They don’t take home the Hibachi grill or a set of steak knives. Those are the parting gifts for contestants who leave the “Wheel of Fortune” a few spins short of winning the Bermuda vacation.

College football players who go to bowl games get show-up gifts, precious presents for being present, and we’re not talking about wicker fruit baskets or mere tokens of logo-emblazoned pens, trinket travel mugs or souvenir T-shirts.

Here’s what USC and Illinois players each received for going to the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day: a Sony Bravia surround-sound system, Sony headphones, a Fossil watch, an Under Armour backpack and a New Era cap.

It’s a goody bag lavish enough to make Oscar presenters want to consider trading their graft-loaded gift baskets for what these gridiron guys are getting.

The NCAA, which normally prohibits athletes from accepting “extra benefits” ranging anywhere from a free Twinkie to a tricked-out Cadillac Escalade, somehow permits bowl committees to heap perks on players so long as the value of each package is below $500.

Most of the bowls hand out the usual fare of luggage, ballcaps, sunglasses, a watch or even a ring. The smaller bowls such as the Texas, Gator and Motor City do that.

But bigger-named bowls have been pushing their gift-giving limits by adding popular video-game systems, stereos and the newest, hottest-selling electronic gadgets to their player packages.

Seems like a lot of bowl committees went shopping at a going-out-of-business vendor sale with a fistful of coupons and price gun to get these packages to ring up at $499.99 per player. For going to Monday’s Allstate BCS Championship Game, the LSU and Ohio State players each get a Nintendo Wii, three games including “Madden NFL 08,” a fleece pullover and a New Era cap.

Never mind the No. 1 national ranking at stake. They’ve got a Wii, an electronic video gaming system that carries a suggested retail price of $249.99 but, because of huge demand, gets sold on eBay well above $500.

The BCS title game, the Dec. 27 Holiday Bowl and the Dec. 29 Alamo Bowl are three bowls handing out a wealth of Wiis.

From the Insight Bowl, players brought back a Microsoft Xbox 360 and the “NCAA 08 Football” game and a Bulova watch and a hat. Win or lose.

UCLA lost the Las Vegas Bowl but each Bruin still got an Apple iPod Touch, which carries a suggested retail price of $299. They also received an Under Armour Aero sackpack, a cap and, perhaps the most academic addition to any of the packages, a one-year subscription to ESPN the Magazine.

Multiply the cost of the disclosed presents by the 60 to 105 players on each team’s traveling roster and the gift tab easily reaches six figures for a minor bowl game, and close to $1 million for the BCS contests.

Who says college athletes don’t get paid?

At last check, most players were already getting an athletic scholarship to cover their college tuition and room and board.

With so many sponsors and hosting committees competing to be a part of the spectacle that is college football’s postseason, going to a bowl game has become as lavish for players as attending to a 5-year-old birthday party and coming home with a live pony. Even for the holiday season, the bowl-game gifting-giving tradition seems a little much.