I'm sitting here at my brother's place in San Diego and can't help but overhear his various phone conversations with friends in excitement about the Poinsettia Bowl.  A friend, through business contacts, now has several tickets in his possession and is looking for some company to the game.

Enter my brother (a University of Illinois alum), who is now eagerly calling other friends to get a nonpartisan group together to check out Northern Illinois' battle against TCU in a few weeks.

Sounds like fun.

I haven't been to the _{San Diego County Credit Union} Poinsettia Bowl as of yet, but I scored tickets to the Holiday Bowl a few years back between Colorado and Washington.  The Buffaloes had the forgettable Koy Detmer at quarterback, and their big star in the game was snicker bar eating, trunk hiding, unborn baby and girlfriend shooting Rae Carruth.  Yeah...

Ralphie running onto the field was a highlight, to go along with the general excitement of the game.  I remember Husky bigbody back Corey Dillon taking a kickoff back for a touchdown.  Hey, he used to be fast back in the day, strange as it sounds.  The game was a good one, as expected, given that the Holiday Bowl has a strong tradition of exciting games, even when the matchups aren't all that compelling.

Anyway, the city really has a good time with the bowl, organizes a 5k race and downtown parade among other things.  Fans can party all over town, particularly in the beach cities or the Gaslamp area downtown, as well as checking out the Zoo/Wild Animal Park/Sea World and the beach/mountains/desert/Mexico/Orange County/Los Angeles all in the same general vicinity and Las Vegas a 4-5 hour drive away.

Fun times.

I'm sure the festivities are quite similar for the Poinsettia Bowl.

So although I've criticized certain new bowl games (Birmingham, Alabama?!), they're great events for the cities and their residents---at least when the cities and their residents can offer up things to do besides the game.