Perhaps a post-mortem might better describe what needs to be done on this entire site, but hey, with college football season over there’s less for me to post about. (Also, the immediate post-Fiesta funk didn’t help.)

At any rate, I’ve uploaded the final update for 2009. I went 17-17, that is, 50%. I just never really got going in terms of predictions and ended up with a thoroughly mediocre year.

In other news, I’ve started on the 2010 guide, but it’ll be a few months before the two new bowls (Yankee and Dallas) are approved by the NCAA. Also, dates and times for most bowls probably won’t be announced until August or so. To answer the two questions that should spring immediately to your mind: 1) Yes, that would make 36 total bowl games, which means now 60% of Division I-A football teams will now play in the post-season and 2) Yes, the title game is January 10th for some dumb reason. Even the NCAA itself isn’t really trying anymore, as they’ve recently moved the DI-AA title game from Chattanooga to Friscoe, TX and into January as well.

Look for the OOC schedule revue to start up later this month, and perhaps an outside shot at some college basketball and baseball posts as well.

Here it is, folks, the last game of college football until September. As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Thursday, January 7
8:00: Alabama vs. Texas (BCS Championship Game @ Pasadena, CA; ABC): As much as I would love to pick Texas here, it’s very difficult to actually do so. Let me rehash the things you’ve read everywhere else: Texas’s offense struggled against the only two teams they played that had good defenses (Oklahoma and especially Nebraska), no one besides McCoy can run the ball effectively, and while Texas sports a competent defense themselves, so did Florida and yet they couldn’t keep Alabama out of the end zone well enough for the tight contest this probably will be.
However, something I’ve seen a lot of so far this bowl season is rust, that is, teams coming out flat, offenses struggling early in games, etc. (And if you think it’s bad now, next year’s title game will be on the 10th. Ugh.) This could work in either or neither team’s favor, but if the stars align and Alabama’s defense comes out slow and lets Texas put a couple of quick scores up that will change the entire complexion of this game. I don’t rate the chances of that happening very high, but I think that’s what the Longhorns have to hope for.

Previous meetings: These two teams have met before, but despite their historical dominance Alabama is actually winless in this series (0-7-1, to be exact). They haven’t faced off since the 1981/82 Cotton Bowl.
Last bowl game: Alabama, quite satisfyingly, lost last year’s Sugar Bowl to Utah, 31-17, while Texas won their BCS game (the Fiesta) 24-21, over Ohio State.

To wrap up my bowl prognostications, I’m 16 of 33 (or about 48.5%). By my standards, that’s pretty bad. While it’s not quite the debacle of 2005, I still prefer to be at least in the upper 50’s. I also ran an ESPN Bowl Mania group among my friends this year. I came in 6th, which was good for dead last. I currently have 250 points and will finish last regardless of tonight’s result. So props to my friend Will (whose particular brand of insight has appeared here before) for running away with the asimsports Bowl Mania Group crown, with a straight-up record of 22-11 and 388 points heading into tonight.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed my brand of “analysis” here on asimsports this college football season. While I’ll certainly try to talk about baseball more this year, it’s a long season and yet it doesn’t lend itself to weekly updates. 

Well, I’m going to get all the way up to the title game with this post. Because you just can’t get enough for my devastatingly wrong insight, no?

Also, if this doesn’t get you ready for the last vestiges of 2000-2009 football, then I don’t know what will.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong:

Saturday, January 2
12:00: Northern Illinois vs. South Florida (International Bowl @ Toronto, Canada; ESPN2): Unfortunately, ESPN decided not to bring back last year’s all-Canadian announcing team, which I personally found to be the most interesting thing about the game. At any rate, USF should be able to take care of NIU.
Previous meetings: I’m not entirely sure why, but these two teams have met before. NIU won the first meeting 20-17 but lost the second, 37-6 back in 2001 and 2002, respectively.
Last bowl game: NIU lost to somewhat hometown favorite Louisiana Tech 17-10 in last year’s Independence Bowl, while USF beat Memphis 41-14 in the St. Petersberg Bowl.

2:00:

• Oklahoma State vs. Mississippi (Cotton Bowl @ Arlington, TX; FOX): Well, it’s the first Cotton Bowl that’s not at the Cotton Bowl – this year’s edition is at Jerry Jones’s Intergalactic Space Palace. Ah well. At any rate, I have Oklahoma State by 10 but right now I’m not feeling terribly good about it. Both these teams are coming off disappointing seasons – OSU had aspirations at the Big 12 South and lost to Texas and, even worse, Oklahoma. Meanwhile, Ole Miss started the season with a top ten ranking generated almost entirely off their success in this game last year. I’ll stick with OSU, but it’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.
  Previous meeting: The only other meeting between these two was the 2003/2004 Cotton Bowl, which Ole Miss won 31-28.
  Last bowl game: Oklahoma State is making its fourth straight bowl appearance. Last year they lost to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl 42-31. Ole Miss, meanwhile, broke their long bowl drought and generated more hype than ever thought possible in last year’s Cotton Bowl, where they upset Texas Tech 47-34.
• Connecticut vs. South Carolina (papajohns.com Bowl @ Birmingham, AL; ESPN): As you probably know by now, UConn’s been through a very up-and-down season and basically needed an upset of Notre Dame a few weeks ago to stay in the running to make a bowl game. South Carolina, well, had a very South Carolina kind of season – good but not great, and their fans love them anyway. I like the Visor Boys in this one.
  Previous meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
  Last bowl game: UConn is working on a nice little streak, though their most recent bowl game was the 38-20 win over Buffalo in the International Bowl. The Fightin’ Visors got destroyed by Iowa in the Outback Bowl 31-10.

5:30: East Carolina vs. Arkansas (Liberty Bowl @ Memphis, TN; ESPN): Yarr! Provided Arkansas shows up, I don’t think they’ll have a lot of problems with ECU, though it certainly wouldn’t be the first time Pickney and Co. have pulled off a big upset.
Previous meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: ECU lost last year’s Liberty Bowl 25-19 to Kentucky. Arkansas missed a bowl last year and lost the 2007/2008 Cotton Bowl 38-7 to Missouri.

9:00: Texas Tech vs. Michigan State (Alamo Bowl @ San Antonio, TX; ESPN): I don’t even know what to do with this bowl anymore. A few weeks ago, this looked easy. Michigan State suspended ten players and Texas Tech should be eager to make up for a lackluster season, right? Wrong. Texas Tech managed to fire their most successful coach ever and should lead to the most interesting off-season coaching drama we’ve had since Las Cronicas Locas de Boss Hawg back in 2007. Texas Tech still has all their players, which should make them an on-paper favorite, but hell if I know what’s going to happen in this one.
Previous meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: Michigan State disappointingly lost to Georgia in last year’s Capital One Bowl, 24-12, while (as explained above) TTU lost the Cotton Bowl to Mississippi, 47-34.

Monday, January 4
8:00: Boise State vs. Texas Christian (Fiesta Bowl @ Glendale, AZ; FOX): I can’t help but cynically refer to this as the “Separate but Equal Bowl” because I honestly do not think anyone at the Fiesta Bowl was thinking “Gee, I would really like to use my position after the Sugar to select a mid-major team! Screw Penn State and/or Iowa!” At any rate, like I think most people I believe TCU is the technically superior team, having faced better competition than Boise and displaying an ability to defense against some at least somewhat legitimate offenses (note the plural: the only legitimate team Boise played was Oregon). So I’ll stick to my guns here.
Previous meetings: Both previous appearance were in bowl games. TCU lost the first meeting in the 2003 Fort Worth Bowl, while they did win last year’s Poinsettia Bowl.
Last bowl game: The Poinsettia, as hinted at above. Boise has made a bowl every year since 2002, and if there were more games then they would’ve gone to one in 2001 (as they went 8-4), extending their streak back to the 1999 season. TCU has a similar streak, though in their missing year they wouldn’t have been eligible anyway, as they went 5-6.

Tuesday, January 5
8:00: Georgia Tech vs. Iowa (Orange Bowl @ Miami, FL; FOX): I would rail against the stupidity of scheduling bowl games after everyone has to go back to work here, but I think those arguments are very well worn at this point. At any rate, here’s what we know: 1) Iowa has a very good defense 2) GT has a very good offense. We also know very little about Iowa’s offense and GT’s defense other than that they’re not very good.
So what to expect  from this game? I have no idea. On the line for Tech is a bowl losing streak that dates to 2005 (no bowl wins since the blowout over Syracuse in 2004), and the potential for the ACC to go 4-3 overall in bowl games this year. If I have time before Tuesday (which I very much doubt), I may write more on this game.
Previous meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: Huh, I guess GT has the same problem LSU’s page did. I don’t seem to recall this game at all. Anyway, Iowa blew out South Carolina in last year’s Outback Bowl, 31-10.

Wednesday, January 6
7:00: Central Michigan vs. Troy (GMAC Bowl @ Mobile, AL; ESPN): Central Michigan will likely come in with a chance to score the MAC’s first bowl win (unless NIU pulls off the upset), powered by Dan “Rust Belt Tebow” LeFevour. Troy, meanwhile, will pack the house at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in what should be a better game than most would expect. However, I still like CMU more overall.
Previous meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: Troy lost to Southern Miss 30-27 in last year’s New Orleans Bowl, which was their 3rd bowl game ever in their DI-A existence. Central Michigan lost last year’s Motor City Bowl 24-21 to Florida Atlanta.

And with that, I’ll be back next week with a preview of the National Title Game. Until then!

Happy New Year! As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Friday, January 1
11:00: Northwestern vs. Auburn (Outback Bowl @ Tampa, FL; ESPN): Well, I would ordinarily say I’m surprised by this matchup – I didn’t think NU had much of a chance of going to a New Year’s Day bowl, and like everyone else I was surprised when Auburn got picked to go to this game. Auburn will probably take advantage of Northwestern’s QB Kafka’s general ennui to pull ahead and win this game.
Previous meetings: I’m not entirely surprised, but it’s still a little weird that these teams have never met, despite playing football since 1892 and 1902, respectively.
Last bowl game: Northwestern lost to Mizzou 30-23 in last year’s Alamo Bowl. Auburn was last seen in the Chick-fil-a Bowl in 2007, where they beat the Orange and Purple Tigers 23-20.

1:00:

• Florida State vs. West Virginia (Gator Bowl @ Jacksonville, FL; CBS): FSU may come out and punch WVU in the mouth, but after that I just don’t think this version of FSU has the defense to be able to keep up with West Virginia’s offense. Could be high scoring, though.
  Previous meetings: The 1981/82 and 2004/2005 Gator Bowls, both of which FSU won.
  Last bowl game: FSU decisively won last year’s Champs Sports Bowl over Wisconsin, 42-13, and some of you may recall Pat White rallying WVU to last year’s 31-30 win over UNC in the Car Care Bowl.
• Louisiana State vs. Pennsylvania State (Capital One Bowl @ Orlando, FL; ABC): I just checked, and apparently I did pick LSU for this game, and I have to say three glasses of champagne are making me question why. I’m guessing LSU’s general incompetence at managing a football game will be counter-balanced by the fact that Penn State lost to the only two good teams they played all year and have been massively overrated since.
  Previous meeting: The only other meeting between these two was the 1974 Orange Bowl, which Penn State won 16-9.
  Last bowl game: It says here LSU won last year’s Chick-fil-a Bowl 38-3 over Georgia Tech, which is funny because I can’t seem to remember that at all. I guess the site’s just wrong. Anyway, Penn State lost last year’s Rose Bowl 38-24 to USC.

5:00: Ohio State vs. Oregon (Rose Bowl @ Pasadena, CA; ABC): Ohio State has managed to perform better since being upset by Purdue, but I still think this offense isn’t really where it should be. Oregon, meanwhile, is firing on all cylinders and I frankly don’t think they will have many problems scoring on Ohio State here.
Previous meetings: These two teams’ first meeting was actually the 1957/58 Rose Bowl, which Ohio State won. In fact, Ohio State has won all of the games in this series, the last contest being a regular season matchup in 1987. Overall, OSU is 7-0.
Last bowl game: Ohio State lost to Texas in the Fiesta Bowl last year, 24-21. (As you probably know by now, even with OSU’s general run of success as of late, they haven’t made it to Pasadena since 1996/1997.) Oregon beat Oklahoma State in last year’s Holiday Bowl 42-31.

8:00: Florida vs. Cincinnati (Sugar Bowl @ New Orleans, LA; FOX): I still expect this game to be reasonably close, though when I originally did my predictions I think Brian Kelly was still at Cincy and UF had no particular reason to rally around their coach after what could only be called a disappointing season for the Gators. Circumstances have changed, and I think Florida will still win, but probably by more than three.
Previous meeting: The only previous meeting was a 48-17 Florida win back in 1984.
Last bowl game: Florida won last year’s BCS Title Game over Oklahoma 24-14. Cincinnati lost to VPI in the Orange Bowl 20-7.

Corrections Dept.: Apologies to the Air Force defense, which apparently had the best pass defense in the country and showed it off in their win over Missou.

The massacre continues. While I may be above .500 for now, I’m not counting on that to hold up.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Thursday, December 31
12:00: Air Force vs. Houston (Armed Forces Bowl @ Fort Worth, TX; ESPN): This edition of Air Force can definitely play some defense, while this edition of Houston can be wildly inconsistent. The will probably come down to whoever is most excited about being in Fort Worth again, but at least on my paper Houston’s passing attack should carry the day.
Previous meetings: This is the 3rd meeting between the two teams since September 2008, which was also their first meeting. They also played in last year’s Armed Forces bowl. Air Force won the regular season contest but lost the bowl.
Last bowl game: As mentioned above, both these teams played in last year’s edition of the Armed Forces bowl, so I think this is pretty self-evident.

2:00: Stanford vs. Oklahoma (Sun Bowl @ El Paso, TX; CBS): Whatever happens in this game, it cannot possibly be worse than last year’s 3-0 non-entity between Oregon State and Pittsburgh. (I don’t even remember who go the field goal, but it’s not really important because, let’s face it, there were no winners there.) Again, on paper, I think the Sooners should win, especially coming off their upset victory over rivals Oklahoma State. Stanford certainly has a chance, but then again they certainly should have been able to beat Cal at home in the Big Game. (In fairness, they did win their game, against Notre Dame.) There’s also this business about Andrew Luck’s broken finger – while Oklahoma is also missing their ideal signal caller I’d say they’re a lot more used to their backup at this point than the Cardinal are. Stanford still has Toby Gerhart, of course, so they’re not completely out of it. I except a pretty high scoring contest here (of course, by recent Sun Bowl standards, that’s not saying much) but Oklahoma to edge it out.
Previous meetings: Their last meeting was a 19-7 Oklahoma win, back in 1984. The had met three times before that, and OU holds a 3-1 series lead.
Last bowl game: Stanford hasn’t appeared in a bowl since the 2001 Seattle Bowl which they lost 24-14 to Georgia Tech. Oklahoma lost last year’s BCS Championship Game 24-14.

3:30: Missouri vs. Navy (Texas Bowl @ Houston, TX; ESPN): This Navy team has some serious issues, especially on defense. Missouri I think feels a bit shafted by their bowl selection and I think will be plenty motivated. I think Navy will have the edge in the first half, but provided Mizzou doesn’t come out flat and recovered by the end they should be able to out-athlete Navy. Of course, almost every time I’ve said that so far it’s turned out to be completely untrue, so take that (and everything else here) with a grain of salt.
Previous meetings: Mizzou holds a 2-0 series advantage, with their previous meetings coming in 1948 and the 1961 Orange bowl.
Last bowl game: Missouri won last year’s Alamo Bowl contest against Northwestern, 30-23. Navy, meanwhile, lost the inaugural EagleBank Bowl to Wake Forest 29-19.

6:00: Iowa State vs. Minnesota (Insight Bowl @ Tempe, AZ; NFL Network): I wish I could tell you, nay, urge you to find out if you get NFL Network and tune into this game. Alas, in good conscience, I cannot. I mean, really, two 6-6 teams that don’t really have a lot of offense but don’t really play much defense either? My predictions is that the two teams run at each other for 60 minutes and at the end Minnesota is declared the winner. I mean, geez, at least in the Texas Bowl you get the novelty of watching Navy run their offense. The only novelty in the game is, “Hey, look, Iowa State is in a bowl game!” The only reason Iowa State is here is due to their massive 9-7 upset of Nebraska, in which the Cornhuskers turned the ball over eight times. Minnesota had to beat Syracuse in overtime and, er, upset (for lack of a better term) Northwestern.
Previous meetings: As with most things Iowa State, the Cyclones have a losing record against Minnesota: 2-22-1 to be exact. However, all but three of those games came before 1989, in fact, they all came up to 1924. The two teams met every year (except 1901) from 1895 to 1915, then the series came back briefly in 1923-24 and then promptly went away again. The result of all this is that Iowa State’s only two wins came back in 1897 and 1898.
Last bowl game: Iowa State last appeared in a bowl in 2005, where they lost to TCU 27-24. UMN is in their second straight Insight Bowl, and will hopefully do better than last year’s 42-21 loss to Kansas.

7:30: Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee (Chick-fil-a Bowl @ Atlanta, GA; ESPN): Virginia Tech looks to improve upon their record in Atlanta so far their year (0-2) against a team in Tennessee that should, theoretically, be over matched. Both these teams sport very capable defenses, so I expect a tight, low-scoring game to wrap up the day, but for VPI to sneak in a win at the end.
Previous meetings: Here’s another game you have to go back in the books for. Their last meeting was in 1994, which VPI lost 45-23 in the Gator Bowl. The other six games were played in 1896, 1897, 1899, 1911, 1933, and 1937. Basically, it was so long ago that people besides me and my late grandfather still called them VPI. Oh, and Virginia Tech has lost all of them except the 1899 and 1911 editions.
Last bowl game: Virginia Tech was the ACC representative in the Orange Bowl last year, where they beat Cincinnati 20-7. Tennessee, of course, missed a bowl game last year but was in the Outback Bowl back on New Year’s Day, 2008. The beat Wisconsin 21-17.