If you are currently unemployed, working nights, or Brian Murphy, we recommend that you stay that way, at least until the Humanitarian Bowl is over.
You see, the Broncos' most likely bowl destination has a rather inconvenient starting time:
2:30pm, Tuesday, December 30
Bummer for everyone who has, you know, a day job.
We fall into that category (surprising, no?), as do about tens of thousands of other Treasure Valley folks, and we have virtually no way of watching the game. We'll be doing the same thing we do every Tuesday afternoon - working. Just because this Tuesday falls between Christmas and New Year's does not mean we can put down our TPS reports and head out the door, willy-nilly. The real world is not xx, at least not our real world.
The Humanitarian Bowl has always been an afternoon afterthought on the bowl schedule, but this year it actually poses a serious problem. If Boise State and Ball State decide to meet in the H-Bowl, two of the Top 15 teams in the country will square off on ESPN2 on a weekday mid-afternoon. What? Were there not enough Around the Horn reruns left over?
Talk about a letdown. While the BCS bowls battle in primetime, perhaps the fifth-best bowl game of all competes opposite Oprah and Zoboomafoo. If the H-Bowl is not prestigious enough to garner a respectable timeslot, then it shouldn't be allowed to feature two undefeated teams. It should be allowed to feature (and was designed to feature) Nevada versus ACC team No. 8.
Plus, its kickoff time puts Bronco fans in a bind. Many of us can't take time off work to head on down to catch a football game, no matter how life-alteringly important it may be. The only way for us to catch the action will be the sultry sounds of Bob Behler and his inappropriate basketball analogies during football games ("Time out on the floor," anyone?) or rushing down to the stadium at 5:15 to catch Bush Hamdan throwing pick-sixes in mop-up duty.
For those who can take half-days off work, we congratulate you. And envy you. Yours is a life of luxury that we hope to one day achieve for ourselves.
But until then, we'll be pre-setting our radios to KIDO, MapQuesting the fastest 5:00pm route to Bronco Stadium ...
... and praying that Boise State goes to the Poinsettia Bowl.
Read more: Humanitarian Bowl website [HumanitarianBowl.org]