Ah, bowl season. That magical time of year when championships are decided, exotic getaways are planned ... and game tickets by the thousand sit unused.

The stated goal of the Bowl Championship Series was to determine, without a playoff, an uncontested national champion. But while Florida vs. Oklahoma may have been the sexy (if not altogether fair - right, Texas?) choice to decide who’s No. 1, the BCS is also consistently churning a considerably less appealing by-product: some really lousy secondary matchups.

Take the Sugar Bowl, for instance - please. Alabama was an obvious choice as an invitee, since the Sugar and the SEC have had a relationship for decades and the Tide is 12-1 with a dedicated, ready-to-travel fan base.

And their opponent? Why, Utah, of course.

Excuse me? How many fans of the Utes are going to make it to New Orleans (which isn’t entirely reminiscent of Salt Lake City, if you think about it) to see their team take on a decided favorite?

Meanwhile, Texas and Ohio State get together in a Fiesta Bowl which will probably invoke the Buckeyes’ last trip to Arizona - a 41-14 demolition at the hands of Florida in the BCS title game two years ago.

Would it have been too much to ask to instead have Texas play Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, while sending Utah to play OSU in the Fiesta? The Utes and their followers would obviously have been much closer to home, and for pure tradition it’s hard to top the Longhorns and Tide getting together.

Granted, a Penn State-USC Rose Bowl isn’t half-bad (hey, someone from the Big Ten has to take a thrashing from the Trojans), and Ole Miss is likely to give Texas Tech a good run in the Cotton Bowl - a game and venue which, of course, used to mean something.

But then there’s the poor Orange Bowl, saddled with yet another dreary Big East-ACC duel. Louisville-Wake Forest was bad enough two years ago, but Cincinnati-Virginia Tech could be worse still. And if Hokies fans show the same support in this one as they did the ACC title game in Tampa - namely, not much - there might be high school state championship games at Dolphin Stadium that draw comparably to this.

Tampa’s Outback Bowl isn’t exactly a pulsating match either, with organizers relegated to taking the obvious draw - Steve Spurrier and South Carolina, in what was a truly down year for the SEC - and matching them with Iowa. Neither team is particularly good, and it’s hard to imagine the local populace racing out of bed on New Year’s Day morning to make an 11 a.m. kickoff.

All this said, there are more January bowls which are intriguing: Clemson and Nebraska have a chance in the Gator Bowl to show they’re both truly on the rebound, while Georgia and Michigan State collide in what should be a Capital One Bowl shootout.

But for those of us who grew up with great matchups on New Year’s (and beyond), we simply have to pick our spots this time around.

It’s getting to be an unfortunate habit.