Category Archives: bowl games

Bowl Games 2015: Four Days ‘Til Christmas

Let’s take a look at the seven(!) games that remain before Christmas.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Monday, December 21
2:30: South Florida vs. Western Kentucky (Miami Beach Bowl @ Miami, FL; ESPN): On October 31, the Bulls were 2-4 and appeared headed toward oblivion. Then, they discovered they had an offense, and thus won their last four games, including a comprehensive 44-23 win over then-ranked Temple. Proving that wasn’t a fluke, they then inflicted a 65-27 drubbing on Cincinnati. I don’t think I need to get into what they did against a Central Florida team that went 0-12. The Hilltoppers, meanwhile, needed no such miraculous season-ending streaks. They simply dominated their C-USA foes. Their only two losses on the season are a late-FG loss to Indiana and a 28-point loss to LSU, because, well, LSU is LSU and WKU is WKU. At any rate, their extended run of domination and consistency is what is making me lean toward Western Kentucky.
Confidence: 12
Previous Meetings: Six, actually, with four them occurring between 1997 and 2000, and then again in 2009 and 2010. USF is 4-2, having won the last four in a row, including 24-12 in the 2010 game.
Last bowl game: For the Bulls, it was the 2010 Car Care Bowl, in which they beat Clemson 31-26. (Oof.) The Hilltoppers won last year’s Bahamas Bowl 49-48 after surviving one of the craziest plays of the 2014 season.
Announcers: Dave Lamont and Desmond Howard

Tuesday, December 22
4:30: Akron vs. Utah State (Potato Bowl @ Boise, ID; ESPN): I have the Aggies in a slight upset, but I feel pretty good about it. Why? Well, at least three of their six wins are better than any of Akron’s wins, and they don’t figure to give up a lot of points to the Zips. As for the chance of snow at this game, the forecast is currently clear with temperatures in the mid-30’s around kickoff, so it’s not looking good.
Confidence: 23
Previous Meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: The Zips’s last taste of the post-season was the 2005 Motor City Bowl, which they lost to Memphis 38-31. This is their second ever bowl game. For the Aggies, their fifth straight game returns to the roots of their streak, where they went to both the 2011 and 2012 Potato Bowls. They beat UTEP in last year’s New Mexico Bowl 21-6.
Announcers: Mark Neely and Mike Bellotti

7:00: Toledo vs. Temple (Boca Raton Bowl @ Boca Raton, FL; ESPN): Suffice it to say, no chance of snow here, with temperatures in the 80’s at kick-off. I never really bought into the Owls at any point this season, and I’m continuing not to in this game. Toledo, to me, appears to be about as good on defense and is a little better at moving the ball. Going with the Rockets.
Confidence: 13
Previous Meetings: My sources are a bit contradictory on this one. I’m going to discount the 1962 meeting and say Toledo is 5-3 against the Owls, and won their last meeting in 2011 36-13.
Last bowl game: The Rockets would have a six-game bowl streak had they gone bowling with a 7-5 record in 2013, but alas, we can only say this is their second straight. They beat Arkansas State in last year’s GoDaddy.com Bowl 63-44. Temple’s last bowl game was the 2011 New Mexico Bowl, in which they beat Wyoming 37-15.
Announcers: Allen Bestwick and Dan Hawkins

Wednesday, December 23
4:30: Boise State vs. Northern Illinois (Poinsettia Bowl @ San Diego, CA; ESPN): If the Boise States of the world can have rebuilding years, this certainly qualifies as one for the Broncos. Their offense has been especially inconsistent as they try to find their next quarterback. The Huskies started running into trouble once they got into the meat of their MAC schedule, and their offense deserted them in loses to Ohio and Bowling Green to close out the season. Going with Boise, but only by a bit.
Confidence: 14
Previous Meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: This is the Broncos’s fourteenth straight bowl game, dating back to the 2002 Humanitarian Bowl. They beat Arizona in last season’s Fiesta Bowl, 38-30. This is NIU’s eight straight bowl game, dating to a 17-10 loss to Louisiana Tech in the 2008 Independence Bowl. They lost 52-23 to Marshall in last year’s Boca Raton Bowl.
Announcers: Beth Mowins and David Diaz-Infante

8:00: Bowling Green vs. Georgia Southern (GoDaddy Bowl @ Mobile, AL; ESPN): Bowling Green comes in as the MAC champions, and other than a loss to a game Toledo squad, it was never really in doubt. Georgia Southern, meanwhile, somehow just lost to Georgia State. (Still trying to process that one.) The ranking systems love BGSU as well, and I’m inclined to agree with them.
Confidence: 24
Previous Meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: This is Bowling Green’s fourth straight bowl game. They beat South Alabama 33-28 in the inaugural Camellia Bowl last year. This is Georgia Southern’s first ever bowl game.
Announcers: Tom Hart and Andre Ware

Thursday, December 24
Noon: Western Michigan vs. Middle Tennessee State (Bahamas Bowl @ Nassau, Bahamas; ESPN): On record alone, these 7-5 teams look even. That’s pretty much it, though. The Broncos played a tougher schedule in a tougher conference, but was able to hang with some of those teams. The Blue Raiders lost to every superior team they played, usually by a lot, and mainly feasted on C-USA’s bottom of the barrel teams. As long as Western Michigan isn’t too tired from rowing to the Bahamas, they should be okay in this one.
Confidence: 25
Previous Meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: Western Michigan lost 38-24 to Air Force in last year’s Potato Bowl. MTSU last appeared in the 2013 Armed Forces Bowl, where they lost 24-6 to Navy.
Announcers: Steve Levy, Mack Brown, and Mark May
Fun fact: As of this writing, Popeye’s does not have any locations in the Bahamas.

8:00: Cincinnati vs. San Diego State (Hawaii Bowl @ Honolulu, HI; ESPN): One of these teams doesn’t play offense. The other doesn’t play defense. Combine them into a game that no one wants to be in, and you get… well, I have no idea really. I like the Aztecs, though: they’ve won nine straight, riding the streak all the way to the Mountain West title. The biggest stumbling block for them is that this is reward they got for winning the conference, instead of the MWC’s customary Las Vegas Bowl bid (which went to BYU instead).
Confidence: 15
Previous Meetings: Just one, back in 2007. Cincy won 52-23.
Last bowl game: This is the fifth straight bowl game for the Bearcats, dating to the 2011 Liberty Bowl. The lost to Virginia Tech in last year’s Military Bowl 33-17.
Announcers: Adam Amin and Greg McElroy

Bowl Games 2015: Opening Slate

We’ll start off with an overview of Saturday’s games, but of course I’ve updated the schedule page with my predictions for all of the games. Confidence values for ESPN’s bowl pick ’em are tentative, as I’m writing this ahead of time.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Saturday, December 19
2:00: New Mexico vs. Arizona (New Mexico Bowl @ Albuquerque, NM; ESPN): Bob Davie’s back in a bowl game! His hometown Lobos have basically no chance, though.
Confidence: 30
Previous Meetings: Being from neighboring states and in the same conference a long time, these two have met 46 times. Unsurpsingly, though, Arizona holds a 43-20-3 advantage, amassed mainly when the two teams met every year from 1920 through 1977. The last two meetings, in 2007 and 2008, went New Mexico’s way, however.
Last bowl game: This is New Mexico’s first bowl game since their 23-0 win over Nevada in the 2007 New Mexico Bowl. This is Arizona’s fourth straight bowl game. They lost to Boise State 38-30 in last season’s Fiesta Bowl.
Announcers: Eamon McAnaney and Rocky Boiman

3:30: Utah vs. Brigham Young (Las Vegas Bowl @ Las Vegas, NV; ABC): The Holy War is back ahead of schedule, and naturally these two teams are meeting in… Sin City. Hey, at least they’ll still sell the hotel rooms (and the game is sold out). As for the game, Utah would seem to have the advantage, but there’s a large “don’t want to be here” factor in play for the Utes, as they played in this game last year and also probably deserved a better bid with their record. Also, there’s a lot of bad blood in this rivalry these days, which the Utes going off to a Power 5 conference and gaining talent, money, and prestige while the traditional power in the state, BYU, languishes. I have the Utes, but only by a bit.
Confidence: 8
Previous Meetings: Despite what I said above, the Utes actually hold a 54-31-4 advantage all time (though the Cougars are 30-33-1 since 1950). The two previously met every year from 1922 through 2013.
Last bowl game: This is BYU’s tenth straight bowl game, and their first appearance in this one since they appeared in four straight from 2005 through 2009. They lost to Memphis in the Miami Beach Brawl Bowl 55-48 last year. Utah won last year’s Las Vegas Bowl 45-10 over Colorado State.
Announcers: Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer
Fun fact: Ol’ Brent loves him some sly on-air gambling references, which I’m pretty sure could be the basis of a pretty solid drinking game. On a related note, as of this writing “our friends in arid regions” (as Rece Davis would say) have the Utes by 2.5 or 3.

5:30: Ohio vs. Appalachian State (Camellia Bowl @ Montgomery, AL; ESPN): Spoiler alert, but this is Appy State’s first ever bowl game. So, yeah, welcome to FBS guys. Wasn’t winning national titles more fun? But hey, at least they’ll get a win.
Confidence: 9
Previous Meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: As spoiled above, this is Appalachian State’s first ever bowl game, since this is the first “real” season of FBS play. The Bobcats had a nice little bowl streak going from 2009 through 2013, but last season they missed a bowl despite going 6-6. They lost the 2013 Beef O’Brady’s bowl to East Carolina 37-20.
Announcers: Dave Neal and Anthony Becht
Fun fact: The camellia, native to East Asia, is the state flower of Alabama. There have also been two other Camellia Bowls. The first, in 1948, pitted Hardin-Simmons against Wichita State in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Shockers lost 49-12 and the game folder after only pulling 5,000 at the game. The Camellia Bowl was then a small-school bowl in Sacramento, California (the “Camellia City”) bowl between 1961-1975 and 1980.

7:00: San Jose State vs. Georgia State (Cure Bowl @ Orlando, FL; CBSS): “Show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream” she said
“The one that makes me laugh” she said
And threw her arms around my neck
“Show me how you do it
And I promise you I promise that
I’ll run away with you
I’ll run away with you”
Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed her face and kissed her head
And dreamed of all the different ways I had
To make her glow
“Why are you so far away?” she said
“Why won’t you ever know that I’m in love with you
That I’m in love with you”

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You’re just like a dream

Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Just like heaven
I’m going with the Panthers.
Confidence: 10
Previous Meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: This is the Spartans’s first bowl since the 2012 Military Bowl, where they beat Bowling Green 29-20. After going 1-23 in their first two seasons, this is Georgia State’s first ever bowl game.
Announcers: Carter Blackburn and Aaron Taylor
Fun fact: I was so hoping ESPN’s Robert Smith would be around for this, but alas, the game is on CBS Sports Network. As for what the game is trying to cure, proceeds from the game will go toward the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

9:00: Louisiana Tech vs. Arkansas State (New Orleans Bowl @ New Orleans, LA; ESPN): Louisiana Tech cruised through a lot of their C-USA schedule, but it was perphaps a sign when they lost 17-15 to UTEP, as they got thumped 58-24 by Souther Mississippi the last week of the season. Arkansas State had a pretty solid season in the Sun Belt, by which I mean they ran the table in the conference and won most of those games pretty thoroughly. I’m giving the Red Wolves a slight edge here.
Confidence: 11
Previous Meetings: 38 of ’em, if you can believe it. They met most every year from 1956 through 1998, and the Bulldogs are 26-12 all-time. They also two, with 1998’s 69-21 win being the most recent.
Last bowl game: Louisiana Tech beat Illinois in last year’s Zombie Cotton Bowl 35-18. This actually caught me a bit by surprise, but this is Arkansas State’s fifth straight bowl game. They lost to Toledo in last season’s GoDaddy Bowl, 63-44.
Announcers: Adam Amin and Kelly Stouffer

Bowl Predictions 2015: Week 5

They’re up relatively early this week, so have at them.

This will be a brief writeup. First off, I’m bringing back my contenders chart for this year. Here’s what it looks like after this weekend:


Oklahoma’s defeat of Baylor moved them in for me, but there’s still plenty of time for the Big 12 to eat its own children.

This week, I’m back up to three unfilled bowl slots. Again, I want to stress I’ve never gotten this late into the season short of teams. We’re liable to have a real problem on our hands in a few weeks unless there’s some more wacky upsets.

Not much else is notable this week. Next week will almost certainly change everything again, especially with regards to the Big 12. So, until then…

Bowl Games 2014: Final

And thus, the 2014-2015 college football season is concluded.

My final results are up, but if you don’t want to click the link, then I’ll put it here: I went 23-16 this year (which means I am now 274-220 overall). I got off to a pretty strong start, but other than going perfect on New Year’s Eve I pretty much faded down the stretch. In particular, New Year’s Day was a disaster for me, as I missed three out of the five games. Afterward, I failed to really recover, going 2-5 down the stretch.

But hey, there’s a reason why I always say, “all predictions wrong”. Nonetheless, I do continue to get more than half of them right. Perhaps next year I’ll start comparing myself against the spread or use other metrics than just wins and losses, but that’ll be determined sometime next December I suspect.

Some closing thoughts on the season as a whole.

  • For starters, my Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets finished eight in the AP Poll, blissfully one spot ahead of Georgia and Tech’s best ranking since finishing ninth after the 1998 season. I never expected this sort of season, but neither did anyone else. Next year, it is unlikely we will surprise anyone. With Justin Thomas returning, I suspect we will start the season ranked in the top 15, and maybe even the top 10.
  • How about those Buckeyes? They committed four turnovers and won by 22, which really means that it wasn’t even that close.
  • Will we see a shift in the perception of the power five conferences after this? I believe that we’re back to some real parity in college football. The only way we can really tell, though, is if we get more power five teams playing each other during the season. We’ll see how that shakes out when we do our usual out-of-conference schedule rankings. Suffice it to say, though, reports of the Big Ten’s death were greatly exaggerated.

And with that, this site will be mostly dormant again through the spring and summer. That said, do look for some content relatively soon, as arguably my favorite part of the World Cup will start up again this spring: qualifying.

Until then.

Bowl Games 2014: The Big One

And here it is.

While I don’t think a four-team playoff is really ideal, this is the closet we’ve got for now in major college football. Let’s enjoy it for what it is.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Monday, January 12
8:30: Oregon vs. Ohio State (College Football Playoff National Championship @ Arlington, TX; ESPN): There are better, and more in-depth, previews than I can provide here. But I’ll high the highlights. For starters, let’s talk about the games that proceeded this one.
I think most of us expected Oregon to beat Florida State, but goodness I don’t think anyone expected the annihilation that occurred, largely of FSU’s own doing. It’s hard to survive five turnovers against anyone (where was that against us in the ACC title game?), but against the most efficient offense in the country? Forget about it.
Ohio State over Alabama will be the upset of the year, provided the Buckeyes lose this game. Like many others, I gave them no shot, what with their backup-backup quarterback against a Nick Saban defense. Forget about it, right? Well, not so much. Ohio State go off to a slow start, but they came out in the second half and dominated the game.
What’s at stake for these teams? For Oregon, it has to be a little validation, I would think. In their current run of success (with Pac-10/12 titles in 2009, 2010, 2011, and this season), the national title has eluded the Ducks. They made the title game in the 2010 season, only to be beat by Cam Newton and company, starting the narrative that they just weren’t tough enough to challenge the all-mighty SEC. Indeed, I can’t help but wonder if Duck partisans feel a bit cheated that their path to the national title won’t have Alabama or any other SEC school in it.
For Ohio State, in many ways, this is a team that is almost playing with house money, which feels a bit weird to say about a team with the sort of historical success they Buckeyes have had, but hear me out. This is the second season since the 2012 team that went 12-0 but was on sanctions. No one gave them any chance after they lost Braxton Miller, and then no one gave them any chance after the loss to Virginia Tech. (Indeed, the weirdest thing about reading recaps of that game are the bits about how it’s a solid victory for VPI and a way for them to get back in the national discussion. Uh, not so much, as it turns out!) No one gave them a chance to beat Alabama. Yet, here we are.
As for the game itself, I expect points. These two teams boast two of the most efficient offenses in the nation. Their defenses are also pretty similar, though the Big Ten still has enough plodding offenses to skew the numbers somewhat. Overall, I came in thinking this one was going to be hard to call, and the research I have done so far has only supported this. I guess this is true of most games, but this one is really going to come down which team plays better tonight. I think Oregon is still slightly better, so that’s going to be my guess.
Confidence: not applicable, as to win the group I’m in I have to pick strategically and go with Ohio State.
Previous meetings: Eight, actually, and Ohio State has won all of them. The first was all the way back in the 1957-58 Rose Bowl, which the Buckeyes won 10-7. Apparently they hit it off, as the two teams met in the regular season four time in the 60’s. Another home-and-home occurred in 1983 and 1987, but that was it until Ohio State’s 26-17 upset of Oregon in the 2009-2010 Rose Bowl.
Last bowl game: This is Oregon’s tenth straight bowl game, going back to a 17-14 loss to Oklahoma in the 2005 Holiday Bowl. They beat Texas 30-7 in last season’s Alamo Bowl. Thanks to their 2012 sanctions, Ohio State didn’t go to a bowl that year despite going 12-0. If they had, their bowl streak would stretch back all the way back to the 1989 season. Instead, their streak is now two, and last year they lost to Clemson in the Orange Bowl, 40-35.
Announcers: Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit