Orange Bowl a very tasty appetizer for 2013 BCS championship in South Florida

One year from now, the singular stage will be ours again. College football?s rotating BCS National Championship Game will make its quadrennial appearance back at Dolphins stadium in the Orange Bowl Classic.

If that makes Wednesday?s 78th OB game an appetizer of sorts, well, say this: It looks like a tasty one.

I like Clemson vs. West Virginia for a couple of reasons beyond the fact these are two maniacal fan bases who enthusiastically see this game as a prize, not a consolation.

One reason to savor this game is the likelihood of crazy-big points, torrents of offense. The Mountaineers? Geno Smith set school passing records this season, while the Tajh Boyd-led Tigers broke school marks for points and offensive yards.

Another reason is that this matchup feels fresh as a bite of a Florida orange right off the tree. Clemson and West Virginia haven?t played each other in 22 years, WVU is making its first appearance in this bowl and Clemson was last in the OB when it won its only national championship here 30 years ago.

(It was so long ago the Orange Bowl was actually played in the Orange Bowl!)

?I remember. I was 12,? current Clemson coach and national Coach of the Year Dabo Swinney said Tuesday. ?There weren?t many other choices on TV back then. Laverne & Shirley, Lawrence Welk, maybe Hee-Haw. Three channels. I promise you I watched that game.?

Miami, New Year?s, 1982. The very next day, on the same field, the Dolphins would lose that epic 41-38 overtime playoff game to San Diego. The Mariel boatlift had recently changed the face of South Florida. Miami Vice wasn?t on the air yet. The Hurricanes? first national title was still two years away.

This was the palette for the finest hour in Clemson athletic sports history, ?Our greatest memory as a program,? Swinney said. ?And we?ve been wandering the desert for a long time since.?

This sport?s national focus of course is on Monday?s BCS title game in New Orleans, where Louisiana State or Alabama will make it a sixth consecutive national crown for the mighty Southeastern Conference.

To griping, curmudgeonly fans and media who so often seem to dominate the sports landscape ? or maybe it?s just that they make the most noise ? that means every other bowl game is scoffed at.

The thing is, second-tier bowls such as the OB is this time don?t feel second class to schools such as Clemson and West Virginia. For the Atlantic Coast Conference?s Tigers, this would feel like maybe the second-biggest victory in school history. For the Big East?s Mountaineers, under first-year coach Dana Holgorsen and making only their third BCS bowl appearance, a win would feel like the program had moved tangibly closer to finally contending for that elusive first national championship.

It isn?t always just about winning, anyway, when it comes to bowl games. Well, OK, Monday?s championship game is. But for the rest of the 35 bowl games, there is a reason for being beyond the result.

There is so much wrong and so much complaint associated with college football that you welcome the feel-good stuff, the antidotes that a bowl experience can be.

This was the season Penn State?s sex-abuse scandal toppling legend Joe Paterno was the biggest story in sports nationally. Down here, the havoc of renegade booster Nevin Shapiro engulfed the University of Miami, cursed the onset of the Al Golden era and caused UM to deny itself a bowl game as mitigation against future NCAA penalties.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/03/2572372/orange-bowl-a-very-tasty-appetizer.html

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