Ultimately, sports are about one thing: winning. Despite the countless parallels and analogies that can be drawn from sports, one team wins and one team loses. We play and watch sports to see who is the best.
Since 1999 college football has fought for the Bowl Championship Series National title and before that, the Associated Press named the National Champion, starting in 1936. Since 1936, 30 different teams can claim to be national champions and to their credit, they proudly display these years on the walls of their stadiums for all to see.
Conference Championships are also respectable. Maybe not as exciting as a national crown, but winning the conference is certainly something to be proud of and celebrate.
What shouldn’t be celebrated? Losses. Just last year, Notre Dame went to the National Championship game and got crushed 42-14.
Nowhere in South Bend, Ind., are the Irish faithful talking about their 2012 team. Sure, they had a good regular season, but the championship game was something to forget. They certainly didn’t put 2012 runner-up on the list of their eight national titles right next to Touchdown Jesus. That would be crazy.
Then why does Wisconsin celebrate all their Rose Bowl appearances on the famed concrete of Camp Randall Stadium?
Directly below the luxury seats at Camp Randall is the famed Rose Bowl logo and the years in which the Badgers have appeared (not won), including the past three defeats in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Immediately above these dates are the Badgers’ Big Ten Championships, including the most recent years 2010, 2011 and 2012. These championship were won by great teams and great players not limited to the likes of Russell Wilson and Montee Ball.
These teams are properly represented as champions because of their accomplishments in the Big Ten and on the field in Indianapolis. (If anyone needs a reminder of last year’s Big Ten championship, it smells a little something like 70-31.) Why not leave it at that?
Also, the Big Ten champion is more or less guaranteed a trip to Pasadena, so by commemorating the Badgers as 2012 Big Ten champs, an appearance in the 2013 Rose Bowl is basically a given.
The Rose Bowl is one of the most prestigious bowls around. Hell, call it the most prestigious bowl minus the National Championship Game. Pasadena is beautiful, it has a Parade, it’s always on New Year’s Day, etc.
I need no convincing the Rose Bowl is great, but realistically it is simply another corporate money-grabbing, pointless exhibition game that will have no impact on a team’s season after the 60 minutes of game time have elapsed.
The truth is that the only difference between the Rose Bowl presented by Vizio and the New Era Pinstripe Bowl is the sponsor and the two teams on the field. Neither outcome will decide the national champion and both games are just a way for sponsors and athletic departments to rake in more money.
After the Badgers’ veritable stink bomb on Saturday, they kissed away their shot at a Discover Orange Bowl appearance and will most likely be playing in the Outback Bowl.
Obviously Badger fans were sad about the loss and the overall performance of the team on Saturday, but ultimately there is little difference between the Orange Bowl, the Outback Bowl and even the Rose Bowl.
And just to prove my point, wouldn’t it be strange if the concrete in Camp Randall displayed all the years the Badgers appeared in the Outback Bowl?
Is a Rose Bowl appearance worth celebrating, or does Grey have a point? Email gsatterfield@wisc.edu to let him know.
