What if fans and reporters chose the bowl matchups and school and conference administrators were left out of it? We’d get much juicier games, that’s what.

I mentioned on Wednesday that the Fiesta Bowl could make a very compelling game within the parameters of all the crazy quilt of rules and stipulations and league tie-ins that constantly complicate the process.

How about Florida facing Central Florida? The little-league upstart with the massive and growing campus and enrollment in Orlando against the established SEC giant with a shelf full of national and conference trophies won by college football legends Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer. They’ve only played twice ever and not in a dozen years, certainly not since UCF became a national brand. What’s not to like about that matchup?

Well, the Phoenix businessmen don’t want it, that’s what. They would much rather have anyone else but a pair of schools from 2,500 miles away that probably won’t bring more than a few thousand fans.

Hey, it’s all about TV ratings and not live gate these days, anyway. But OK.

So, what if the Peach Bowl made that game? Easy drive from Gainesville and Orlando or anywhere in north Florida. Fans would stream in to fill up the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Well, see UF wants no part of the matchup, frankly. There’s no gain in it for the Gators. If they win, they were supposed to. If they lose, especially with UCF playing a back-up quarterback, oh, man, Dan Mullen would never hear the end of it. It’s a potential recruiting nightmare.

And even though the College Football Playoff committee is now supposed to be wholly in charge of constructing the New Year’s Six games, I will believe they are unilateral in their powers when we start seeing games like this.

Games the fans love. Games that make sense.

No, instead we’ll get something safe for everyone – the local businessmen, the conferences, the schools. Something where no one can possibly get embarrassed. Like Florida-Michigan in Atlanta. And UCF-Louisiana State in Phoenix.

Oh boy. Can’t wait.

The fact is, we as college football lovers often don’t get the bowl games we’d most like to see because somebody with non-football interests is usually standing in the way.

Why am I mentioning this now? Because there is a Penn State bowl game available to be made that everyone would get revved up to see. And I’ll bet you anything, it’ll never happen.

Who would not love to see Penn State-Mississippi State? Among you fans, that is? Now, that would be a bowl game to get excited about. Joe Moorhead against his old boss, James Franklin? Trace McSorley in his last game, going up against his old guru? MSU defensive coordinator Bob Shoop against his litigation combatant, PSU?

Are you kidding me? What’s not to love? Where do we sign up, right?

And that’s exactly why I can’t see it ever happening. It could be awkward for the participants. Someone might get uneasy. We can’t have that.

The Citrus Bowl in Orlando is in the most logical position to make this game happen. Barring a possible but unlikely string of results on Saturday that could lift Penn State into the Peach Bowl, the Nittany Lions are more probably headed for Florida. The Citrus will likely have the first shot at them.

The most well-known of the bowl prognosticators, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm, has #12 PSU playing #15 Kentucky, a slightly higher ranked 9-3 team instead of #18 Mississippi State at 8-4. He has Moorhead’s Bulldogs in the Music City Bowl in Nashville playing North Carolina State.

But the Citrus could ostensibly request Mississippi State and it wouldn’t make a lot of difference in prestige. It’s not like Kentucky football is brimming with heritage. Nobody that I know is clamoring for a rematch of the LaVar Arrington-Tim Couch game where PSU gummed the Wildcats to death 20 years ago in Tampa. About all I remember from that game myself is that Jessica Simpson sang the National Anthem.

Miss State-Penn State would be infinitely more intriguing. So how likely is that matchup?

“I would say it’s less than 50 percent,” said Palm. “Because the Citrus Bowl has preferred in the past a team with at least 9 wins. And the only option of that kind would be Penn State-Kentucky. But we did see an 8-win Minnesota team in that game a few years ago [post-2014 season].

“So, it’s not impossible it could happen. Obviously, the schools would have to be on-board with it.”

Ohh, right. Here we go. Let’s make that less than 1 percent.

You know, Penn State would want nothing to do with this game. Even though PSU fans would absolutely eat it up.

And so, we’ll get a banal bowl that doesn’t ruffle anyone’s feathers. Like Kentucky-Penn State. OK, is there some way we could match up the UK basketball team with the PSU football team?

Back in the 1990s before I quite understood how these bowl matchups happen and don’t happen, I kept seeing the opportunity for Penn State to play Mississippi State in a bowl, eagerly anticipating the prospect of Jackie Sherrill and Joe Paterno having to feign cordiality in public. Imagining how cranked up they’d get their teams to beat each other like in the acrimonious Pitt-PSU days.

Always seemed like it should have happened. Never did.

Well, there’s a reason. More than one, actually. And they’re the same as they ever were.

Especially with the Playoff holding the nation’s focus and inevitably expanding at some point, the bowls are perpetually in fear of irrelevance. They don’t want to anger the schools or the leagues. They’ll do favors for any or all of them if they possibly can.

Coaches just want to get through the bowls with as little static as possible. They love the extra practices but it’s more work in between the already hectic recruiting signing days. They don’t need any added drama.

And athletic directors and school administrators just want to stay out of the way, keep their coaches happy and wait for the annual windfall conference television disbursement check to arrive. What the fans desire is of less and less concern.

So, I’m afraid that Penn State-Miss State dream will have to remain exactly that. The bowls aren’t for fans of football. They’re for backing up the truck and loading it.

They’re a stage for recruiting. A device for schools’ branding. For Vegas and their more degenerate patrons. They’re product for cable networks, not necessarily tasty but filling, like a Golden Corral all-you-can-eat buffet.

And they’re a platform for advertisers. Not necessarily dynamic, but abundant and dependable. Like… the Golden Corral all-you-can-eat buffet.

Because, whether it’s a great game or a merely watchable game, you will watch. At bowl season, you gotta fill up on your football.