Illinois Gets Stomped But Tradition Survives

I’m sure a lot of critics and pundits out there will be second-guessing the Rose Bowl committee’s decision to invite Illinois to play in Pasadena following USC’s 49-17 rout yesterday, but it’s good to see that at least some traditions survive in this crazy, mixed up world of ours. The Granddaddy of all Bowl games is about more than winning and losing, you see, the annual meeting of Big 10 and Pac-10 football teams is a key part of what makes America great.

The grand panorama of our national fabric is made all the richer each year waking on New Year’s Day to see the Big 10 representative, fresh off a grueling and bone crushing schedule of smashmouth football, get its behind stomped by the “weaker” Pac-10 team that uses guile and speed and cunning to best the competition. The Rose Bowl is a chance for a bunch of corn-fed football fans and boosters from the Midwest to take a holiday to the coast, to marvel at the warm weather, and then have their hopes of victory crushed once again.

The cycle of life, you see, can’t be stopped by BCS computers and some notion of competitive pairings. The Rose Bowl serves as both a reward for the hard working farmers in America’s breadbasket, as well as reminder that the Left Coast will always reign supreme over the Midwest. To stand in the way of that tradition would be unpatriotic.

Illinois Gets Stomped But Tradition Survives and related information can be found in Illinois Fighting Illini, NCAA Football, USC Trojans