Monday, December 7, 2009

As promised, here is a list of this year's college football bowl games. If anyone spots any errors in the bowl list, please let me know so that I can correct them. As of right now, the EagleBank Bowl is still undecided. Temple will play either Army or UCLA depending on the result from the Army/Navy game this Saturday.

In case you still don't know the drill, just look over each game and pick one winner between the two teams. Use whatever system you want to determine winners for each game, there are no bad picks . . . yet. Remember to send your picks to nothingtolose784@yahoo.com by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, December 18th. Also don't forget to include the tiebreaker: Tim Tebow's combined rushing and passing yards in the Sugar Bowl. That's it, let the picking begin.

Saturday, Dec. 19
New Mexico Bowl
Wyoming (6-6) vs. Fresno State (8-4), 4:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)
St. Petersburg Bowl
Rutgers (8-4) vs. UCF (8-4), 8:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Sunday, Dec. 20
New Orleans Bowl
Southern Miss. (7-5) vs. Middle Tennessee (9-3), 8:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Tuesday, Dec. 22
Las Vegas Bowl
BYU (10-2) vs. Oregon State (8-4), 8:30 p.m. EST(ESPN)

Wednesday, Dec. 23
Poinsettia Bowl
Utah (9-3) vs. California (8-4), 8:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Thursday, Dec. 24
Hawaii Bowl
SMU (7-5) vs. Nevada (8-4), 8:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Saturday, Dec. 26
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
Ohio (9-4) vs. Marshall (6-6), 1:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)
Meineke Bowl
North Carolina (8-4) vs. Pittsburgh (9-3), 4:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)
Emerald Bowl
Southern Cal (8-4) vs. Boston College (8-4), 8:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Sunday, Dec. 27
Music City Bowl
Clemson (8-5) vs. Kentucky (7-5), 8:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Monday, Dec. 28
Independence Bowl
Texas A&M (6-6) vs. Georgia (7-5), 5:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Tuesday, Dec. 29
EagleBank Bowl
Temple (9-3) vs. Army/UCLA, 4:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Champs Sports Bowl
Miami (9-3) vs. Wisconsin (9-3), 8:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Wednesday, Dec. 30
Humanitarian Bowl
Bowling Green (7-5) vs. Idaho (7-5), 4:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)
Holiday Bowl
Nebraska (9-4) vs. Arizona (8-4), 8:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Thursday, Dec. 31
Armed Forces Bowl
Air Force (7-5) vs. Houston (10-3), 12:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)
Sun Bowl
Stanford (8-4) vs. Oklahoma (7-5), 2:00 p.m. EST (CBS)
Texas Bowl
Missouri (8-4) vs. Navy (8-4), 3:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)
Insight Bowl
Minnesota (6-6) vs. Iowa State (6-6), 6:00 p.m. EST (NFL)
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Virginia Tech (9-3) vs. Tennessee (7-5), 7:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Friday, Jan. 1
Outback Bowl
Northwestern (8-4) vs. Auburn (7-5), 11:00 a.m. EST (ESPN)
Capital One Bowl
Penn State (10-2) vs. LSU (9-3), 1:00 p.m. EST (ABC)
Gator Bowl
Florida State (6-6) vs. West Virginia (9-3), 1:00 p.m. EST (CBS)
Rose Bowl
Ohio State (10-2) vs. Oregon (10-2), 4:30 p.m. EST (ABC)
Sugar Bowl
Florida (12-1) vs. Cincinnati (12-0), 8:30 p.m. EST (FOX)

Saturday, Jan. 2
International Bowl
South Florida (7-5) vs. Northern Illinois (7-5), 12:00 p.m. EST (ESPN2)
PapaJohns.com Bowl
Connecticut (7-5) vs. South Carolina (7-5), 2:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)
Cotton Bowl
Oklahoma State (9-3) vs. Mississippi (8-4), 2:00 p.m. EST (FOX)
Liberty Bowl
East Carolina (9-4) vs. Arkansas (7-5), 5:30 p.m. EST (ESPN)
Alamo Bowl
Michigan State (6-6) vs. Texas Tech (8-4), 9:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Monday, Jan. 4
Fiesta Bowl
Boise State (13-0) vs. TCU (12-0), 8:00 p.m. EST (FOX)

Tuesday, Jan. 5
Orange Bowl
Iowa (10-2) vs. Georgia Tech (11-2), 8:00 p.m. EST (FOX)

Wednesday, Jan. 6
GMAC Bowl
Central Michigan (11-2) vs. Troy (9-3), 7:00 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Thursday, Jan. 7
BCS National Championship
Alabama (13-0) vs. Texas (13-0), 8:00 p.m. EST (ABC)

Friday, January 9, 2009

Put it in the Books

As I look back on the bowl season, I keep coming back to one game: The Roady's Humanitarian Bowl. That was hands down the one that gave me the most fits. What's worse, I initially had Maryland and ended up changing it to Nevada. Argh!

I would have been even with the TU Senior after last night and only three yards off Tebow's yards for the tie-breaker. So let that be a lesson to the rest of you. Don't change your pick, go with your gut.

That said, I thought the BCS title game was quite entertaining (though it would have been five times better on ESPN or really anywhere other than FOX). Some people might be disappointed that it wasn't a higher scoring affair, but I was just glad we got a close game for the first time in three years.

In these defensive games, every score, every first down and every play becomes more important. It'd be nice if FOX would give us more than .42 seconds before the snap to cut to a shot of the field, but it was a good game nevertheless.

I loved watching Timmy Tebow carry his team like he always does in big games and get it done yet again. The only disappointment was the Gator Chop unsportsmanlike conduct call. Throughout his career at Florida he's been nothing but an exemplary student-athlete and role model.

He's a fine, Christian man and has used his success to honor God. But at the very end he let the pressure get to him. It certainly wasn't anything like Zinedine Zidane head-butting Marco Materazzi in the World Cup, but it did put a slight damper on everything he's accomplished up to this point.

I hope you all enjoyed another exciting bowl season (except for the fact that the Wolverines had to sit this one out for the first time in my lifetime). See you next year.

Final Standings

TU Senior 26
Kenny Pickett 25
The Rev 23
A True Blue Husker 23
Marzipan 22
Chief Justice 22
Dr. L 18
Tiffani 18
L. P. Stoneworthy 18
A. Contenda 16
The Beast 16
Willy Jacket 13

Saturday, January 3, 2009

How are you bowling?

They fly by so quickly don't they? Just like that we're down to our final three bowl games. Likewise, our field of competitors has been whittled down to just two: TU Senior (a.k.a. Grant) and The Rev (a.k.a. Doug Birr).

Going into Friday, A True Blue Husker (a.k.a. Nate) still had a shot at the Bowl Championship Sage title, but was knocked out when ECU and Buffalo came up short.

Even though most of us are technically out of the running, I would like to take a moment and recognize some of the stellar picks of this year's competition.

5.) Kentucky - Apparently dubbed "The Kneecap Bowl," Grant and I were the only ones to stick with the SEC in the Liberty Bowl when the masses were flocking to the Conference USA champion. Technically Marzipan (a.k.a. Tobi) also had the Wildcats, but when you merely flip a coin I can't give you credit for making a great pick.

4.) Colorado St. - He may be in last place, but Willy Jacket (a.k.a. Brett) was the only one to give the Rams a shot in the New Mexico Bowl against a talented, but streaky Fresno St. squad. (Sorry Marzipan, but you got these all on dumb luck).

3.) Vandy - Eight bowl wins in a row, highly ranked defense, ACC runner-up, who wouldn't go with Boston College in the Music City Bowl? A. Contenda (a.k.a. Sue) and Tiffani (a.k.a. my wife), that's who. I give the ladies props for going with the Commodores. (Props are good).

2.) Ole Miss - While everyone else went with Mike Leach and the high-powered Texas Teck offense, Nate sided with the Right Reverend Houston Nutt in the Cotton Bowl. The Rebels came through for Nate during the regular season against LSU and the Husker went right back to the well again and did not come up dry. (Sorry again, Marzipan; I can give you the points for the win, but that's it).

1.) Utah - Some of us might have thought the Tide lost some of the wind in their sails after blowing the perfect season and a chance at the national championship, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to pick non-BCS Utah. While the rest of us made the "smart pick" with Nick Saban and that dominant offensive line of Alabama, The Beast (a.k.a. Alex) went with the long shot, Brian Johnson and the Utes, in the Sugar Bowl.

As of right now, The Beast is technically the only player to get a pick right all by himself. But A. Contenda has a chance in these next two games as she has both Ohio St. and Tulsa, either of which would earn her a spot in this year's great picks.

And it seems only fitting that the championship game will decide the winner of this year's Bowl Championship Sage Competition. A win for Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators will keep TU Senior in the lead (and Kenny in second place). But if Sam Bradford can go against the Heisman trend and get the Sooners a victory, The Rev will come out on top.

I hope you enjoy the rest of this year's bowl season.