If a college football bowl game starts long before noon can it still be called a classic?

Officially the New Orleans Bowl doesn’t hold the phrase classic in its title, though some like to put the word after every college football postseason contest.

The Rose Bowl is a classic. Same with the Sugar and Orange.

The Fiesta Bowl, not so fast. Let’s give it a few more years with the big boys. I don’t remember too many of those games starting with a 10 a.m. kickoff, unless you watched them in Hawaii maybe.

Yet this December, just five days short of Christmas, the city of New Orleans will have a gift for a pair of teams from the Sun Belt and Mountain West conferences.

A few days ago the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation made the official announcement about the game’s start time.

You get the feeling that ESPN had a lot to do with the time of the kickoff, as the network is once again going to do the broadcast. The Superdome will be the site again as well.

The SEC Network would never think of such a thing like putting one of its teams on the morning much-watch list.

I have heard the phrase “Breakfast at Wimbledon” so maybe mornings work. The New Orleans Bowl should try marketing the game as the Bayou Brunch.

The event does give the Big Easy two bowl games a year, or at least since 2001. That’s not a bad thing for college football fans in the state or surrounding area.

But those fans planning on attending will have to rub the sleep out of their eyes to get a good view of this game.

Let’s face it, a good portion of the folks who go to bowl games in New Orleans spend their nights out late, so this could be a tough one for some fans to make. I would imagine more than a few might just stagger over from Bourbon Street about the same time the sun starts coming up.

We could be on to something here. A few Bloody Marys before kickoff could be a real eye opener.

The early start probably won’t be too much trouble for the fans from the Sun Belt team, since Louisiana-Lafayette has made the bowl game part of its holiday tradition. The Ragin Cajuns have won the last three such games, including last year’s over Tulane.

By getting two in-state schools to play, the game drew a record crowd of 54,728, making it the best attended of any non-BCS bowl. It was the third straight year the contest has broken crowd records.

Of course none of those games were played mostly before lunch.

Still, there could be a marketing advantage here. Since the game is so close to Christmas, folks who attend will still have most of the last Saturday before Santa’s visit to hit the shopping malls.

Or head back to Bourbon Street if they prefer a little late lunch.

The Mountain West invite may not be so excited about that. Most of them are on Pacific Time, meaning it will be an 8 a.m. start on their body clocks.

If somehow the Rainbow Warriors of the University of Hawaii were to get the invite their fans would have to get up at 5 a.m. to watch the game.

I guess ESPN isn’t worried about that demographic.

None of this will likely matter, especially if the Cajuns do find their way back to the Superdome. It’s only two hours from Lafayette to New Orleans so leaving town by 6 a.m. will get those Cajun fans into the stadium long before kickoff and with breakfast already in their bellies.

What more could a football fan ask for.

It could make for a classic morning after all.(MGNonline)