What time New Year’s Day Bowl Games?

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If you’re on auto-pilot New Year’s Day morning after having fun the night before like most of America, you will stumble over to your TV and turn it on expecting to see the dazzling floats and energetic marching bands of the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade.

Instead, you’re going to think you forgot what day it was.

Check the calendar: no, you were right, it IS January 1. But it’s a Sunday, which means the traditional New Year’s Day schedule will wait until Monday.

The Tournament of Roses Parade never takes place on a Sunday.

The Rose Parade is never held on Sunday. Every five to 11 years when New Year’s Day falls on Sunday, the Rose Parade is held back one day until Monday, January 2. This last happened in 2006.

There won’t be any college football games to speak of on New Year’s Day, either. The six bowl games usually scheduled for New Year’s Day will also be pushed back to Monday. This year marks the 14^th time that the Rose Parade and the games have been moved to Monday.

Oregon Ducks fans will have to wait to see their team in action against the Wisconsin Badgers until Monday, January 9. Photo GoDucks.com

So, you might as well go outside and get started on that “I’m going to lose weight” New Year’s resolution.

But don’t blame the NFL. The Rose Parade prohibition on stepping out on a Sunday goes back to the early days of the parade in the 1890s. Parade organizers were concerned the parade activity would spook horses tied up outside churches along the parade route and disrupt services because of the noise.

When the Rose Bowl football game was initiated several decades later, it followed the Rose Parade’s lead. So did the Sugar and Orange Bowls, then the Cotton Bowl, and then the Fiesta Bowl.

Although this is nothing new, Rose Parade organizers say people will still show up along the parade route in Pasadena this year on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, wondering when the parade is going to start.

You can see the 123^rd 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade on Monday morning, January 2, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Time on your local ABC or NBC network station; on cable channels HGTV and The Hallmark Channel; Sky Link TV; and with Spanish language commentary on Univision. This lifelong Southern Californian recommends The Hallmark Channel, which carries the Los Angeles-based KTLA coverage featuring Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards in high definition.

While you’re watching, join Communities’ Terry Ponick here online for interactive live chat and your commentary of the bands, floats, equestrian units and more.

Don’t tune in to see the Rose Bowl Game until January 9.

Promoters of the New Year’s Day bowl games are doing their best to alert fans they can sleep in and sleep off their hangovers before seeing their favorite teams in action through the week. With the Bowl Championship Series dragging out the schedule, viewers are likely to be completely confused as to what the schedule for 2012’s games will be.

Here are the times for Monday’s games:

Monday, January 2, 2012

TicketCity Bowl: Houston vs. Penn State
12 Noon, ESPNU

Outback Bowl: Michigan State vs. Georgia.
1 p.m., ABC

Capital One Bowl: Nebraska vs. South Carolina
1 p.m.m ESPN

Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl: Ohio State vs. Florida
1 p.m., ESPN2

Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio: Wisconsin vs. Oregon
5 p.m., ESPN

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Stanford vs. Oklahoma State
8:30 p.m., ESPN

by Gayle Falkenhall for the Washington Times