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Peterson: Too many bowl games

It’s that time of the year for good cheer, family get-togethers, sales and, of course, the football bowl season.

Every business, from Chuckie Cheese to Los Dos Amigos has a name in its so-called honor between next week and some time after New Year.

There are a total of 52 bowls in all.

Of course, any self-respecting sports fan knows the only bowl that really counts is the one they play for the mythical national championship.

Now, the national championship game at least decides who really is No. 1 in the nation … and it has produced some really good games since it started five years ago.

The average margin in the semifinal games leading to the big game is something like 22 points.

All of the rest of the bowls mean very little, except a payout for the teams involved. That’s not a small factor since a good payout can put bucks in the university coffers.

Take Michigan State’s invitation to the Pin Stripe Bowl or the one in Detroit (I haven’t decided what they named that one). I just call it the Motown Bowl.

The Spartans, who went through a dismal season, had to kick a last-minute field goal to nip a 3-9 Maryland team to even reach the .500 mark.

And they had to struggle the game before that to an even worse Rutgers team.

State coach Mark Dantonio has had a nice run in East Lansing with 12 bowl appearances and three in the Big 10 championship game. He’ll probably avoid being fired after the season ends

They even made it to the Big Four game, where they were blown out by Alabama, 38-0.

Of course, ‘Bama does that to most teams it runs into, and could almost certainly could play in the National Football League.

Being a lifelong MSU fan, I would hate to see MSU draw one of those mid-major teams like Appalachian State. Just ask the University of Michigan about Appalachian State.

It’s been a long enough season to have to endure the indignity of yet another galling defeat.

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