TAKING THEIR TALENTS TO NORTH BEACH

The Sweet and Sourdough Bowl — UCLA makes The Decision to accept a berth in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco against Illinois on New Year’s Eve, a bittersweet reward that could remove the sour taste of an inconsistent season from Bruins’ mouths

UCLA won’t have to visit Ghirardelli Square to taste something sweet in San Francisco — All they have to do is beat the Fighting Illini in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on December 31st.  The whole Bruin squad — except for fired Coach Rick Neuheisel — now gets one last chance to go out on a high note, with a Bowl Game victory over a Big Ten team that started off the season 6-0.

And it might not be that hard — The Illini followed up that perfect six with six straight losses.  The 6-up, 6-down collaspse marks the first time in FBS History that that has ever happened.  It was so bad that the Illini did the same thing UCLA did — They fired the Head Coach before the Bowl Game.  Ron Zook is out, and the D.C. is now the Interim Leader.

Last week, I reported that the UCLA-Illinois in Frisco match-up was projected, and despite more recent rumblings about playing Nevada, the Illini contest came to be.  I also went into detail about the logic behind accepting the bid, as opposed to turning it down.  See my “Waiver of Nausea” article if you are curious (http://beatsc.com/?p=11847).

If you don’t care (like a Honey Badger), then you can start right now enjoying another 42 UCLA Spirit Squad photos taken on Saturday.  Oh — One last note:  The BCS Championship Game will be an LSU-Alabama Rematch.  Probably a fair choice, considering LSU is the only undefeated team, and Alabama’s only loss is to LSU, in a very close game.  The only other choice was Oklahoma State, whose one loss was to unranked Iowa State.  I don’t like that the game pits two teams from the same Conference (for the first time ever), and I don’t like that the SEC is guaranteed YET ANOTHER BCS Title, but I don’t think Oklahoma State deserved to be catapulted over the Crimson Tide.   AND… I still think this BCS system is severely flawed, and that an 8-team Playoff would have solved everything, on the field.  This year, even a FOUR-team Playoff would have sufficed.  I’m looking forward to the day when computers and biased voters don’t pick the two Title contenders.

Now, speaking of Title Contenders, it’s time to feast your eyes on the OTHER BCS Champions — BCS standing for Beautiful Cheerleading Sweethearts.