Bowl Season is Officially Here!

Well kids, apparently ESPN feels the same way I do, since they busted out Herbstreit and Fowler for the Holiday Bowl. Cal’s taking TAMU to task at the moment, and bolstered by our Internet connection not sucking for the time being, here’s the predictions for the games up to the first (confusingly, Tito’s times are Eastern and mine are Central!):

  • Music City Bowl, Kentucky vs. Clemson (ESPN, noon): Clemson totally outclasses Kentucky in probably every phase of the game. Clemson may be disappointed they fell to the Music City, but at least they’re east of the Mississippi. Clemson rolls.
  • Sun Bowl, Oregon State vs. Missouri (CBS, 1:00): Sweet, the first non-ESPN game of the year! (NFL Network doesn’t count.) It’s tough to get a read here, except that I think the Beavers are pretty decent and Mizzou sucks.
  • Liberty Bowl, Houston vs. South Carolina (ESPN, 3:30): For reasons I don’t exactly recall, I picked Houston. I’m sure I had a good reason for doing so and I stand by it.
  • Insight Bowl, Texas Tech vs. Minnesota (NFL, 6:30): Uh, TTU should win. Same no one will get to see it.
  • Champs Sports Bowl, Maryland vs. Purdue (ESPN, 7:00): I see Purdue as a sort of “Georgia Tech of the Big Ten” due to their strong engineering program and a skewed male/female ratio (though they have 30,000 undergrads and it’s only 58:42, but eh), so I have a soft spot for them. But not soft enough. Much like VPI, Maryland finished their season strong and I like their chances.
  • Car Care Bowl, Boston College vs. Navy (Dec. 30, ESPN, noon): I hate to admit this (as the soon of an Army grad), but I like watching Navy’s offense. Who doesn’t love a well-oiled triple option machine? Unfortunately, the machine tends to break down against teams that don’t suck, as the Midshipmen lost 34-0 to Rutgers and lost 38-14 to Notre Dame. Boston College is probably not that much worse than Rutgers and certainly better than Tulsa, who also beat Navy, so I like BC here.
  • Alamo Bowl, Texas vs. Iowa (ESPN, 3:30): I’ll go out on a limb here an say that Sun Belt officials probably won’t be working this game. I’ll also say that Iowa is pretty boned unless Texas is just really depressed or something.
  • PeachChick-fil-a Bowl, Virginia Tech vs. Georgia (ESPN, 7:00): Okay, let’s see. I hate UGA, and VPI, while not exactly my favorite team ever, is in my conference. They’ve also finished the season red hot, though I guess you could say UGA has as well with consecutive victories over the teams we at this site like. (Ugh.) That said, more of UGA’s offensive lineman got arrested/suspended, so VPI’s defense should be able to take them to task. VPI should also fill their 50% of the dome against the exceedingly obnoxious UGA fans.
  • MPC Computers Bowl, Nevada vs. Miami (FL) (Dec. 31, ESPN, 6:30): The Miami players, confused over this “snow” shenaniganry, without a coach, and, oh, yeah, in damn Boise, Idahoa will probably not be terribly excited. I think Nevada wins. That said, the Humanitarian Bowl was a much better name. And for the record, I like the blue turf. There, I said it.

Check back Sunday for the big New Year’s Day Preview bash!