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American Morning

Bowl Season for College Football

Aired January 01, 2002 - 9:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's New Year's Day, I think we've said that, and chances are many of you are camped out on the sofa. But if you dare venture outside of your armored cocoon, here is Rosey Edeh with a look at what you might find out there - Rosey.

(WEATHER)

SAVIDGE: Well the Tournament of Roses Parade is set to begin a little more than one hour from now. You are looking at live pictures across Pasadena, California. Which float is expected to be the year's big winner? Well, who could go to bed tonight without knowing that? We'll have a preview of the entrants, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL)

SAVIDGE: Football fans will have to wait until Thursday to catch the Rose Bowl this year, but there are plenty of other ball games that are scheduled for today. And joining us to talk about that, CNN's Sports Illustrated, Matt Morrison.

Matt, I could tell you that I'm an expert on college football, but I'm not. So why don't you lead us through and tell us what the big game is today.

MATT MORRISON, CNN SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: I have a sense, Marty, that there are a lot of non-experts that will be forced to watch a lot of games today, because there's going to be a lot of couch time and a lot of zapper with the clicker movement today because there are six college football games on the schedule today. And, of course, as Marty mentioned, the Rose Bowl coming up Thursday night will decide the national champion if Miami wins it. Which means, today's Fiesta Bowl this afternoon in Tempe, Arizona, will be a huge game for both Colorado and Oregon, because the winner of this contest - should Nebraska win in the Rose Bowl - will have a claim at the national title.

First of all, let's start - start with the Colorado Buffaloes, who, of course, just a month ago decimated the Nebraska Cornhuskers. In the big 12 they knocked them off by the final score of 62 to 36. The Buffaloes do have two losses, but they still felt like this victory should have propelled them into the BCS championship game against Miami, because they beat Texas a week later and the Buffaloes have beaten the number two and three teams in the BCS at this time. In any case, the Buffaloes will be going up against the Oregon Ducks in today's Fiesta Bowl. And this contest will have the spotlight all to itself in the afternoon, amid a bevy of games. And Oregon is a team that is led my Heisman candidate, Joey Harrington. If you haven't seen this guy play this year, boy you're in for a treat. And you can check out the contest later this afternoon at Sun Devil's Stadium (ph), because Joey Harrington, all he does is win. Mike Bellotti, the head coach at Oregon has his terrific program up and running, and this will be the final game for a terrific senior who's done a great job.

Now the Fiesta Bowl, again, stands alone. It's a 4:30 Eastern start this afternoon, but it's only one of many great games that are on the schedule. Tonight, the Sugar Bowl is another BCS game, and this one features maybe the most underrated team in the country, and that's Illinois. Ten and one, taking on the LSU Tigers, who we saw win the SEC (ph) championship in stunning fashion earlier in December, with a win over Tennessee. And the Tigers, of course, playing essentially on home turf, the Baton Rouge school shifting down south about an hour to the Louisiana Superdome. So LSU, with Rojan Davey (ph) at quarterback, is going to be appearing mighty friendly in the home confines of South Louisiana. So Illinois and LSU in the Sugar Bowl, that's the prime time game.

Beyond that, there's a whole bunch of football, and it starts in just a little over an hour, beginning with the Cotton Bowl. And this is a good one - Oklahoma and Arkansas - two teams that used to play in the Southwest Conference, but haven't played each other since that conference broke up. The (UNINTELLIGIBLE), of course, the defending national champions, no chance to do that. But an opportunity to get a victory on New Year's Day, today, against Arkansas.

The Outback Bowl, that contest in Tampa, Florida, also an 11:00 AM Eastern start. This is a rematch of last year's game. South Carolina, with Lou Holds (ph) at the helm, beat Ohio State a year ago. This time, Ohio State is coming back to try to get a measurable revenge in a rematch of last year's Outback Bowl.

Later in the afternoon, the Gator Bowl, from Jacksonville, Florida, this one featuring Florida State, a team that is seven and four on the season and what you would call a bit of a disappointment for the Seminoles (ph). But they're going up against Virginia Tech, a team that gave Miami everything it could handle in the last part of the big East (ph) season. And, also, a one o'clock start is the Citrus Bowl, that one in Orlando. Michigan and Tennessee, two of the story programs in all of college football. Two of the teams that have the biggest home stadiums, but yet they've never played each other ever in college football. This will be the first meeting ever.

And then, of course, on Thursday night, it's the Rose Bowl, and that is the big one. This one featuring unbeaten Miami, the only team that doesn't have a problem with being in the national championship game. The Hurricanes (ph) under Larry Koch (ph) are coming in with all the expectations on them. But if you recall, they had a pretty tough time in their last two games. Virginia Tech gave them everything they were worth, and Miami pulled this one out, just 26-24 in the last regular season game of the season for the Hurricanes (ph).

They also had a little trouble against Boston College in November as well. So this is absolutely not a shoe-in for the Hurricanes. They're going to have to be at their best to beat a Nebraska team that's awfully good and sporting the Heisman Trophy winner, the Huskers, of course, featuring number seven there, Eric Crouch (ph). And this is a program that is used to playing in big games, and Eric Crouch (ph) is the real deal. He's the guy that ran for over 1,200 yards and passed for over 700 yards this season. He's the guy that makes the Cornhusker offense go.

So that's coming up on Thursday night. The Tournament of Roses Parade, of course, on New Year's morning, but all the revelry will last another 48 hours or so, until those two teams square off. By the way, as you may be aware, the Rose Bowl traditionally a big 10 packed 10 (ph) match-up. This is the first time in years that it hasn't been the champions of those two conferences squaring off. And that's coming up on Thursday night.

In the meantime, just to tied you over on Wednesday, of course, you've got the Orange Bowl. The Florida Gators in action in that one, and that's going to be against the upstart Maryland Terapins (ph), perhaps the surprise team in the country. But Al Fregin (ph) is the head coach there. He's definitely been the coach of the year, and he's taken on another very high-profile coach in Steve Sperger (ph).

So we've got football fanaticism all over the place. Get your clickers ready. It starts at 11:00 AM and it will last for the next 48 hours.

SAVIDGE: Are you done?

MORRISON: Did you catch all that? Do you have yourself a good pile of sandwiches?

SAVIDGE: Notice that I just peppered - I just peppered you with questions on everything.

MORRISON: All right, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Thanks, Matt, very much. Happy New Year to you.

MORRISON: Happy New Year to you, too.

SAVIDGE: Put on your bowling shoes because it's going to be a busy day.

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