Florida State vs. Colorado ... were it the early '90s, we might be talking Sugar Bowl or somesuch. Were it a couple of years ago, we might be talking more along the lines of, like the Music City Bowl. This year ... well, even with Colorado coming off a rousing victory over West Virginia and their hilariously overmatched head coach and a neutral site to appease fans of both stripes (ok, not really, but more on this later), it looks like Jacksonville's caught a case of ACC Championship fever months in advance. Meaning that these two above-average (maybe?) squads are going to play in front of thousands and thousands of empty seats/uninterested fans.
Maybe it isn't news, other than that Florida State seems downright surprised by the fact that it hasn't been the same draw as last year's tilt in JAX with Alabama. I know both schools tend to have reputations that would lead one to believe that any excuse to take a long weekend would be taken advantage of, but that's before you factor in an economic crisis that has Bobby Bowden-aged politician running to the hills, Florida State suffering a 12-3 defeat at home to Wake Forest that was somehow more deflating than the 30-0 loss two years previous and, oh yeah, it's in September against a school that's thousands of miles away. Hopefully, this won't discourage BCS vs. BCS in-season matchups, but between Cal sleepwalking their way through the Maryland game and Tennessee doing the same vs. UCLA, it's easy to see squads being a little gunshy in the future.