At the end of every college football season, athletes gear up for their final games, coaches prepare for the bowl season, and fans flock to see their favorite teams play.

Well, except that last part.

You see, this bowl season, fans aren't flocking so much as they are nesting, and bowl games are getting hurt because of it. Blame the economic landscape and high prices. This year's bowl season just won't be like it used to.

Signs of frugality are everywhere. Ticket sales are down for most every bowl. Travel packages are sitting around collecting dust. Fan gear is staying right on the shelf, thank you very much. This bowl season is unlike any other due to its lack of excess. Where is the pomp and circumstance? Where is the rabid fandom? Where is the money? (That last question was submitted by the chairman of the Humanitarian Bowl).

And it's not like all of these bowls can stand a year or two without support. These games have names like the Emerald Bowl and the EagleBank Bowl - long on originality, short on credibility and usefulness. If no one shows up to these games, these games might not show up on the schedule after this season. Hundred-thousand dollar losses don't go over too well in Emerald Bank land.

For a better look at just what some of these bowls are facing, let's examine the case of our friends at the Humanitarian Bowl. The H-Bowl, as it's affectionately called by locals and non-wordsmiths, began back in 1997, is played in Boise, Idaho, and sponsored by Roady's truck stops (of which there are none in the Boise area). The home team, the Boise State Broncos, has played there multiple times, which was great for the bowl game and great for the local economy. However, the H-Bowl let the Broncos go this bowl season so that BSU could play in a more prestigious, less truck-stop-sponsored bowl down in San Diego, and the Humanitarian got a matchup between Nevada and Maryland as a result.

Bummer.

Nevada put together a decent season, winning seven games behind one of the most exciting quarterbacks in the West. Maryland was in the thick of the ACC title race on the East Coast before falling at the end. The game could very well be an exciting contest between two schools with very different styles of play.

Not that anyone from either Nevada or Maryland cares to see it.

Ticket sales for the Humanitarian Bowl are lagging, which is putting it nicely. Each school is allotted at least 3,000 tickets to sell to their local fan base. In a perfect world, these tickets would be snatched up immediately by players' families, students, and season ticket holders. But in the very imperfect world of the Humanitarian Bowl, this is not happening, and how.

Maryland has sold less than 1,000 tickets to the game. Nevada has sold about 100. Can you feel that Humanitarian Bowl excitement? It's contagious! (But ultimately, easily remedied by DayQuil.)

What is the H-Bowl to do? Bowl organizers have pinned their hopes on local Boise residents, planning on the allure of "hey, look, football!" to draw in about 20,000 or so non-partisan fans. Boiseans have done it before. They don't mind braving the cold so long as there'll be hot dogs and legalized violence. This is also why the roller derby is so big there.

The Humanitarian Bowl is one of several smaller bowls struggling to get tickets sold and seats filled. In tough economic times, people have decided against traveling and supporting their team, and they instead have opted for sitting at home, supporting their team.

The big bowls aren't immune, either. Word spread quickly last week about ticket prices for the Orange Bowl, which is one of college football's most prestigious bowl games. As one of the five games that are involved in the BCS selection process, the Orange Bowl is a huge money-maker and one of the biggest bowls in all the land. Try telling that to stubhub.

The online ticket agency is selling tickets for three dollars...OBO. Three dollars is unheard of for a college bowl game. These days, three dollars is unheard of for a high school football game! But that's what the Orange Bowl finds itself with: game tickets for less than a game program.

The root of the problem could be traced to a number of different factors. First and foremost is the economy. That sucker is rough, and it undoubtedly has a say on what happens with the bowls. No money, no 50-dollar midfield seats. But who can pass up three-buck nosebleeds? The only thing you have to sacrifice for those is a night out at Wendy's.

Another factor bunching the Orange Bowl's pants is the two teams involved. While the other big bowls get matchups like Oklahoma vs. Florida and Penn State vs. USC, the Orange Bowl will have Cincinnati (yes, they have a football team) and Virginia Tech (no, they aren't fun to watch) duking it out to the delight of people with direct ties to Cincinnati and Virginia Tech - and no one else. When you look at the teams, three dollars might be high-priced.

Yet despite the doom-and-gloom forecast of ticket sales at bowls around the country, the Grim Reaper doesn't seem to be partying with any of these bowls. They'll survive.

What gives? Small attendance means small gate receipts, and small gate receipts mean terrified bowl organizers. But these organizers have been around second-rate, chotchky bowl games forever. They don't need people watching their bowl game for it to be profitable. The economics of bowl games is like the Twilight Zone of sports.

Bowl games make their money off of bowl sponsors and television contracts. And bowl sponsors and TV sets don't buy tickets. Games make deals with advertisers months (and sometimes, years) before the actual game is played, meaning that they could basically set their budget in the college football preseason, well before the bowls have played. TV contracts are set early, too, so that the networks can plan what games they'll be airing and when the games will run.

One of the bowl games' biggest coups is bowl sponsorship. Almost everyone has noticed this phenomenon creeping into the bowl schedule. The Capital One Bowl is sponsored by Capital One (obviously). The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl has the backing of chips. Nearly every bowl has a title sponsor that hands out thousands to be attached to the game.

Fine by bowl organizers. The money from the sponsors, advertisers, and TV execs keeps these bowls afloat.

And at times like these, this type of money flow is more important than ever. No one might be going to bowl games, but that doesn't mean that bowl games are going anywhere. Disappointing ticket sales aren't good, yet they aren't the end of the world. So long as the bowl games have their sugar daddy sources of dough pumping life into them, the bowls will be pumping life into the holiday season.

Well, maybe not "life." But at least, Humanitarianism.

References

• yahoo.com
• idahostatesman.com

Give a little at Christmas, if you have anything left to give.

No doubt all of us would like to put on our best Bill and Melinda Gates hats (the derby and beret, as it were) and give generously to charities of our choice. But let's get serious. Nowadays it is hard enough to scrounge for $4.00 milk. Giving to charities has got to come secondary to soaking our Cocoa Puffs.

But should it?

One of the most recognizable persons around Christmas time, after Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman and Matt Lauer, is that of the Salvation Army bell ringer. Every Christmas he faithfully rings his bell and makes sure-fire eye contact outside of stores and malls nationwide. He is a staple of the holiday season. Yet for some reason, I figured he would have taken this year off with the economy the way it is. But no, he is still outside of my favorite Best Buy, braving the cold for my pocket change. The spending habits of Americans may have changed, but the persistence of the Salvation Army bell ringers has not. Which begs the question: who is giving to him?

To be honest, it is not me. I'll gladly hide behind the excuse of my ATM/debit card as a reason why I have nothing monetary to give (on that note: I hope they don't set up credit terminals strapped to those red pots next year). And I'll gladly find the most circuitous route around the bell ringer so as to minimize my own internal struggle between charity and Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle.

And I know I'm not the only one Scrooge-ing it up outside of Macy's. I've seen all different styles of donation avoidance. There is the fast walker, the fake cell phone talker, the apologetic "Sorry, no change" guy, the couple who sneaks in behind someone who actually put money into the kettle pot. If there are so many of us not giving money to the Salvation Army guy, then one has to wonder who is. Even more, what about all the charities that exist in places not in our immediate path to the mall? The Salvation Army is just one of thousands. I'm pretty sure I can't use the debit card excuse on all of them.

With money being tight, many different charities are struggling to stay afloat. There are soup kitchens that are running out of soup and care houses that are running out of clothes. When the economy goes down, the giving of others goes right down with it, and that ends up hurting the people and businesses that depend on that help.

So what is a money-wise consumer to do? If citizens were to succumb to every noble and virtuous opportunity that came across their path, there is no chance that they could feasibly support or reply to each one. People are doing what they need to do in order to survive in a tough economy, and it seems like charities are one of the places that we have deemed expendable. But take a closer look at the budget or the expenses, and there is a good chance that you can find something extraneous or unnecessary. We might think that we have scrimped and saved down to the last penny, but that is usually because we are considering necessities to be those things that are not necessarily necessary.

That's one way to find a little extra to give away this Christmas. Here's another: go without a certain something around the holidays. Perhaps your budget really is pared down to the nitty-gritty, and there is no room for so much as a RedBox of a splurge. In that case, if you really feel that giving is important, maybe it would be appropriate to sacrifice something of your own so that others can benefit. For instance, if you depend on a weekly meal out at a restaurant, try dining in for the month of December and sending the saved cash to a local shelter or stuffing it into a Salvation Army pot (so that other, less charitable people can sneak past behind you, naturally). What a blessing it would be to think of others before yourself this holiday season, and what a lesson it would set for others.

One of the best solutions on how to solve the giving situation is to give of yourself and to give of your time. Take money out of the equation completely, and you still have plenty of ways that you can spread holiday cheer to others. Too often we associate charity with writing a check or dropping change in a jar; meanwhile, places could just as easily use a helping hand as they could an Alexander Hamilton. Don't believe me? Head on down to a soup kitchen and stand back in amazement as volunteers scurry back and forth at a frenetic pace doing the work of three people. Actually, don't stand back. Get in there and help. Standing would be pretty rude.

The only problem with this plan is that we will actually have to get our hands dirty. Ew. A lot of times, sending money is easy because you can end the relationship with a stamped envelope. Once the check has been written, you're done. Not so with volunteering. You are putting your time and energy on the line, and you run the risk of building relationships and impacting people's lives. Think about it: instead of buying the paint, you'll be the one applying the paint. And you're sure to find the experience all kinds of rewarding.

There is no better feeling than to know that you have made a difference in someone's life. And there is no better time to make a difference than around the holidays. If you're not sure where to start, try searching online for charities in your area or asking your local chamber of commerce or a local church for ideas. The opportunities are out there, you just have to want to go find them.

You may not have money to spend on charity this holiday season, and that's alright. That Salvation Army bell ringer is sure to be back next year. But you can find other ways to give, and I guarantee that it will make brushing off the Salvation Army jar a whole lot easier.

Imagine yourself waking up on Christmas morning to a tree full of presents. You anxiously approach the treasure trove in eager anticipation of what goodies await you inside the perfectly wrapped packages. With your family and friends surrounding you, you pick out a beautifully wrapped gift from under the tree and delicately pull off the wrapping paper.

Then you open up the box to find ...

... a macaroni necklace and two coupons for a back massage.

Welcome to Christmas 2008 in a recessed, depressed economy. This holiday season might be unlike any other holiday season you can remember, for money is tight, jobs are scarce, and there is no bailout in sight for that two-page Christmas list your daughter just handed you. And where do people tend to turn when times are tough? I mean, besides the McDonald's Dollar Menu? Homemade gifts, of course!

Nothing says "You shouldn't have" like an itchy knit scarf, yet many Christmas shoppers this holiday season will find knitting and crafting and creating to be a fine alternative to spending money. Homemade gifts are sure to be the rage, as our economy dictates. Per Christmas tradition, there must be gifts to open around the holidays, and if those gifts can't be bought with money, then it looks like they'll have to be made with love.

The crux of the gift-giving issue really does come down to money. Everyone enjoys giving gifts and receiving gifts, so there will be no stopping us from cramming our fake, plastic trees with presents. But whereas in years past when folks were making more money or not foreclosing on their homes, this year the process of gift buying is an exercise in frugality. And homeliness is winning.

Homemade gifts seem like the best solution when it comes to the gift-giving to friends and relatives. Rather than go out and spend hundreds on individual presents for everyone you know, it is far more cost-conscious to bake a batch of cookies and hope they're not stale by the time your friend opens them. Making a gift yourself would cost a fraction of what it does to buy a gift in a store. The quickest and easiest way to save money around the holidays is channeling your inner Martha Stewart, rolling up your sleeves, and making gifts for everyone on your list.

Even better, a homemade gift can mean so much more than a store-bought item. The thought and time and attention put into making a gift by hand cannot be replaced, especially by something that has a Wal-Mart price tag on it, no matter how Rolled Back the price was. Handmade gifts can be cherished much longer than other gifts, and knowing that someone went to the extra effort for you truly makes you feel special.

So it's easy, right? Handmade gifts are the way to go this holiday season.

Well, not so fast.

There is no denying the attractiveness of inexpensive, handmade presents for the gift giver. But there is some debate on whether or not people actually like receiving them.

Don't kill the messenger. Chances are you have been guilty of chuckling quietly to yourself when a family member unwrapped a piece of personalized pottery that looked less like an ashtray and more like a bizarro BatPod. Thank goodness that wasn't you, right? Well, this Christmas, it might be you.

Giving homemade gifts seems like a good idea to many people because they don't have to receive their homemade gifts. Put yourself in someone else's shoes before you go ahead and cross-stitch those coasters. What would it be like to open a fruitcake? How would it feel to be the proud owner of a bejeweled cell phone case? Try faking a smile when you get a Best Friend 4 Life certificate.

Homemade gifts don't sound so hot anymore, right? The value in saving money with DIY goods can quickly be superseded by the damage done by tacky, cheesy, or useless curio. Some people simply don't have the skills to make gifts on their own. Others have bad judgment when it comes to what the rest of the world finds valuable. And for those who are actually good at thinking up creative gift ideas, sometimes they fail to recognize that the person they're trying to please would be much happier with something else ... or nothing at all.

The point is that you have to know where to draw the line with homemade gifts, and you have to know your audience. You can create the most beautifully artistic painting, but it won't have much value to a husband and wife who think SpikeTV's MXC is fine art. Likewise, if you have the perfect person in mind for a homemade bakery item but you can't bake to save your life, all you're going to do is put the gifted in an awkward and uncomfortable situation and maybe give him or her food poisoning.

Homemade gifts don't have to be the only alternative, either. There are lots of different ways to save money on gift purchases. With places like eBay and craigslist, there are options for used or pre-owned merchandise that can be had for very affordable prices. Thinking outside the box can help, too. Subscriptions or sign-ups are creative ways to give a gift that one will appreciate and get to enjoy year-round. Even the traditional stores are going out of their way to make shopping easier on wallets and consciences. Free shipping from online retailers is a good start, and big box stores have all sorts of different deals at this time of year.

There is nothing wrong with homemade gift-giving this holiday season. It is an affordable way to show someone you love them and to give them a gift that can be cherished for a long time.

But for the record, I don't like macaroni necklaces and back rub coupons.

A good home improvement project takes time, perseverance, and patience.

Oh. And money. Lots and lots of money.

To replicate the designs seen on Extreme Home Makeover or Priced to Sell or insert-HGTV-program-here, you'll have to do some renovating on your wallet and maybe even your savings account. To upgrade a kitchen or bathroom, you could find yourself downgrading a family vacation or graduate school. Home improvement projects do not come on the cheap.

But there are some alternatives to outright wall-banging and deconstruction. A new lamp here, a refurbished end table there, and you have yourself a new room. Redecorating, it seems, is the frugal way to flip the feeling of your favorite pad. Sorry, middle income Bob Vila wannabes. You might be out of luck.

Knowing the inexpensive way to go, however, does not solve all your money problems in one fell swoop. Simply deciding on redecorating over remodeling actually opens up an entire new world of possibilities and a whole new batch of money decisions. There are big box stores and mom-and-pop shops that specialize in helping you redecorate your home, and there are other alternatives for redecorating found online or even in your own garage. Which one is the cheapest way to go? Let's find out:

1. Personal: DIY

Going the do-it-yourself (DIY) route would make Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor proud, but is it right for you? If you are a Mr. Handy McTool, then whittling a new coffee table out of an old shed might be the best option. But for those of us who can't turn a beat-up bicycle into an artful dining room diorama, we might not find this alternative that easy.

Its cheapness can't be understated, though. A lot of do-it-yourself projects begin and end with the stuff you have lying around. There's no need to go out and replace yesterday's clutter with today's filler when you can jimmy-rig something you currently own to do the trick.

There is an intrinsic reward in completing a project by yourself, too. Working with your hands is one of the lost skills that our society has started to ignore. Getting back to the way our forefathers got by is a fulfilling experience, and it continues to be so every time you look at your new creation.

Intangible rewards are nice and all, but they don't matter much when it comes to how much money is in your pocket. The nitty-gritty of DIY projects is how prepared you are to undertake a task. If you have everything you need lying around the house, then you shouldn't end up spending more than few dollars on your finished product. If not, then you might find DIY rather NFM (not-for-me).

Raw material costs for something as simple as shelves in your garage could run you a pretty penny. And while wood from a lumberyard is not as expensive as pre-made shelves from the store, the costs can add up if you need to buy yourself tools or extra supplies.

2. Online: Craigslist

Like a glorious Internet flea market, community sites like craigslist.org (and community second-hand stores, for that matter) are a great place to find inexpensive upgrades for your current decor. Most of the people on craigslist are folks just like us - hoarders with too many of this and too much of that lying around the house and in desperate need to pawn it off on someone else.

Craigslist pros can find incredible deals on virtually any product you can imagine. The beauty of places like craigslist is that pretty much everything you could need for a redecorating project is somewhere in the site's postings. You just have to be able to find it. And once you do, chances are good that it will be significantly cheaper than if you had gone to the store and bought the item brand new. Craigslist merchandise is pre-owned, so it should always come with a discount.

In the same vein, being pre-owned could mean trouble. A lot of folks are desperate to bum their junk off on others, and they will say or show whatever they need to in order to get their item sold. To find just the right product, you might need to commit to a one-on-one visit with that boudoir you've been coveting. You'd hate for it to be missing a drawer. Or smell like cats.

3. In-store: IKEA

There should probably be a distinction made when discussing shopping for home furnishings in a retail store. There are basically two different kinds of places to buy: the eye-gougingly-expensive, designer emporiums and the wholesale, big-box bargain shops. Let's go ahead and assume that the former is not exactly a wise budget move, and we'll focus on the latter.

IKEA, with its Swedish designs and sweet savings, broke the mold when it comes to cheap home furnishings. Everything IKEA makes was built with consumer savings in mind - from the assembly-required ethos to the affordable boxing and packing. Even better, the entire catalog of IKEA products is trendy, modern, and beautiful.

It is not, however, dirt cheap. IKEA items are inexpensive by comparison to expensive competitors, but they will still cost more than D-ingIY or surfing Craigslist. They're brand new, so IKEA can't just be giving them away. Finding the right product at the right price would be key to making an option like IKEA any sort of feasible.

Let's recap: Remodeling a home is expensive. Redecorating is not. And if redecorating is your way to go, then you can't do much better than by trying options like DIY, craigslist, or IKEA.

But which one is the best? That answer is entirely up to you.

If you are industrial and enjoy working with your hands, then a do-it-yourself project might be right up your alley. Plus, if you have most of the tools and materials at your disposal already, then you could get away with paying next to nothing for your new anything.

If deal-hunting is your thing and you don't mind second-hand hand-me-downs, then craigslist might be your calling. Just remember to try before you buy and to learn how to sniff out the special deals.

If neither of the above are your M.O. and you're simply in the market for affordable, fashionable at-home pick-me-ups, then IKEA is right for you. A word of advice, though: Don't forget to keep your budget in mind when you're in the store lest you run the risk of a Swedish shopping stupor.

One of the most popular gifts this holiday season will be video game consoles, leading to one of the most popular reasons for missing Christmas dinner being "but I'm only 300 points away from the next level!"

The holidays bring out the purchasing in everyone, or so the major video game companies hope.

Traditionally, November and December have been good to Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, and the success of famous consoles like the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Playstation 2 can attest to the holiday hand-over-fist moneymaking. But this year might be different. There have been some fears that an economic depression and suddenly-frugal shoppers might put a damper on 2008's holiday numbers.

Surely, there will not be a shortage of options for video game connoisseurs. The three main competitors in the video game market each have their own console out for sale: Microsoft's XBox 360, Sony's Playstation 3, and Nintendo's Wii.

You already have a Wii, right?

The Wii has a distinct advantage over the other two systems, and no, I am not just talking about Mario Kart. But I will if you ask. The Wii's advantage is its family-friendly style and games. With a revolutionary motion-sensing controller, the Wii is completely unlike anything else on the market.

Throw in the accessibility and ease of games like Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Super Mario Galaxy, as well as the word-of-mouth popularity of the system itself, and it's easy to see why the Wii stands apart from the rest of the video game competition.

The real battle: 360 vs. PS3

So where the real battle will be this holiday season is between the serious-gaming consoles from Microsoft and Sony. The XBox 360 and Playstation 3 cater to more hardcore gamers who enjoy their graphics rich and their games intense. The processing power of the two machines dwarfs that of the Wii, so consumers who are looking for a powerful, beautiful video game experience most often come looking for an XBox or PS3.

Deciding between the two used to be as difficult as the final level of Final Fantasy XII (or so I've heard), but Microsoft made the decision at least a little easier with a recent change to its Xbox product. Can you find the difference by looking at the system specs?

The Specs

XBox 360
Memory: Lots
Graphics: Really good
Game library: Practically infinite
Price: $199

Playstation 3
Memory: Tons
Graphics: Pretty sweet
Game library: More than enough
Price: $399

If you said "price," you are correct. If you said anything else, you should probably just go buy yourself a Wii.

The price drop from Microsoft gave the XBox a significant advantage in the console war with Playstation. The base models of each system are now $200 apart, with the PS3 coming in at twice the price of the XBox. Those numbers are hard for a consumer to ignore, especially at times like these.

Of course, the price tag alone can be misleading. Sony sells its product as if you know what you're getting: 80GB hard drive, Blu-ray DVD player, name recognition. A Blu-ray player alone costs $300, so the final price on the PS3 could be seen as a relative steal.

But the problem for Sony is that consumers aren't seeing a steal when they look at the price. They're seeing a significantly cheaper alternative in the Xbox.

The 360 will be the winner this season

Microsoft's system is on par with the PS3 in virtually every other gaming category except price. And while it might cost more money for basic XBox users to match the feature list of the basic PS3, the initial payment to purchase the console is all that people are really noticing. As far as most video game purchasers are concerned, the Xbox and the PS3 are too much alike. They are essentially the same product made by different companies. Where previous iterations of video game consoles used to have exclusivity for game titles, pretty much every game worth having is now available on almost any console worth having. There simply is not enough difference between the two.

Sony would like to believe that its Blu-ray DVD player would provide enough incentive to make consumers pony up the extra $200. So far, it isn't happening. Most people in the market for a video game machine are looking for a machine that plays video games, not one that makes Hope Floats look absolutely stunning. Saving $200 on an XBox is simply a better alternative for those anxious to buy a next-generation gaming console. The cost-benefit analysis on that is basic Microeconomics 101.

The obvious solution would be to drop the price of the PS3. Obvious, however, does not appear to be on Sony's holiday to-do list.

Right now, price is King. Blu-ray isn't enough.

Sony executives have stood firm that the $399 price of the PS3 will remain through the holiday season, despite evidence that it is seriously hurting the bottom line for the company. Microsoft's XBox has widened its lead over the Playstation since Microsoft dropped its price, and if the trend continues during the busiest shopping time of year, Sony can say good-bye to the console battle.

The battle will be over, and if Sony isn't careful, it may lose the war, too.