A Rose Bowl by any other name

In addition to the changes in nomenclature of certain schools with Native American nicknames is coming another change: the BCS national championship game has chosen to become anonymous. Though the game will be played in the metro Phoenix area this year, it will not be the Fiesta Bowl (that bowl will, as JoePa notes below, still be a BCS bowl, and will take place a week before the title game). It will simply be called "the BCS National Championship Game."

In a sport that is so rich in tradition, this change should be very unwelcome. Names like Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Sun, and Gator have long been a part of the college football and New Year's Day lexicon. To make the biggest college game of the year a game without a name is a tragedy of epic proportions. The 2 for 1 in the same city was workable: just let each city come up with a new name for a new bowl. Now, college football is without a moniker even to match "The Final Four" or "The College World Series." The sport that invented tradition has now abandoned it.

If the BCS persists in wanting a single name for its title game regardless of city, then I have a modest proposal: call it "The Orrin Hatch Bowl." As JoePa mentoned below, the primary reason for the creation of the 5th BCS bowl game was the fear of Congressional intervention, and Hatch, the meddlesome Mormon from Utah, was the primary agitator in support thereof. So, if we're going to wreck a century of tradition, let's at least pay homage to the man who made us wreck it.