That is to say, two things:

1) Has college football finally started to kill itself with fans at this time of the year by offering too many bowl games? This isn’t new territory, but it’s a sentiment that seems to be gaining steam. When an idea like bowl-game backlash becomes part of the overall sporting public discourse, which it seems to be this year, a sport has a problem. Like ridiculous salaries in baseball. Or, a few years back, not enough scoring in hockey. Or rampant cheating in water polo. OK, we made that last one up.

2) Have the Gophers gone to too many of these third-tier bowl games for the prospect of Minnesota/Texas Tech in the Insight Bowl tonight to even be remotely exciting? Sure, they made a nice comeback to win their final three games, which is to their credit. But they’re still a .500 team that needed a one-point win in a game in which they were outplayed by North Dakota State to make it to Tempe. Honestly, even if the NFL Network was more accessible, or if this game was on ESPN, how many of you would watch it more than just casually or even accidentally? The guess here is not many. And that signifies a problem with the direction of the Gophers program. But we’re willing to listen. Your thoughts?

But we feel the need to ask anyway: What was your favorite part of Tuesday night’s San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl? The pageantry? The 37-7 TCU victory over Northern Illinois, putting those, um, hang on … Huskies! … in their place? Or the fact that the San Diego County Credit Union is finally getting some press?

Hoping to reverse the fortunes of its downtrodden program, Stanford has tapped ex-Bears quarterback Jim Harbaugh as its new head coach. If they’re looking for a guy to turn things around, we can’t think of a better guy than Harbaugh. Nobody can make a 20-0 lead turn into a 21-20 loss faster than him.

The Gophers aren’t the only ones giving tickets away. Thanks to a kind sir at the University of Miami — we’ll just call him The Wolf. Yeah, we’re sending in The Wolf — we now know that students at that school can get a free ticket to watch their ‘Canes take on Nevada in the MPC Computers Bowl.

Um, and there’s only one catch, really: It would involve spending New Year’s Eve in Boise, Idaho, instead of Miami. (In other bad news, for those too lazy to follow the link, you already missed the final Gifford Arboretum Meeting of 2006, where you could have learned about Florida’s native plants). As for the game: True, you might be trading real gunplay for potato gunplay, but still. Free ticket or not, we might have to pass.

(By the way, “Dispatches” will be a semi-regular installment here containing far-away tales of your brushes with sports. Come one, come all).Â

I’ve come to reconcile the ridiculousness of the college bowl season. It’s long. There are thousands of them (millions? Maybe it’s millions now. I lost count). Most of us don’t care about the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, which will kick off the bowl season next Tuesday. But at least it’s tucked away as part of a logical order, starting with the non-descript, building mightily through the mediocre (see: Insight Bowl) and presumably finishing with the best. Here’s what’s still bothering me: Chronologically, and completely illogically, this is how we finish.

Rose; Fiesta; Orange; Sugar (doing fine … building … building … wait for it …)

International Bowl; GMAC Bowl; BCS Championship Game.

How did these two bowls get slots on Jan. 6 and 7? When I go to a top-notch buffet in Las Vegas, does the meat go: roasted chicken, pork chop, veal, hot dog, spam, prime rib? I should hope not. You might say, “Just ignore the hot dogs and the GMAC Bowl.” I say I shouldn’t have to. It interrupts the whole flow of things. It makes me angry just thinking about it.Â