I am confused. For many years, I have enjoyed watching bowl games. Most of the time, these bowls were played on New Year's Day. This meant starting in the morning with the Rose Bowl Parade. Football games and parades then extended into the night.

Occasionally, one of the bowl games would be played on another day, but in general New Year's Day, was the day for games and parades. The only diversion we received from football on New Year's Day was the eating of spareribs (traditional hog jowls were hard to find), black-eyed peas and collard greens.

As I recall, the New Year's ritual of bowl games was something that started before television. Most of us never had the chance to attend a bowl game, but we listened to them on the radio.

It is hard for people who are television-oriented to understand that one could enjoy a football game described to us by a radio announcer. But we were accustomed to listening and then letting our minds structure the spoken narrative into action.

To this day, I can get a mental picture of Ace Parker, who played for Duke University, running the length of the field for a touchdown. I still can almost hear the frantic voice of the announcer as the runner passed each line marker.

But all of that is in the past. No longer do we have to translate in our mind's eye the words of an announcer, for we can see the action as it happens.

And this is the point of my confusion. No longer do we have only four or five bowl games taking place.

Instead, we have what seems to be an indeterminate number.

For the information of younger readers, the bowl games that started all of this were the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl.

It was not until after World War II that a few other bowls, such as Tangerine, were started. Although there was no clear national college-football championship, the Rose Bowl was the one that sought the best college teams.

The winner, therefore, at least earned some bragging rights.

This is not necessarily true now, and I am confused. I really do not know the names of all the bowl games played and the teams who played in them.

Nor do I understand the system of selection. In the past, with only four or five bowl games being played, it was great honor to be chosen to participate. Selection as a participant was based on a team's record in its conference and how it stacked up with all other college teams in the nation.

With so many bowls now seeking teams to play, being invited to a bowl does not seem to be as great an achievement as was true in the past. Nor are they all played on New Year's Day.

There are many different bowls with various names.

The only bowl-game winner I remember this year is Louisville, who beat Wake Forest.

So to add to the confusion, I suggest we have a bowl game in Winston-Salem named the Tobacco Bowl. It should be played, not on New Year's Day, but rather in conjunction with the Dixie Classic Fair.