I’m a child of the 80’s. This year’s matchup is basically like every Cotton Bowl when I was growing up. Two very good top ten teams that aren’t playing for a national title.
At least twice during the 1960s, the MNC came out of the Cotton Bowl.
One of the dominoes that had to fall for the '75 Sooners to be playing for the MNC in the Orange Bowl vs. Michigan was 10-1 Texas A&M losing to 7-4 USC in the Cotton Bowl earlier that day.Texas lost the 1984 MNC by losing 10-9 to Georgia in the Cotton Bowl. And I'm sure I'm omitting some other examples.
So, once upon a time it was a big bowl. I always thought of it as #4 of the four big bowls--the others being Rose, Orange, and Sugar--but maybe that's because the Big 8 champ never went there. And maybe also because Dallas at New Year's is not a glamorous or enchanting vacation destination.
Of course, the Rose Bowl, where the Big 8 champ also never went, was #1 as the Granddaddy of 'em all.
Now it's one of the NY6, so every three years it gets to host a "meaningful" game.
Some Florida fans are saying that the Gators will get stomped with all their top receivers sitting it out. Others are saying that they shouldn't even play the game, because it's irrelevant.
Which gets me back to my gripe about the CFP.