Today marks the start of the best season of the year. This is the time when you can sit down and catch meaningless college football bowl games every night for the next three weeks.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but people don’t care about the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl unless you're from either of the schools playing. With that said, I love watching these games. It’s the culmination of a “successful” season and the games are just old fashioned fun. And no, having a 6-6 record doesn’t count as being successful.
Probably the hardest thing about bowl week is keeping up with the ever-changing names and sponsors of the games. At some point the Peach Bowl morphed into the Chick-fil-A Bowl, and Humanitarian Bowl in Boise changed to some dumb computer bowl and then changed back to the Humanitarian Bowl.
So, today we start off with the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl and finish up on Jan. 7 with the Allstate BCS National Championship. In between we have a few of my personal favorites. They include the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, which has the funniest name; the Rose Bowl presented by Citi just screams we aren’t selling out to commercialism (but we really are); and the PetroSun Independence Bowl, because nothing says independence better than the search for some good ole’ fossil fuels.
Good luck keeping track of everything and most importantly enjoy the games. Now here are the FPS Fearless Predictions…
Poinsettia: Utah – Navy is missing their admiral, Utes all the way. Bowl update
New Orleans: Memphis – I still can’t believe FAU made a bowl game. Bowl update
Papajohns.com: Cincinnati – Bowl update
New Mexico: New Mexico – Can’t pick against the home team. Bowl update
Las Vegas: BYU – Cougs are rolling and will win the early season rematch. Bowl update
Hawaii: Boise State – Just can’t pick against the Broncos in December (as much as it pains me). Bowl update
Motor City: Purdue – Boilermakers cap off disappointing season crushing CMU again. Bowl update
Holiday: Arizona State. Bowl update
Champs Sports: Boston College – Is this even going to be a game? Bowl update
Emerald: Oregon State – Picking the West coast in this West coast bowl. Bowl update
Texas: TCU. Bowl update
Meineke: Wake Forest – Deacs follow up magic from ’06 with more magic. Bowl update
Liberty: UCF. Bowl update
Alamo: Penn State. Bowl update
Independence: Colorado – Saban will enter the off-season on a hot seat. Bowl update
Armed Forces: Air Force – Duh. Bowl update
Sun: South Florida – Injuries slow an Oregon team that should be playing elsewhere. Bowl update
Humanitarian: Fresno State – This is the punishment game for ACC teams, Georgia Tech doesn’t show up. Bowl update
Music City: Kentucky – Cats beat what’s left of Noles. Bowl update
Insight: Oklahoma State. Bowl update
Chick-fil-A: Auburn – Ten wins in a season remains elusive for Clemson. Bowl update
Outback: Tennessee. Bowl update
Cotton: Missouri – Tigers got slighted and will take it out on the Hogs. Bowl update
Capital One: Michigan – Heisman winners don’t fair well in their next game, Michigan’s seniors get one last win. Bowl update
Gator: Texas Tech – Offense beats defense in bowl games. Tech's got plenty of offense. Bowl update
Rose: Illinois – Illini pull off a shocker and prove they belong. Bowl update
Sugar: Hawaii – The newest BCS buster will make its mark too. Bowl update
Fiesta: Oklahoma – Probably playing the best football at the end of the year, Sooners are too good. Bowl update
Orange: Virginia Tech – Hokies win a wild one and cap off an emotional season. Bowl update
International: Rutgers. Bowl update
GMAC: Tulsa. Bowl update
National Championship: Ohio State – Buckeyes win another title, redeem last year's team and show Michigan why they didn’t really want Les Miles. Bowl update
Blogger’s Note: Throughout Bowl Week I kept track of my predictions and ESPN’s expert analysts. I picked the guys from College Gameday and Pat Forde. Had I opted to check my man at the door, I could have won the unofficial competition. However, I’ll have to settle for third place. At least I’m not the first loser. Final Results: 1. Lee Corso 20-10 (.667), 2. Pat Forde 21-11 (.656), 3. FPS 20-12 (. 625), 4. Kirk Herbstreit 14-14 (.500)
2 comments:
You've got cahones picking Hawaii to go undefeated. It's definitely the most intriguing bowl for me this year.
Peter I’m glad you consider the Hawaii pick out there, but all my bowl picks are “fearless.” However, I really think the Warriors have a chance. Colt Brennan didn’t match his ridiculous stats from ’06, but he managed over 4,100 yards and 38 TDs as Hawaii led the nation in scoring (46.2 ppg). Their defense is a bit underrated too, ranking fifth nationally in tackles for loss and ninth in sacks. Georgia’s hot, but Hawaii will be playing on the carpet in the Superdome…similar to the type of turf they have on the Islands. It’s a very intriguing match up.
The other thing I’ll be watching carefully is to see how well the Big Ten performs. Everyone’s been dogging on them, but head-to-head we’ll see where they stand.
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