How to Throw a New Year's Bowl Party

You can make the first few days of the new millennium just as much fun as New Year's Eve by throwing a relaxing bash built around one of the weekend's big college bowl games.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Football-themed Party Decorations
• Chips
• Cold Cuts
• Crackers
• Snack Dips
• Sodas Pop
• Tylenol
• Aspirins
• Football Pool Prizes
• Football-themed Napkins And Plates

1. Stock up on all your party snacks such as chips, dip, crackers and drinks several days ahead of time. By New Year's Eve, the stores are going to be picked over.

2. Arrange all your food platters (cold cuts, veggies and cheeses),and then cover them with aluminum foil and place them in the fridge until game time.

3. Make sure you have a nice selection of both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. Also have hot coffee on hand for those guests who are still recovering from the night before.

4. Consider borrowing a large television (if you don't have one) with picture in a picture from one of your friends so that you can keep track of more than one game at a time.

5. Decorate with cutout footballs, helmets and pennants from the local party supply store. Look for serving items such as a helmet to hold dip and a football-shaped bowl for chips, as well as napkins and plates with football art on them.

6. Print out lists of the teams playing each bowl game (Cotton, Fiesta, Gator, Orange, Outback, Rose, etc.), and pass them out. Have each guest circle the teams he or she thinks are going to win each game.

7. Award a silly prize, such as a Nerf football, to the winner after all the games have been played.

Tips & Warnings

• Because this comes after the biggest party of the year, it wouldn't hurt to have ibuprofen and aspirin on the food table to take care of all those "Oh, my aching head" complaints. Tums wouldn't be a bad idea, either.
• You can also combine your bowl party with a New Year's event. Invite everyone to spend the night (a great answer to the drinking-and-driving problem). If you have a mean streak, make everyone who stayed over wake up to watch the Rose Parade.
• Set up televisions in more than one room so that your guests can move around, get more drinks and still keep an eye on the action.
• Because the kids also have the day off (and may not be interested in college football), set up a kids' room with video games, board games, coloring books and snacks.
• Plan ahead. If you are going out to ring in the new millennium, make sure that the people with you know you are responsible for entertaining a group of people the next day. They can help make sure you don't overcelebrate and are in good shape to be a host the next day.

on 9/1/2006 I believe I have solved the social dilemma of sports parties centered around watching the “Big Game” on TV: How to ensure everyone has a good time regardless of their interest in sports. This is based not on theory, but based on the experience of something my wife and I have done for the past several Super Bowls, major bowl games and broadcast sporting events. The idea is called “Sports Party Bingo” and it works like this:

Before game day the host does this:
1) Throw a party for the “Big Game” and invite about a dozen or more people to watch it on TV at your place or a sports bar/restaurant, etc. Don’t mention anything about the bingo game during the invitation, as this is just something to casually unveil during the party.
2) Buy and gift-wrap about ½ dozen novelty prizes (one for each Sports Party Bingo game to be played at the party). Gifts can be acquired at any party store or novelty store and range from commemorative T-shirts and game mugs to card games for couples, etc.

On game day the host does this:

1) Right after the sporting event starts (e.g., after kick-off, the first pitch, tip-off), the game host passes out Sports Party Bingo cards to all attendees and explains that this is like traditional bingo (5-in-a-row) and that the players will be competing for a novelty prize. Not much explaining is needed, as it is all very self-explanatory.

2) When “Bingo” is called, the game host reviews the game card aloud while party-goers confirm whether or not each marked square is valid.

3) The game host presents the wrapped novelty prize to the winner and the other party-goers ogle over the opening of the gift.This process is repeated once for each gift. It is a good idea to let a little time pass after the winner is announced before starting the next game. It is best to keep a larger “grand prize” gift until the last bingo game is played, in order to hold partygoers’ interest.

Here's the secret ingrediaent:

The squares on the Sports Party Bingo game cards contain descriptions of events that are likely to occur during a sports party.
Events that occur in the sporting event
Examples include touchdown, field goal, interception, fumble, running out of bounds, timeout, penalty, foul, three-point shot, slam dunk, 24/30/45-second violation, change in the lead, home run, gesture, hit by pitch, single, double, triple, stolen base, goal, penalty kick, etc.
*Note: The events included here do not include esoteric sports jargon. They are geared more for the novice, and because they are motivated to win the bingo prize, even novices seek out help from other party-goersingredient in understanding what a given description means.)

Events that are observed in the setting of the sports party.
Examples include someone arrives late, someone leaves early, someone goes to bathroom, someone spills a drink, food arrives, someone spills food, phone rings, etc.

Events that are observed in the TV broadcast.
Examples include a specific type of TV commercial, commentator mentions a particular topic, a particular type of camera shot (e.g., fan, mascot, cheerleaders, stadium, blimp, bald player, coach, players slapping hands, etc.), a particular type of broadcast segment (e.g., highlight, flashback, sporting event statistics, etc.).

The results are incredible. Everyone who comes to our parties has a great time, whether or not they are a sports fan. My wife is not a sports fan, and many of the couples we invite are a mixed-bag insofar as being sports fans is concerned. Yet, the dynamic of competing for a bingo prize overlaid on top of the TV broadcast event has routinely resulted in our sports party-goersparty-goers having a very, very good time. It gives everyone a reason to watch, a reason to interact and a reason to stay (these are the holy trinity of any sports party host’s objectives).