Bowl Games: Part V, The Run-Up

With 10 games in two days out of the way, it’s time go down the home stretch to the national title game. As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong:

Friday (note that these are all after the fact reflections, since I was lazy/busy)

  • Texas Tech vs. Mississippi, Cotton Bowl (@Dallas, TX; 2:00 PM, FOX): How the hell did Texas Tech get owned in this game? It makes no sense. I don’t even want to think about it.
  • East Carolina vs. Kentucky, Liberty Bowl (@Memphis, TN; 5:00 PM, ESPN): I’m pretty much on a 3 day losing streak at this point. The last predictions I got right was Kansas over Minnesota, and I missed everything else on the 31st. Ugh.
  • Alabama vs. Utah, Sugar Bowl (@New Orleans, LA; 8:00 PM, FOX): Watching this right now. Utah jumped out to a big lead but Bama just pulled within a score. I think Bama can still come back and run away with this, but going in I thought it would be pretty close. So yeah. I wouldn’t be upset to be wrong about this one, that’s for sure.

Saturday

  • Buffalo vs. Connecticut, International Bowl (@Toronto, ON, CA; 12:00 PM, ESPN2): Hey, it’s the International Bowl! Maybe I’ll actually get to see it this year (since I missed it previously due to traveling). UConn should win this, but the way things are going for me right now, who knows?

Monday

  • Texas vs. Ohio State, Fiesta Bowl (@Glendale, AZ; 8:00 PM, FOX): Probably the best of the remaining bowls, this should provide an interesting game between two teams who did not have their seasons go quite the way they wanted. I really think Texas is more talented than OSU, but it will probably really hinge on how they’ve handled the let down of not being in the title game.

Tuesday

  • Ball State vs. Tulsa, GMAC Bowl (@Mobile, AL; 8:00 PM, ESPN): It’s the Disappointment Bowl! Ball State was undefated, and then lost in their conference championship game. Tulsa was also undefeated until they played Arkansas late in the year, and then should’ve beaten a very moribund East Carolina in the C-USA title game. In other words, both these teams probably expected more. I also think Tulsa is light years more talented than Ball State and should win this one by a couple of scores.

Next up, national title game predictions!