Obscure college football bowl games are harmless. The big ones are not.

What is a Famous Toastery? Is that toast or a toasting device or a toasting location? I do not care. I want that. I will watch that. If you don’t, that’s fine; there’s no shortage of demands on the American schedule during the holiday season. But none will ask less of you than the Famous Toastery Bowl. It’s consequence-free football, and it will be there if you need it.

Consider that this weekend when you’re stuck at a significant other’s holiday party or you’re desperate to avoid discussing politics (or even worse, yourself) with family. That’s when you will remember the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl is on and you can watch 6-6 California and 6-6 Texas Tech scrimmage the night away in a northwest Louisiana casino town as a “reward” for their “great seasons,” bankrolled by an opaque-sounding defense contractor.

Ranking every college football bowl game, from Myrtle Beach to Sugar

We need more Radiance Technologies Independence Bowls, not fewer. It’s true the postseason bowl system is partially responsible for college football’s stunted growth and tail-wagging-dog management but not these bowls. The Independence Bowl isn’t orchestrating anything other than an otherwise forgettable good time in reasonably affordable Shreveport, La. Will you remember the game in two days? Doubtful. Would you pay $400 to watch it again four months from now during the football desert of the spring? Yep.

The uncomfortable rule of thumb is that the more prestigious the bowl game, the more toxic its influence on the sport. If you’re still mad about Florida State’s snub in the College Football Playoff, blame the cartel of bowls — the Fiesta, Peach, Cotton and Rose (especially the Rose) — that blocked playoff development for decades and then begrudgingly agreed to a minimized four-team bracket smaller than the five power conferences it was built to accommodate.

In two weeks, we will be asked to invest in the invisible stakes of the final, ludicrous iteration of the “New Year’s Six.” Two bowls (this year it’s the Rose and Sugar) will host actual, meaningful playoff games (that’s good!), while four others (the Peach, Fiesta, Cotton and Orange) will boast entirely worthless exhibitions among a smattering of very, very good teams that just missed the cut for the real postseason.

All of these games (No. 9 Missouri vs. No. 7 Ohio State, No. 11 Mississippi vs. No. 10 Penn…