I seem to remember the New Years day when we got over all the college bowl games in a 24-hour period.

Today it takes 15 days from December 20, 2008 to January 8, of 2009 to get through the entire college bowl games’ ; some of them so inconsequential, teams come into the contest with records of 6-6, like Notre Dame and Hawaii or have records of 7-6, like Colorado State and Fresno State.

There are 34 college bowl games this year, some with a payout of $750,000 per team others splitting as low as $350,000 and as high as $17 million per contest, such as the grandfather of all bowls, the Rose Bowl where Southern California (11-1) will play Penn State (11-1).

This year there were five banks sponsoring bowls, including Bank of America, Capitol One and Eagle Bank; three from the auto industry, including the Motor City Bowl at Ford Field, GMAC and Meineke; and three from the retail field including Outback, Champs Sports and Papajohns.

Some of the bowl sponsorship and the fields upon which they play come from the very firms the US Government, with taxpayer money, is bailing-out to the initial tune of $700 Billion, promising to pony-up a trillion dollars to financial institutions, brokerage firms and the auto industry in the future.

Some of the teams playing in these bows have such mediocre records, tickets are selling between $1 and $10 and the wind and snow is blowing through empty seats.

While the country is in the depths of a recession, the real estate market has lost a large portion of its value, 401K’s have tanked, and unemployment is at a high as are foreclosures on homes; however, management in the very industries seeking a bailout from the government are spending well in excess of $100 million in college bowl game sponsorships.

It is unlikely that a number of these firms will be in business next year, and it is unlikely that we will have 34 bowl games, especially those of inconsequence.

Perhaps we should have a Bailout Bowl for small business, for it is this portion of our employment sector that provides the most jobs.

And while we are at it, we should also have a Charity Soup Bowl for the homeless and unemployed.