Jackets had an 18-point third-quarter lead, but lost to West Virginia 38-35. We should have expected this comeback to happen - because Mountaineers are used to climbing uphill.

Georgia Tech and West Virginia faced off in Jacksonville, at the Toyota Gator Bowl. There was even a Toyota Tundra parked in the stands, behind one end zone - and I kept waiting for a kicker to put the ball in the truck's bed, to get a bonus point.

Did you see the big sign along the side of the field at the Gator Bowl, thanking "W.W. Gay employees?" At first I saw only the right side of the sign, and thought they might have moved the game from Jacksonville to San Francisco.

Georgia Tech sophomore quarterback Taylor Bennett offered hope for the future, as he led the offense to 335 first-half yards. That's the way the Reggie Ball bounces....

But do you realize in the last 365 days, West Virginia has beaten both Georgia and Georgia Tech in bowl games? Young men must not be mining coal the way they once did, and hurting their health with all that dust in their lungs.

One big question after the Gator Bowl is what will happen to Georgia Tech's star receiver Calvin Johnson. Will he return to college next season? Will he turn pro? And when was the last time a college football player like Johnson went to Bolivia, for something other than a Mormon mission?

The CBS broadcast team noted Calvin Johnson will go to Bolivia in a few weeks, as part of a Georgia Tech research project. For too many college students these days, it would be a research project to find Bolivia on an old-fashioned map.

West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez may have brought back bad memories for some Alabama football fans. The CBS announcers said Rodriguez's decision to coach the Crimson Tide was announced on the P.A. system at her daughter's school last month -- but then Rodriguez talked with his daughter, and may have changed his mind. The lesson here is clear: talk to your family before the Birmingham News.

Alabama football made news Monday, even though its bowl game is over. Several reports say Nick Saban was offered a 40-million dollar package to leave Miami in the N.F.L. and become head coach. Athletic Director Mal Moore reportedly even flew to Miami - if only so Saban could see how Moore looks when he's absolutely desperate.

Football remains on our brain, as we send some Instant Messages....

+ To Jim Mora Jr.: Oh well -- at least now you have plenty of time to figure out the moving bill. How much would it cost to move from Atlanta to the University of Washington in Seattle?

+ To WEAM-AM: Let me get this straight. You had live coverage of the New Mexico Bowl and the Hawaii Bowl - but apparently NOT the Rose Bowl?! I mean, the University of Michigan is on our side of the Mississippi River.

+ To everyone I saw riding bicycles on the Riverwalk late Monday afternoon: Were the children having some kind of race? And did my jogging by some of them hurt their egos so much that they quit?

+ To everyone who lit fireworks in Columbus Monday afternoon and evening: I don't think you can declare a New Year's "rain delay."

COMING WEDNESDAY: A new era begins at the Government Center....

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