The city is excited that in the post-season arrangement of college football games, New Orleans gets the two biggest contests. On January 1, the Sugar Bowl features Georgia versus Hawaii, the only unbeaten team in the “big” division of the NCAA. Georgia has lost two games but many people call them the toughest team going right now. They want to prove that, while Hawaii wants to show they can play with the big boys.

Because of their unblemished record, Hawaii claims it should be in the BCS championship game which will be held in the same arena, the Louisiana Superdome, on January 7. That game features LSU against Ohio State.

The two biggest games of the season, and we’ve got them. On Tuesday after the Sugar Bowl, the Georgia/Hawaii guests will be leaving town the same day the LSU/Ohio State people are arriving. Look for gridlock.

I said to my dentist, “So, who are you pulling for on January 7?” The framed certificates all over his walls bely his Ohio State roots.

“Not even close,” he said.

I pointed out that I’m from the state of Alabama, but pulled for LSU against the Crimson Tide this year.

He said, “But you didn’t attend Alabama.” Nope. Birmingham-Southern. But we didn’t have a football team, and Bear Bryant had just arrived as the Alabama coach, so we all adopted the Tide and quickly became ardent supporters. I’ve gone to many of the Alabama games and have my own Bear Bryant stories.

“Not the same thing,” he said. “When you live on campus and the Saturday football game is the biggest thing going and you sit in the freezing stands with your sweetheart and your fraternity brothers–you are forever bonded.”

I guess so.

The city is excited about the opportunity of hosting these two sell-out games back to back, as they bring in untold thousands of people with millions of dollars to spend. The Superdome’s Doug Thornton says, “We’ve got 32,000 hotel rooms opened for business. We’ve got close to 900 restaurants up and going, which is more than we had before Katrina. The airport is on the move. It’s now doing 80 percent of the business it did before the storm. The museums are open. The St. Charles Avenue streetcars are running. You can go on and on. The Big Easy is back on track.”

All of which makes more puzzling the decision of the commission on presidential debates (I’m not capitalizing it since I’m not certain of their exact name) a few weeks ago to skip New Orleans as one of the sites for the ’08 debates. They opted instead for Oxford, Mississippi. We have no problem with Oxford–who doesn’t like that wonderful little city–but what irked everyone down here were the comments of the members of the commission in rejecting us. They said things like “New Orleans isn’t capable of handling an event of this magnitude” and “We love New Orleans and we really wanted to hold one of the debates here, but the city just isn’t ready.”

Everyone yelled foul. Most of the presidential candidates of both parties complained that this was a lousy decision. Even the New York Times wrote an editorial lambasting the decision. To my knowledge, no one is accusing the commission of having been bought off. Only of ignorance and wrong-headedness.

You’ll find this interesting.

This week LSU presented their budget for the BCS championship game to their board of supervisors, what they expect it to cost to bring the team and band and cheerleaders and university officials to New Orleans–it’s all of 80 miles down I-10, you know–and put them up for several days, as well as all the related expenses. How does $3.1 million sound to you?

The money comes from the BCS allotment to SEC teams, from a travel allocation from the BCS for the two teams in the game, and from the Tiger Athletic Foundation.

And what does $3.1 million buy? The biggest item in this budget will be $1.4 million in payouts to coaches and athletic staff. Evidently they have clauses in their contracts guaranteeing them bonuses for national championship games. Travel and meal costs for everyone involved came to $602,300. The rest was spread out over operating services, supplies, and such. When all is said and done, the athletic committee of the LSU Board of Supervisors estimates the university will realize a profit from the championship game in the neighborhood of $379,000.

Wonder what the costs would be if they all had to fly to New Orleans? Wonder if Ohio State will end up going in the red? And what about Hawaii with the great distance involved?

Someone said Friday night that in most bowl games, teams actually lose money. We read in the sports pages of the payouts for various bowls, a million here, five million there, and we conclude these games are funding the athletic programs of the various schools. Evidently not. The big payoff seems to be in alumni enthusiasm–which always translates into greater contributions–and the boost such games give to recruiting. “Don’t you want to play for the team that won the SEC last year? And was on national television five times?”

Speaking of Friday night, the directors of missions for this end of the state were treated to a Christmas supper at the LSU-est restaurant in the state, T. J. Ribs of Baton Rouge. Football and other sports memorabilia is everywhere in that place. The Baptist state convention’s Mike/Linda Canady and Larry/Pat Badon were hosts for us and our wives. If you like baby back ribs, that’s the place. If you like great fellowship, those are the people. (It’s great when you work with people you really like.)

We are now assured that LSU coach Les Miles is “ours” until 2012. Winning football games made “us” want him and several million dollars a year (and an enthusiastic fan base) made him want “us.” I’m not complaining, I like the guy. Just commenting. Let’s face it, he earned every dime of it.

Some of us can remember when Jackie Sherrill came from Texas A&M to Mississippi State and was given a multi-year contract worth a million dollars. Every editor in the country jumped all over this, carping about the skewed values of our society, and wondering where this kind of salary inflation would lead. We now know. It led to where we are today.

So you have coaches like Alabama’s Nick Saban getting several million a year to produce a 6-6 season. If they lose the bowl game in Shreveport, they’ll have a losing season. If I’m not mistaken, Saban’s team posted the same record as Mike Shula’s last year, yet they ushered him out of town. I read somewhere Shula is coaching the quarterbacks for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and that most of his salary is being paid by Alabama.

One last example on the craziness of these things. The star centerfielder of the Atlanta Braves for the past decade, Andruw Jones, who had the worst year of his career last year, batting .222, signed a two-year contract with the L.A. Dodgers for something like $16 million a year. Go figure.

The world is losing its mind right before our eyes.

Well, it can’t get any worse, so I might as well give you the joke of the week. Someone told this last Saturday at Jack’s Hamburgers in Double Springs when nine of our classmates from the 1958 graduating class of WCHS got together.

Chelsea Clinton asked the handsome young Marine she’s been dating, “Is there anyone you are afraid of?”

He said, “I’m afraid of three people: Osama, Obama, and yo’ mama!”

Check out the “10 Things to Know About Romans” at www.joemckeever.com. We keep adding to it. We’re up to the first five things to know about Romans, which will keep you occupied for a while. Still working on the cartoons; they’ll be posted soon.