Category Archives: college football

Bowl Predictions 2013: Week 7

What happened this past weekend? How about everything! Let’s examine the repercussions on the national bowl picture.

First, Louisiana-Lafayette accepted a bid to the New Orleans Bowl, which allows them to join the company of BYU and Navy as the first teams to lock down bids. We may see a few other bids trickle out over the course of the week, but with the new-found uncertainty in the bowl picture it is likely we will have to wait until the BCS bowls make their picks Saturday night and Sunday morning before we find out anything else.

As usual, the full set of predictions can be accessed here.

BCS

  • The most notable thing now is Florida State and Ohio State at #1 and #2 and in the title. I project them both to defeat their foes in their conference title games.
  • Putting this to rest now: the odds of a 1-loss SEC Champion jumping an undefeated Ohio State are pretty much nil. Do not let the talking heads confuse you this week.
  • If Ohio State loses, well, then things get interesting. If Missouri beats Auburn, do they jump idle Alabama to the #2 slot? Okay, well, yes they do.
  • If Florida State loses, well, I pretty much refuse to contemplate that. But that’s what you need for an Iron Bowl rematch. (Not that you really want it, Auburn fans: remember what happened the last time Alabama got to face a team twice?)
  • Elsewhere, after years of getting shafted, I am sure the Orange Bowl is really looking forward to this. They will get the first pick of the at-large pool, and they will pick Alabama.
  • The Rose gets the next pick. Tradition dictates that they will take Michigan State, but if for some reason the Orange doesn’t take Alabama I think the Rose will. Heck, I think there’s a shot at that anyway but I seem to be the only person who thinks so.
  • Speaking of things that only I seem to think, I initially had Baylor in the Orange Bowl, figuring that Clemson played its way out of the game by losing to the two best teams on its schedule. According to the rest of the Internet, this isn’t the case – searching Google News for “orange bowl baylor” yields almost no relevant results. I’ll bow to the rest of the world and put Clemson there, I guess.
  • Finally, if Northern Illinois does not lose the MAC title game, I have Central Florida facing Auburn in the Sugar Bowl and Northern Illinois facing Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Sun Belt

Speaking of things that I’m wrong about according to the Internet, I cannot find any evidence this year that the agreements I thought the Sun Belt had with the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl, and the BBVA Compass Bowl remain in effect. This means that it is unlikely any Sun Belt team other than UL-Lafayette and Arkansas State will get a bowl bid.

Mountain West

With Fresno State now out of the BCS bowl picture, this means there are six teams for five spots. There is some talk of the conference trying to shop Boise State for an at-large bid, but I consider that unlikely. Therefore, the conference’s last spot in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl will likely be a toss-up between Colorado State, UNLV, and Boise State. I sent UNLV to Hawaii because they haven’t been to a bowl in 13 years. I also saw while trawling for news that apparently the San Jose State AD used to work at Boise State and was integral to getting the original Humanitarian Bowl off the ground. Facts like that are why I look for news. As a result, I have the Rams getting left out.

MAC

The MAC will have at least three extra teams, four if Northern Illinois loses. The three teams most likely to go other than NIU are Bowling Green, Buffalo, and Ball State. This leaves Ohio, Toledo, and Central Michigan searching for bids.

Conference USA

The winner of Rice-Marshall will go to the Liberty Bowl, beyond that, it’s very difficult to make heads or tails of anything. For now, I have Florida Atlantic losing out in a bid.

ACC

Assuming Florida State and Clemson make it, here’s how the rest of the picture shakes out.

  • Chick-fil-a Bowl: technically Duke, Virginia Tech, Miami, and Georgia Tech are eligible for this spot. However, I think the only real players here are Duke and Miami. If Duke is competitive in the ACC title game, they’re probably the pick here, but I think Florida State will wipe the floor with them. Despite the best season in school history, I think Duke will be passed over in favor of Miami.
  • Russell Athletic Bowl: I think Duke will get picked up here. GT is not in the running and VPI played the worst game of the bowl season here last year. If Duke is picked by the CFA Bowl, then Miami is the pick here.
  • Sun Bowl: Virginia Tech has a reputation of traveling well. Georgia Tech will not come here for a third year in a row. Duke will probably be picked by now, so that means all the 5-3 and 4-4 ACC schools are in the running. 
  • Belk Bowl: the Belk always prefers North Carolina teams. I would think they’d be okay with VPI too, but if VPI goes to the Sun then UNC is the pick here.
  • Music City Bowl: for once, the online consensus seems to be that Georgia Tech will make this game. Other candidates are the ACC’s northern schools, with the strongest possibility being Boston College.
  • Advocare V100 Bowl: with the last 5-3 team out of the way, that opens this game to any of the remaining eligible ACC teams, which at this point are Syracuse, Boston College, Maryland, and Pittsburgh. For now, I’ve slotted Pitt here, but the other candidate would probably be Boston College.
  • Military Bowl: there’s a lot of chatter putting Maryland in this game, but considering that Maryland is leaving for the Big Ten after this year and are currently being sued by the conference Tobacco Road may attempt to pull some favors and put Syracuse or Boston College here instead.

So by my calculations, that leaves Syracuse and Boston College out. However, that’s not the end of the road for these two schools. We’ll get to that in a moment.

American

The AAC teams appear likely to go in order: Louisville to the Russell Athletic, Cincinnati to the Belk, Houston to the Pinstripe, and Rutgers to the Compass. Rutgers could also go to the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl.

Big 12

There is a potential windfall for the Big 12 only getting the conference champ into the BCS.

  • Cotton Bowl: the Cotton could take Baylor or Texas. I think they’ll defer to all that burnt orange money and take the Longhorns. This could set up a potential match against Texas A&M, but most of the chatter I’ve seen puts LSU as the SEC opponent here.
  • Alamo Bowl: this is where it gets exciting. I’ve put Baylor here to stage a track meet with Oregon, but this could easily be Texas or Oklahoma.
  • Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl: you know what would make this game truly wild? How about Oklahoma-Nebraska. The committee for this game has to be praying for this to happen. There’s a chance we get Texas or Baylor here instead.
  • Holiday Bowl: after all that, Kansas State is a slam dunk choice over Texas Tech in the Big 12 pecking order.
  • Texas Bowl: Texas Tech is the only team left.

Big Ten

The B1G was already going to be short of teams, so Michigan State going to Pasadena doesn’t really help that particular situation. We’ll just have to make do, I suppose.

  •  Capital One Bowl: if some how the title game loser does not stay in the BCS, they will take them. Otherwise, Wisconsin is almost certainly the pick ehre.
  • Outback Bowl: this is where it gets a little more interesting, but the choices are probably Iowa or Nebraska. Considering the current issues up in Omaha, I’m going with Iowa.
  • Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl: besides, if Nebraska goes to Tampa, that ruins my dream matchup with Oklahoma in this game. Minnesota has an outside shot at this game.
  • Gator Bowl: that said, Minnesota is still Minnesota, and they could well get screwed because Michigan is Michigan. That’s what I’m going with here.
  • Texas Bowl: that puts the Gophers in the Texas Bowl.

Pac-12

The Pac-12 has too many teams for too few slots. This makes the picture at the bottom rather cludy, but I feel good about the picks at the top.

  • Alamo Bowl: the Pac-12 title game loser is also in the running here, but I think Oregon will be hard to pass up.
  • Holiday Bowl: that said, I don’t see the Pac-12 title game loser falling past here. Also in the running are UCLA and USC.
  • Sun Bowl: after last year’s debacle, Southern Cal probably won’t be headed to El Paso again anytime soon. UCLA looks like a strong candidate here.
  • Las Vegas Bowl: this is where it starts to get a little dicey, but Southern Cal would probably get taken if they’re available.
  • Fight Hunger Bowl: most of the chatter online points to Washington going here.
  • New Mexico Bowl: we’re left with Arizona, Oregon State and Washington State. With Wazzou on the up-and-up after several bad seasons, they seem like a trendy pick to go here. Arizona has played in this game recently and it’s been a bit of a lost season for the Beavers.

SEC

  • Capital One Bowl: this game looks poised to take the loser of the SEC Championship game, so  I’m putting Missouri here.
  • Outback and Cotton Bowls: nominally, the Outback is supposed to take a team from the SEC East and the Cotton a team from the West. Many reports have suggested that if the Capital One does not take the SEC title game loser, they cannot fall past the Cotton Bowl. It looks like to me that South Carolina will be making a repeat trip to the Outback (I’m sure there’s some golf courses around Tampa Steve Spurrier hasn’t played yet) and LSU will head to the Cotton.
  • Chick-fil-a Bowl: the Chick-fil-a will occasionally pick one of the local schools, but generally they prefer to fill hotel rooms with traveling fans. Also, they seem to be high on Johnny Maziel, so that shapes up with for Texas A&M if they are available.
  • Gator Bowl: Georgia winds up in Jacksonville again, it would appear.
  • Music City Bowl: the candidates here are Mississippi, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt. Of those three, the preference is probably for Ole Miss, despite the Egg Bowl loss last weekend.
  • BBVA Compass and Liberty Bowls: Miss State is likely headed to the former and Vandy to the latter.

At-large selections

According to the above, the following bowls will lack teams: the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, the Poinsettia Bowl, the Advocare V100 Bowl, and the Heart of Dallas Bowl. I should note that I already slotted Notre Dame in the Pinstripe Bowl.

  • Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl: the MAC has a secondary agreement with this bowl as well as the Poinsettia and Heart of Dallas bowls. However, there is at least one document that I’ve found that suggests only one of the MAC’s various secondary bowls needs to take a team, and after that nothing is guaranteed. I’m going to go ahead and slot Toledo here.
  • Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl: this seems like a good landing spot for one of the ACC teams that needs a bid. The other possible landing spot for an ACC team would have to be the Heart of Dallas Bowl, so I’m going to with Syracuse here.
  • Poinsettia Bowl: this west coast bowl could well take a west coast team. 7-5 Arizona seems like a strong candidate.
  • Advocare V100 Bowl: an ACC team will be selected here, so that means they will likely be seeking another major conference team. I’m going to guess and put Oregon State here.
  • Heart of Dallas Bowl: finally, we’re left with Boston College and several Sun Belt, MAC, and C-USA teams. Given most of what I’m reading online, this looks like a landing spot for a major conference team, meaning BC wins out. 

Bids themselves should trickle out this week, especially for the Sun Belt and Mountain West. For everything else, I’ll do one last big update Saturday night.

This Weekend in College Football: Week 14

As usual, all times Eastern and predictions wrong.

Noon:

  • Ohio State @ Michigan (ABC): Michigan isn’t disaster at this point simply because Florida still makes them look good. Ohio State should win easily.
  • Florida State @ Florida (ESPN): Whoops!

    So … Georgia Southern’s passing downs success rate was higher than Florida’s. GS didn’t complete a pass.
    — Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC) November 26, 2013

    So yeah, not feeling good about UF’s chances here.

  • Duke @ North Carolina (ESPN2): I hate Duke so much. I also hate all the teams that managed to lose to Duke for no apparent reason after Georgia Tech went and dismantled them. I don’t have a very good idea who is going to win this game because I don’t think Duke is that good, but Carolina has been pretty not… great this year. I’m begrudgingly picking Duke.
  • Kansas State @ Kansas (FS1): Kansas is still awful, K-State rolls.
  • Temple @ Memphis (ESPNEWS): I’ll take Memphis’s three wins over Temple’s one.
  • Rutgers @ Connecticut (ESPNU): Again, I’ll take the five win team (Rutgers) over the one win team.
  • Minnesota @ Michigan State (BTN): It’s hard to see how things get any easier for Minnesota’s 70th-ranked offense against Michigan State’s defense of death.
  • Wake Forest @ Vanderbilt (SEC): Vandy is the superior team here.

12:30: Maryland @ North Carolina State (ACC): Maryland isn’t very good, but NC State is worse, so…

2:00: Colorado @ Utah (Pac12): Utah has lost five straight games since beating Stanford, making that game even more inexplicable. Despite this, they still appear to be more solid than Colorado.

2:30: North Texas @ Tulsa (FSN): North Texas should put an end to one of college football’s most disappointing outfits this season.

3:00: Brigham Young @ Nevada (CBSS): Nevada struggled much of the year before their upset last week over San Jose State. BYU had a wrenching loss to Notre Dame, but despite these factors, BYU is the better team.

3:30:

  • Georgia @ Georgia Tech (ABC): Once again, we need play basically flawlessly. Everything has to go right for us and bad for them. But, above all: To Hell With Georgia.
  • Alabama @ Auburn (CBS): This should be a great time, for a time. Alabama, though, is just too good, too efficient. Auburn’s strides since last season are nearly amazing, but I think this game will show how far they still have to go.
  • Pennsylvania State @ Wisconsin (ESPN): Wisconsin should roll as per usual.
  • Baylor @ Texas Christian (ESPN2): Baylor should be able to regain their mojo against a struggling TCU team.
  • Virginia Tech @ Virginia (ESPNU): UVA is awful, but that hasn’t stopped VPI from taking bad losses so far this season. That said, UVA is one of the few teams with a worse offense statistically than VPI’s, so they should be okay in this one.
  • Purdue @ Indiana (BTN): Once again, I’ll take Indiana’s four wins against Purdue’s single win.
  • Boston College @ Syracuse (ACC/FSN): Syracuse needs this win for bowl eligibility, but I just don’t think they’ll get it.

4:00: Iowa State @ West Virginia (FS1): These teams are evenly matched. That’s not really a good thing for WVU, who probably did not hire Dana Holgersen to run the nation’s 90th ranked scoring offense. Does Holgo still have the mojo to beat Iowa State? It’s probably going to be closer than many WVU fans would like.

7:00:

  • Notre Dame @ Stanford (FOX): The nation’s 75th ranked offense will be getting no favors from Stanford’s defense. The Tree should roll, much like a log rolling downhill.
  • Clemson @ South Carolina (ESPN2): I think Clemson is the better team here. However, that doesn’t mean I feel great about their chances. The ACC will almost certainly get two teams into the BCS first for the time ever if Clemson and Florida State win. More importantly for Clemson fans, they’ve lost four straight in this one. This is their best chance to overturn it so far.
  • Tennessee @ Kentucky (ESPNU): Tennessee’s motto at this point could well be “well, at least we’re not Kentucky”.

7:45: Texas Agricultural and Mechanical @ Missouri (ESPN): TAMU has lost three games this year, and I think it’s about to become four, and it’s almost entirely because of their awful defense.

8:00: California-Los Angeles @ Southern California (ABC): Call me crazy, but I’m actually calling this for USC. Southern Cal and DACOACHO have started to play like, well, Southern Cal. Meanwhile, after failing to upset either of the Pac-12’s top two teams, losing to Arizona State last week killed any chance for the preseason Pac-12 South favorites.

9:30: Arizona @ Arizona State (Pac12): Arizona’s out-of-nowhere upset followed losses to UCLA and Wazzou. I like the Sun Devils, but these teams actually look pretty evenly matched. This one could be interesting.

10:15: New Mexico @ Boise State (ESPN2): This one, less so. Boise should roll.

10:30: San Diego State @ Nevada-Las Vegas (ESPNU): And finally, a day that is bound to be gut-wrenching for many wraps up with a little affair out in Vegas. At stake in this Mountain West clash? Not much, due to the Aztech’s overtime loss to Fresno back in October. This should be close, at least for a bit, but SDSU should prevail.

This Week in College Football: Week 14

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Tuesday
7:00: Western Michigan @ Northern Illinois (ESPN2): One of these teams is 1-10. The other is 11-0. I think you guys got this one.

Thursday
7:30: Texas Tech @ Texas (FS1): Texas Tech has come down in recent weeks from their loft undefeated start of the season, going from 7-0 to 7-4. (Of course, considering their awful non-conference schedule, this wasn’t exactly a shock. Their best win on the season is probably SMU.) Texas started with a disaster of a season and managed to turn it around to something reasonable. The Longhorms are still in play for the title, and I think they’ll remain so after this.

8:00: Mississippi @ Mississippi State (ESPN): Miss State needs this Egg Bowl win to get to 6-6, but their offense is struggling to a pretty high degree as of late, and they needed to overtime to beat a beyond moribund Arkansas team last weekend. I’m going with Ole Miss here.

Friday
Noon:

  • Iowa @ Nebraska (ABC): Both of these teams struggled on offense, and Nebraska has had too many shaky wins against bad teams. Iowa’s defense appears legit, and this could be a classic Frentez-win, you know, a 9-7 Iowa win or some such.
  • Southern Methodist @ Houston (ESPN2): Houston’s been a slightly more well-rounded team over the course of the season. They’ve had three straight tough losses to the American’s “best” teams, so if they can get over that they should be good enough to beat SMU.
  • East Carolina @ Marshall (CBSS): This is a tough, tight battle for the C-USA East crown. I like ECU better but I can’t really explain why. This should be a good one if you get theCBS Sports network, though.

1:30: Bowling Green vs. Buffalo (@Orchard Park, NY; ESPNU): Did you know Bowling Green has the nation’s sixth ranked scoring defense? It’s true! I like them here.

2:30: Arkansas @ Louisiana State (CBS): Arkansas just isn’t very good. I mean, LSU isn’t great or anything, but they’re good enough to win.

3:00: Florida International @ Florida Atlantic (FS1): FAU is 5-6 and FIU is 1-10, so FAU by default.

3:30:

  • Washington State @ Washington (FOX): It feels like weird stuff always happens in the Apple Cup, but while Wazzou is improved, I think UDub is still just better.
  • Miami @ Pittsburgh (ABC): Miami has been extremely inconsistent, and honestly, that was true before they lost their best player. But the talent, man, the talent is still good enough to beat Pitt.
  • Fresno State @ San Jose State (CBSS): Living in San Jose, I know the local press have thought of this as something of a lost season for the Spartans. I’ve got two other reasons to pick against them, though. First, Fresno is pretty good. Second, they started running these awful TV ads last weekend that talked about the “tradition” of an inaugural edition of their “rivalry” with Fresno State. Wha?

7:00: Oregon State @ Oregon (FS1): The Ducks will be out for blood after last weekend. At least, they should be.

8:00: South Florida @ Central Florida (ESPN): USF’s last two games are losses to SMU and Memphis. They scored a combined 16 points in those games. This should be a gimme for UCF.

Bowl Predictions 2013: Week 6

Oregon’s dismantling and Baylor’s first lost could cost them both dearly in the BCS picture. Which one gets left out?

BCS

  • Still sticking with Alabama and Florida State. If something does happen with Florida State’s QB, they should still win their remaining games and make it to the national title game.
  • I think yesterday’s results hurt Oregon more than Baylor. For starters, that makes it Oregon’s second loss. Second, Baylor gets to play two more game and show that they’re still okay, while Oregon has just one more game. I may be forced to revise this after the polls come out to see how far each falls, but that’s how I see it right now.
  • I think Clemson is a BCS lock if they beat South Carolina.
  • I like Auburn over Missouri for the obligatory second BCS team. For starters, the Sugar will be forced to take Central Florida, so they’re going to want the biggest name they can get, an that is probably still a 2-loss Auburn over a 2-loss Mizzou.
  • The other candidates for that Oregon/Baylor final alternate spot in the Orange Bowl are probably 11-2 Michigan State and 10-2 Wisconsin.
  • Non-AQ watch: UCF is close to jumping Fresno in the computers. Fresno has two more games, including the MWC title game which will be either Utah State or Boise State. Meanwhile, UCF’s games are decidedly less attractive: South Florida and SMU. UCF also trails in the human polls, but remember, all UCF has to do is pass Fresno and/or Northern Illinois and that will shut out both. [Late edit: the in the newest BCS standings, NIU passed UCF. I will update the predictions to reflect this if I get a chance.]

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of time to do a full run-down this week. Things will get really interesting starting this Saturday night anyway, so I’ll have a full look at the whole picture on Sunday and Monday next week.

This Weekend in College Football: Week 13

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

  • Michigan State @ Northwestern (ESPN): Northwestern has had an awful time of it this season, and it doesn’t look to suddenly be getting any better with Sparty’s defense to contend with.
  • Duke @ Wake Forest (ESPN2): There often hasn’t been a lot riding on this game, has there? It’s hard to figure that Duke would lose here, no matter how much I’d like them to .
  • Oklahoma @ Kansas State (FS1): Even though they’re, shall we say, offensively challenged these days the Sooners still pack enough punch to beat K-State.
  • Cincinnati @ Houston (ESPNEWS): Tobby Tuberville does nothing but win (against really bad teams, that is). Houston came up just short against the AAC’s front runners in their past two games, so they have more than a good shot against the Bearcats.
  • Virginia @ Miami (ESPNU): When Miami lost to Duke last weekend, I wasn’t happy or sad. I was angry. Mainly, I was angry that we pretty much went out and beat Duke like they’re, well, Duke back in September, yet Miami and Virginia Tech manage to have the worst games of their seasons against the Blue Devils. Absolutely ridiculous. At any rate, Miami is still good enough to be able to easily beat Virginia.
  • Michigan @ Iowa (BTN): You could watch this game, but I don’t really know why. I guess I’m going with Michigan.
  • Mississippi State @ Arkansas (SEC): Miss State should be able to earn that tantalizing fifth win here, putting it all on the line for the Egg Bowl next weekend.

12:30:

  • Pittsburgh @ Syracuse (ACC): The ACC’s newbies face off! However, the ‘Cuse seems to be a much worse team at this point.
  • East Carolina @ North Carolina State (ACC): I’ve had NC State losing this game in the bowl predictions and such, but I’m not really sure how. ECU isn’t great or anything, but NCSU is kind of bad. I’m sticking with the Wolfpack, but this feels like an upset is a brewin’.

1:30: Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical @ Georgia Tech (espn3.com): Last week, Clemson played their most complete game of the season against GT. The Tigers won every phase of the game except for the “Robert Godhigh” phase. But, nonetheless, GT must march on. This team is pretty aggressively mediocre: we’ve lost to everyone better than us and beat everyone worse than us. Anyway, this game. Alabama A&M is 4-7 this year with a 4-5 record in SWAC play. They actually have not played any other FBS opponents this season, so it’s hard to compare exactly, but usually the level of play in the SWAC is not great. The key to this game are the same as they are to any opponent like this: don’t let them get into it. Hopefully we do a much better job of executing on the plan than we did last Thursday.

    3:30:

    • Texas Agricultural and Mechanical @ Louisiana State (CBS): I’ve been leaning toward TAMU on this one, but it is tough. You have TAMU’s excellent offense against LSU’s pretty good defense, and then LSU’s okay offense against TAMU’s awful defense. It’s a matter of which one screws up first. Given that, still leaning TAMU.
    • Brigham Young @ Notre Dame (NBC): I think BYU is a pretty legitimate team and can score the “upset” against Notre Dame.
    • Oregon @ Arizona (ABC/ESPN2): Thanks to USC last weekend, Oregon is back in the driver’s seat in the Pac 12 North, and this came shouldn’t cause them to have to give it up again.
    • Indiana @ Ohio State (ABC/ESPN2): Ohio State needs all the help they can get, and it’s likely even a blowout here will help that much.
    • Wisconsin @ Minnesota (ESPN): I suspect Minnesota’s four game winning streak and good feelings will face a pretty stark reality check against the Badgers this weekend and Sparty next weekend.
    • Idaho @ Florida State (ESPNU): FSU.
    • Colorado State @ Utah State (CBSS): Utah State’s only losses are still to BYU, Utah, Southern Cal, and Boise State. Those are all good teams. Colorado State, not so much.
    • Utah @ Washington State (Pac12): Wazzou can make a bowl if they win this game, but I actually don’t think they will. Utah is pretty solid and I’m not sure Wazzou is quite there yet. I am dreading that pick, though.
    • Boston College @ Maryland (ACC/FSN): BC is 6-4 mostly from beating the Marylands of the world. I expect this trend to continue.
    • Nebraska @ Pennsylvania State (BTN): What is Nebraska at this point? I have no clue. I do like their chances to beat Penn State, though.

    4:00:

    • California @ Stanford (FS1): The Big Game doesn’t feel quite so big when one of the teams is very, very bad. Stanford should roll.
    • New Mexico @ Fresno State (ESPNEWS): Fresno.

    7:00:

    • Arizona State @ California-Los Angeles (FOX): Until USC announced their intentions by beating Stanford last weekend, this looked like the battle in the Pac-12 South. For weeks in the bowl predictions I had been calling this game for UCLA, but I switched last week and I’m going to stick with the Sun Devils.
    • Vanderbilt @ Tennessee (ESPN2): This is one hard to pick, as Vandy is the better team but they always seem to have trouble with the Volunteers. I’m sticking with them anyway.
    • Kentucky @ Georgia (ESPNU): I think UGA’s chances here.
    • Tulsa @ Louisiana Tech (CBSS): When CBS Sports picked this game, I’m guessing they were thinking that Tulsa might be a little better than 2-8. Both of these offenses rank in the 100’s, and Tulsa’s defense is down there too, so I’m going with LaTech.

    7:45: Missouri @ Mississippi (ESPN): Mizzou continues their march toward a SEC East title with a win here. I think they’ll get it.

    8:00:

    • Baylor @ Oklahoma State (ABC): Your Saturday forecast for Stillwater, OK: highs in the low 40’s with game time temperature expected to be around freezing. Will that be enough to slow down Baylor? I’ve been expecting the Bears to take at least one loss in their last five games, and this is the last chance. Can Oklahoma State do it? At this point, if they can’t, I doubt anyone can. But given the conditions and what feels like inevitability, I’m going with the Cowboys.
    • Kansas @ Iowa State (FS1): I’m picking Kansas to win a game? This feels like madness.

    9:30: Southern California @ Colorado (Pac12): USC. (Can I take a second to continue to praise Rece Davis and the fact that he also uses the Internet’s jokes about Ed Orgeron on air? Also can I just say that I support DaCoachO being USC’s head coach because even though it will be a disaster it will be hilarious, well, at least if you’re not a USC fan?)

    10:30:

    • Washington @ Oregon State (ESPN2): I think this is actually an interesting game, though UDub has a slight edge on paper. So I’m going with the Huskies, but this should be a good nightcap.
    • Boise State @ San Diego State (CBSS): This game could be okay, but if Boise gets going early (and they’ve gotten going to the tune of 90 points the last two weeks), then it will be an even stiffer test for the Aztecs.