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Alabama, Ohio State begin Sugar Bowl week unlike any other before
NEW ORLEANS -- The strange paradoxical nature of the new college football event to be played here Thursday is exemplified on the signage dotting Canal Street and other pedestrian thoroughfares here this week.
One half says: “Playoff Semifinal.” The other half is the Allstate Sugar Bowl logo.
So which is it? A playoff game or a bowl game?
The Sugar Bowl folks are certainly treating it as the latter. On a rainy tarmac at Louis Armstrong International Airport Saturday afternoon, first Ohio State (in a gigantic United 747 double-decker charter) and then Alabama (in a more modest-sized National Airlines charter) arrived to a receiving line of graying/balding gentlemen in navy Sugar Bowl blazers and a six-piece brass band.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer smiled and shook a few hands, then made it abundantly clear at a brief press conference how he views the event.
“It’s a playoff game,” he said. “It’s a much different feel than a normal bowl game. You just hear the term ‘playoff,” and you know, this is not it. There’s one more [game].”
“We’re taking the playoff approach to it,” said Buckeyes defensive lineman Adolphus Washington. “It’s a different mentality for a bowl because we’ve got two things to play for in the playoff system.”
Meyer’s Alabama counterpart, Nick Saban, was a bit more diplomatic to his Sugar bowl hosts, thanking them in advance for the coming week of hospitality. Alabama, mind you, played here just last year against Oklahoma and in fact has appeared in the New Orleans bowl more times than any other school (14).
Heisman finalist Amari Cooper said the Tide’s preparations don’t feel much different than for last year’s Sugar Bowl. (Alabama fans might not be thrilled to hear that, given the Sooners won the game.)
The fact is this is uncharted territory for both of these teams and for Rose Bowl participants Oregon and Florida State. On the one hand, it’s a traditional bowl game in that the teams arrived nearly a week early and will partake in various off-field activities. Out in California, the Ducks visited Disneyland on Saturday. Here in New Orleans, Buckeyes and Tide players will inevitably spend at least a couple of nights taking in Bourbon Street and the French Quarter.
On the other hand -- it’s a PLAYOFF, damnit. Win or go home.
Meyer said that over the summer he contemplated “splitting up the staff” and having some of his assistants start scouting the potential championship game opponents if the Buckeyes made it here. That’s what basketball staffs do during the NCAA tournament. They didn’t end up doing it, though.
“You just don’t have the manpower,” he said. ”We’re treating this like a one- game season. … If you’re playing the No. 1 team [Alabama], you don’t have time to worry about anything else but playing them.”
And of course Saban, preacher of The Process, is not going to cop to thinking about the Ducks or Seminoles.
“I sort of look at this a little bit like you’re in the NFL playoffs,” said the former NFL head coach and assistant. “You’ve got a game this week. It’s the only game that matters because if you don’t have success in that game, it won’t matter after that. …
“If you have success, then you worry about the next game. It’s all about this game.”
Ever since the BCS’ inception in the late ‘90s, the sport’s leaders have attempted to have it both ways -- stage a national championship but keep it within the confines of the bowl system, an industry that views itself more as a tourism vehicle than a competitive arena. That decades-old marriage has become even more forced now that four teams are playing to advance to something beyond their bowl games.
One thing that does make this a bowl game: Tens of thousands of Ohio State and Alabama fans will descend on the streets here this week to soak up a little bit of New Orleans’ never-ending party. But at least Saban won’t have to worry about his star receiver getting caught up in it.
“No disrespect to the place, but I don’t really like New Orleans,” Cooper said about 10 minutes after arriving (he was here last year). “There’s too much going on. I don’t really like Bourbon Street. It doesn’t smell good.”
Cooper said he plans to stay mostly in the team’s hotel.
Welcome to bowl week -- or as the official vernacular here dictates, 2015 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl week.
Stewart Mandel is a senior college sports columnist for FOXSports.com. He covered college football and basketball for 15 years at Sports Illustrated. His new book, "The Thinking Fan's Guide to the College Football Playoff," is now available on Amazon. You can follow him on Twitter @slmandel. Send emails and Mailbag questions to Stewart.Mandel@fox.com.
