BOWL GAMES! NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! A Wednesday Football Open Thread

Reivers and Blue Dragons and Brahman Bulls and—OH MY! [/swoon] It’s GASTON!

StaffDNA Cure Bowl

Old Dominion Monarchs vs. South Florida Brahman Bulls
4pm | ESPN | USF -3.5 | O/U 52.5
at Camping World Stadium (Orlando, FL)

Did you know I previewed ALL these games with former managing editor Jesse Collins? It’s worth a read as I slip slowly into madness and drag Jesse down with me:

The Brahman Bulls’ dynamic QB Byrum Brown is, of course, sitting out this game, likely to reunite in Auburn with former USF coach Alex Golesh. So, too, is Monarchs QB Colton Joseph, though who knows where he’s headed.

ODU will trot out a true frosh, Quinn Henicle—what a name—and USF will counter wiiiiiiiith…

GASTON! (Moore.)

We have reached out to the Bulls’ media team with our questions, namely:

• How many eggs a day does he eat? (Is it five dozen?)
• Does he use antlers in all of his decorating?
• Is anyone as slick as him?
• Is anyone as quick as him?
• Is anyone’s neck as thick as him?

We will report back when we get answers.

NJCAA Division I National Championship

#1 Hutchinson (KS) Blue Dragons vs. #2 Iowa Western Reivers
6pm | ESPNU | at West Texas A&M (Canyon, TX)

Hutchinson’s 12-0. Iowa Western’s 11-1. The Reivers’ one loss came to Hutchinson, by three points, back in September.

It’s the fifth straight NJCAA title appearance for IWCC, while Hutch if back for the fourth time in six years. The Blue Dragons are defending their title, having beaten the Reivers last year, 28-23.

68 Ventures Bowl

Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns vs. Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens
7:30pm | ESPN | ULL -2 | O/U 61.5

One of the only things I know about Louisiana in the post-Billy Napier era is that their SID—or someone similar—once emailed beez to correct him after he abbreviated the Cajuns’ school as “ULL”. You see, they’ve gone all-in on the “University of Louisiana” moniker, dropping Lafayette in a bid to look more serious and crowd out all the other UL pretenders. Take THAT, Monroe.

Anywho, take a fun little trip with me on the naming of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette:

[In] 1921, the school was renamed Southwestern Louisiana Institute of Liberal and Technical Learning (SLI).^[10]

By 1960, the school was renamed University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL).^[11]

In 1974, the College of Sciences was officially formed. In 1984, following approval from the Board of Trustees for State Colleges and Universities (now UL System), USL officially changed its name to the University of Louisiana, which was overturned less than a month later by an act of the state legislature, although two schools had previously changed their names using the same technique without outside interference.^[12][13][14] The school was renamed in 1999, to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette).^[15][16]

I’m chuckling at the idea of a few Colonel Sanders-lookin’ assholes with the finest LSU degrees their daddy’s money could buy ‘em getting so up in arms about this in the 1980s that they forced Louisiana to go back to looking like a branch campus.

Amusingly, as I read through the ULL Wiki page, I learned about their “Museum on the Move”, a converted 1954 Airstream that’s been turned into a mobile history lab and museum, which is almost exactly what I’m trying to get university buy-in and funding to do right now. So this has been an incredibly productive day and now, University IT, if you’re monitoring what I’m doing, this isn’t a punishable offense.

Open thread for the night’s football. There’s basketball, too:

UTSA Roadrunners at USC Trojans
8pm | BTN

Arizona State Sun Devils at UCLA Bruins
9:30pm | FS1

Portland Pilots at Oregon Ducks
10pm | BTN

Have fun, behave, or whatever. Don’t. See if I care.