THE PARTICIPATION TROPHIES HAVE NOW BEEN AWARDED.

Apart from the national championship game, featuring original Ten Michigan and soon to be in the Expanded Big Ten Washington, the college bowl schedule has been fulfilled.  In some ways that's unfortunate, that Mobile, Alabama event that kicked off their Mardi Gras on or near January 6 looked like a fun undercard bout for the title game.

Recall, dear reader, that not enough Division I teams racked up the six wins to qualify for the expanded field, and only Minnesota made grades.  Thus some teams with candidate membership in Division I also got bowl bids.  Let's take stock, first of the candidates.

Jacksonville State will be among the Opening Saturday, December 16, games, facing Louisiana in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. Some participation trophy, your opponent effectively has a home match. James Madison will face the Air Force on December 23 in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. Again, some participation trophy, a university named after a guy who had his Executive Mansion burned faces a service academy in a bowl sponsored by an aircraft builder.

Jacksonville State got the win, while Air Force brought the incendiaries a week later.  Neither Army nor Navy got a bowl bid this year.  The weekend the pairings were released, Army sang second.  Dementia Joe was not there to hear it.

Sometimes, snark for the sake of spite backfires.

Minnesota get to continue their tradition of losing to Mid-American teams, facing Bowling Green on the Feast of Stephen, December 26, in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit. Do I see a pattern? The Mid-American title game takes place at that field, and Bowling Green is not that far south of the Ohio state line.

Minnesota got the win.  But then, if you hire Jerry Kill followed by P. J. Fleck, your team ought to be capable of beating Mid-American opponents.  The Axe has mostly remained in Madison.

In the New Year's Six games, otherwise known as the "in years before an official national championship these teams would be in the conversation about who is the national championship" there was a controversy worthy of the good old days.

I was under the impression that the computerized rankings and all the rest of the playoff format was to come up with an unambiguous national champion. The competition committee sent undefeated Florida State to the Capitol One Orange Bowl on December 30 to face Georgia, the winner of the Southeastern title game, while Alabama, the loser of the Southeastern title game will play Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

Georgia 63, Florida State 3, and Florida State have since lawyered up.

Florida State is not leaving the ACC in the near term but is merely weighing its options -- a difficult task that also has come with trepidation among some involved in the talks.

The Seminoles have not been shy about voicing their displeasure with the growing revenue gap between the ACC and other conferences; the way the ACC distributes revenue; and the size of their share of the television revenue pie, which they believe should be larger based on ratings and marketability.

The shifting collegiate landscape over the past two years has only exacerbated those concerns, as the ACC has fallen further behind the SEC and the Big Ten. Florida State is not the only ACC school that has considered its options. Seven universities -- Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina, Miami, Virginia Tech, Virginia and NC State -- had conversations about their long-term futures in the spring.

During a board of trustees meeting in August, Florida State president Richard McCullough made it clear the school would "very seriously" consider leaving the league if things did not change.

It's amateur athletics. It has nothing to do with money. Until it does.  That four big conferences of sixteen teams each keeps looking more likely, although there might be universities competing in different conferences for basketball and football, the way men's soccer teams do all along.

In the games with a Cold Spring Shops viewing interest, there was good news and not-so good news.  Northern Illinois have not fared well against bowl opponents not named Arkansas State, getting good bowl bids notwithstanding, and a return engagement, alas, not in Mobile, might have been in order.

Northern Illinois beat Arkansas State 21-19 in the 10th Anniversary Camellia Bowl on Saturday, giving coach Thomas Hammock his first career bowl victory.

The tone of the game was set before it even kicked off, as both teams and head coaches exchanged some words on the way to their respective sidelines. Players on both sides engaged in trash talk throughout the game, creating a high-intensity matchup.

The game itself lived up to the emotion, as the teams set a Camellia Bowl record for first-half points before the defenses took over and created what would have been a completely scoreless second half, if not for late-game heroics by Arkansas State's offense to cut the final deficit to two points.

The longest Northern Illinois pass play of the game was a pitchout from the holder to the place-kicker on a fake field goal that went for a touchdown.  There were other light moments during that game.

A fake field goal in the second quarter went for the go-ahead score as the Huskies held on in a mostly scoreless second half, holding possession for over 40 minutes. The Red Wolves managed to get a touchdown with just over a minute to play but failed the 2-point conversion.

There was some amusement when ESPN was about to go to the broadcast of the game, while in studio, the graphics showed not the Red Wolves on screen but the logo for the Razorbacks.

Oh, and the hot-stove league might have blown calls by officials, mid-major category, to chew over.

On New Year's Day, it was Wisconsin's turn.

Wisconsin, despite being underwhelming in the Big Ten this year, will play on New Year's Day. They have a familiar opponent, Louisiana State (those two had a tilt at Lambeau a few years back) in a familiar setting, Tampa, although it's now the ReliaQuest Bowl, no more bloomin' onions for the winner.

Louisiana State's quarterback Jayden Daniels won the Heisman Trophy, the team figured in the national championship conversation until the Southeastern championship field was set, and the smart money had Louisiana State a two-touchdown favorite.  Red State's Brad Slager noted that, should the quarterback declare for the draft and sit out, it was still likely to be a difficult day for Bucky.

Regardless, the Badgers will still be challenged to compete here. Without much of an offense to speak of, it will take a lot to give them a chance here.

Wisconsin starting running back Braelon Allen also took himself out to stay healthy for the draft, and much of Wisconsin's offensive line entered the transfer portal.

Wisconsin outplayed Louisiana State for 54 minutes.  Unfortunately, it's a sixty minute game.

UW held a 31-28 lead with 6 minutes 10 seconds left when LSU took over at its 2 after a punt.

Could the Tigers drive 98 yards?

Yes.

Reserve quarterback Garrett Nussmeier had consecutive completions of 37 and 53 yards on the drive to move the ball to the UW 7 and the Tigers scored in two plays.

Nussmeier completed 31 of 45 passes for 395 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception. He was named game MVP.

Louisiana State started on their two thanks to excellent punt coverage and a punt with sufficient hang-time for the speedsters to set up near the goal line.  My greatest fear was that Louisiana State would take a page out of the Barry Alvarez playbook and grind out a six minute scoring drive.  They scored with over two minutes remaining, enough time the way Wisconsin had been moving the ball to answer.  So it appeared to come to pass, until it didn't.

Wisconsin had multiple opportunities to put away No. 13 LSU, playing without Heisman winner Jayden Daniels.

Instead, the Badgers twice blew 14-point leads and then imploded after reaching the LSU 19 in the final two minutes of the game.

The Tigers rose up and sacked Tanner Mordecai on second, third and fourth down – for losses of 13, 10 and 3 yards – to hold on for a 35-31 victory in front of an announced crowd of 31,424 fans.

Between the transfer portal and the tendency of seniors with aspirations to play on Sunday taking themselves out of games, these bowl games aren't what they used to be, nor will an expanded playoff format change that.  Consider Brad Slager, breaking down the Maryland-Auburn Music City Bowl, so you don't have to.  "Both teams had significant players out, and Auburn simply looked like they did not want to be there."  So, too, might it have been with Florida State.  "Thanks to the playoff snub and other factors, FSU came in with about two dozen players opting out, and it was a brutal result."  Where are the equity weenies in higher education when it comes to these players putting their future salaries, and their Madden royalties, ahead of Old Siwash?