clear eyes, full hearts
Finally, a scientific way to rank college football bowl games: Even nonsensicalmatchups explained
With just over three minutes left on the clock and the home team down by two touchdowns, the game seemed lost, but the fans in the stands kept up hope, banners waving as hundreds of eyes stared, unblinking, at the ticking clock. Suddenly, it happens: A whirlwind of action, a perfectly planned series of plays and — boom — back on top.
But wait. Are we talking about Texas Tech's ’08 Gator Bowl comeback, or the beginning of the Dillon Panthers' three-game stint without star quarterback Smash in 2008?
Some Friday Night Lights fans prefer the series’ trademark dramatic tension to real sports action, but no matter your interest level, there’s no denying the show makes every game seem as big as the national championship game.
“I began making comparisons to players and situations in the football game we'd be watching to things that happened in FNL to make the watching experience more fun and engaging,” Treadway says.
Dan Treadway, a former editor at the University of Texas' Daily Texan, is currently the assistant sports editor at The Huffington Post and a contributor to The Onion Sports. As well-versed in professional matches as fictional ones (and with a onetime Texan’s nostalgic appreciation for the tiny town of Dillon), it’s only natural that he’s got opinions on the way the Panthers' epic showdowns match up to the battles we’ll be watching in college football this year — including the national title game tilt between LSU and Alabama.
So Teadway set about what he himself readily admits is the "nonsensical" task of comparing every one of college football bowl's games to plot lines from Friday Night Lights.
“I began this series basically because I moved to New York from Texas in the fall and, as a result, wasn't surrounded by people obsessed with college football,” Treadway says.
“As a result, I often had to bring friends who weren't really familiar with the sport to bars to watch games with me. Eventually I was talking with one of my friends during a game, and he mentioned that he had just finished watching the third season of Friday Night Lights on Netflix, and that's sort of where the idea took off.”
You can read the first part of the series, which covers the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, MAACO Las Vegas Bowl, Poinsettia Bowl and more, right here; the second installment covers the Belk Bowl, the Military Bowl and others.
“I began making comparisons to players and situations in the football game we'd be watching to things that happened in FNL to make the watching experience more fun and engaging,” Treadway says.
“It was kind of a fun way to connect my favorite TV show and my favorite pastime, so when bowl season rolled around I decided to cater to the niche audience of Friday Night Lights fans who may or may not like college football by writing this up. It's been a fun writing challenge to be sure, and it's my little way of paying homage to a TV show that I thought was pretty special.”
Whether Friday Night Lights' on-the-field action is accurate or not, one thing’s for sure — those college teams definitely don’t get pregame pep talks as powerful as this:
