This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A holiday wish for football teams and fans in the state of Utah is to again — one day, some day — play in a meaningful bowl game, a game of consequence that offers something beyond the contrived idea that beating Team X in the Lee's Snap-On Nails Bowl will somehow boost the program, will increase recruiting, will make the nation think more fondly of coach and players, and that, most importantly, will give fans a lasting memory and the team's seniors a proper sendoff.

Instead, the Foster Farms Bowl and the Poinsettia Bowl will have to do.

Ugh.

Those assignments will spin nobody's beanie, and, yeah, in large measure there's nobody to blame except for the coaches and teams themselves. In a sea of bowl games — a remarkable 40 now — the Utes and Cougars are lost at sea. These postseason rewards are being tossed to and fro among — and obscured by — the 30-foot swells of games such as the Quick Lane Bowl, the TaxSlayer Bowl, the Dollar General Bowl, the Belk Bowl, the Pinstripe Bowl, the Camellia Bowl, the Potato Bowl, the Cure Bowl, the New Orleans Bowl, the Military Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl, the Birmingham Bowl, the St. Petersburg Bowl, the Bahamas Bowl. And a whole lot more.

Back in the day, there were bowls — past the Rose and the Sugar and the Orange and the Cotton and the Fiesta — that weren't exactly famous, some of which sounded kind of funny, but at least they weren't buried under a thousand other useless games. Remember the Ice Bowl? The Ivy Bowl? The Pecan Bowl? The Aluminum Bowl? The Bean Bowl? The Cigar Bowl? The Corn Bowl? The Sunflower Bowl? The Tobacco Bowl? The Refrigerator Bowl? The Poultry Bowl? The Vulcan Bowl? The Oil Bowl? The Mercy Bowl? The Salad Bowl?

Me either.

But we all fondly recall the Bluebonnet Bowl, the Freedom Bowl, the Aloha Bowl, and the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, right?

Once upon a time, back in 1930, there was one bowl game: the Rose. Since then, there has been bowl inflation and bowl stagnation.

It used to be bowl games were supposed to be hard-earned bonuses for outstanding teams with outstanding seasons. This postseason, 21 teams with six or fewer wins will get their bonuses, including Utah's opponent in the Foster Farms, Indiana, which is 6-6. On account of the 80 slots to fill, teams with losing records will also be rewarded. It was three last year and it's three this time around.

What is this … T-ball?

Soon, there will be Otter Pops passed out and participation ribbons given.

Some say it's the nobody's-a-loser culture that has fallen upon college football. More likely, it's the if-there's-promotion-to-be-done-and-money-to-be-made-off-the-backs-of-amateur-athletes-then-let's-do-it culture.

Either way, coaches bragging about qualifying for a bowl game as some sort of demarcation between a truly successful season and a lousy one has been compromised and blurred.

Utah, its coaches, players and fans, cannot be excited about its postseason fate against that .500 Hoosier team after the glorious opportunities that stood in front of it in the final two weeks of the regular season. What a letdown. Brutal. Having a clear shot at the Rose Bowl and landing instead in the Foster Farms is the college football equivalent of having a chance at getting a hug from Princess Leia and ending up grappling with Jabba the Hut.

Now, the Utes are attempting to spin their diminished opportunity out from under all the layers and folds of blubber, talking about the benefits of playing in their recruiting footprint in Santa Clara, Calif., and having a bunch of extra practice days for the guys coming back.

The point is that their reward isn't really much of one.

As for BYU, the Poinsettia was going to be their reward, no matter what. One of the drawbacks of independence is that it chains the Cougars to everything or very little at all. It's a big bowl if they win all their games and it's bowls like the Poinsettia if they don't. Although, this season was a bit different given that it was Kalani Sitake's first year, and almost all BYU fans are operating under a notion in which the coach has been issued a temporary free pass. Wyoming in San Diego before Christmas, well … OK. That will change as expectations rise.

Point is this: When was the last time anyone around here was really excited about watching his or her team play in a bowl game? Last year's Vegas Bowl, featuring Utah and BYU, was a bit of an anomaly. But the rest of it has become humdrum.

So, in a turn of events, the regular season now is the best part of the football experience around here. The regular season is the real reward. For Utah, playing USC, UCLA, Washington, Arizona State and BYU is the pinnacle. For BYU, it's playing Utah, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Arizona and whomever else it can schedule. Those are the weekends to reach for the stars, to get captivated — the games in September and October. If the Utes ever get November figured out, the dynamic will change.

In the meantime, here we all are, wondering on a bigger scale if anyone can beat Alabama, and lost locally on a lower one, in a sea of Belk and Boca Raton and Bahamas bowls, in an ocean of who really gives a flying biscuit about what comes at the end. We'll pay attention, kind of, to the Foster Farms Bowl, the Poinsettia Bowl.

But, really … yawn, whatever.

See y'all next September.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on the Zone Sports Network, 97.5 FM and 1280 AM. Twitter: @GordonMonson.