A MID-MAJOR TITLE GAME.

Tonight, Northern Illinois and Alabama-Birmingham will kick off in the Boca Raton Bowl.

There are several pregame evaluations of the bowl game in the scheme of things.  This watchability ranking places it 22d in the lineup of 39 or 40, with a backhanded endorsement.

A couple conference champs going at it. This will be low scoring but I could see this being a competitive game that’s worth some Tuesday night viewing with no other football to compete with. Also what a sponsor for a bowl game.

First time I ever heard of Cheribundi Tart Cherry, which is some sort of energy drink.

Another ranking has it as high as thirteenth, based on the gone-to-restored status of Alabama-Birmingham football.

The full list of bowls pitting conference champions: The Orange (Alabama-Oklahoma), the Rose (Ohio State-Washington) and the Boca Raton. Not bad company. The Huskies (8-5) are a perennial Mid-American Conference power, while the work coach Bill Clark (pictured) at UAB (10-3) remains one of the more remarkable developments in the sport this decade.

Then come the skeptics.  Slag the Mid-American:  Western Michigan 37, Northern Illinois 38, Ohio 39.

Northern Illinois is miserable in bowl games under head coach Rod Carey. UAB was miserable in its 41-6 loss to Ohio in last year’s Bahama’s Bowl. Something has to give between one of only three bowls with conference champs going at it – the Rose and Orange the two others. It’s a Tuesday night, what else are going to do, be miserable?

Speaking of the Orange Bowl: first, that bowl losing streak began for then interim coach Rod Carey at the Orange Bowl, and Florida State is this year not in any bowl, after last year becoming bowl-eligible on the strength of a mid-season bought win; meanwhile, last year's disappointed participants, Donna Shalala North and Donna Shalala South, meet again in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.

This wasn’t an easy matchup to get excited about last year, when they played in the Orange Bowl after both losing conference title games. The Hurricanes and Badgers both stumbled into disappointing 7-5 seasons this fall. At least Wisconsin tailback Jonathan Taylor (pictured, FBS-best 1,989 yards) wraps up his sophomore year in an environment (New York) almost as conducive to a raw late December day as Camp Randall Stadium.

That's familiar territory for Wisconsin, which at the beginning of this century came off two straight Rose Bowl wins with national title aspirations, as did their opponent UCLA.  They got a participation trophy, and Wisconsin won that game.