Well, the internet connection here at the asimsports compound kind of sucks, so here’s a whole batch of stuff right through the 28th:

• Motor City Bowl, Central Michigan vs. Middle Tennessee State (ESPN, 6:30 CST): Well, about the only thing of interest to me is that I know a guy who went to MTSU. Unfortunately for him, CMU should roll.
• Emerald Bowl, Florida State vs. UCLA (ESPN, 7:00 CST): I assume that this game is still played at whatever they’re calling Pac Bell Park these days (AT&T Park I think, but whatever), which should give UCLA a slight home field advantage. I can’t forsee anyway that FSU would be into this game – I watched their game against Wake when they just absolutely quit, and then they lost to Florida. FSU also still doesn’t have an offense, as far as I know. UCLA should roll.
• Independence Bowl, Oklahoma St. vs. Alabama (ESPN, 3:30 CST): I know a couple things about this game. OSU is a decent team, and I hate Alabama and they just fired their coach. So I like OSU here.
• Texas Bowl, Kansas State vs. Rutgers (NFL Network, 7:00 CST): Rutgers wraps up their dream season with a bowl that has it’s like 4 name in 5 years and no one will watch because it’s on the NFL Network. Whoops. Kansas State isn’t very good and Rutgers should win, you know what they say about “if a tree falls in a forest and no one’s around…”? Yeah.
• Holiday Bowl, California vs. Texas A&M (ESPN, 7:00 CST): Now here we go. I don’t feel like it’s bowl season for real until the Holiday Bowl, usually because it provides the first real matchup of the season. I’m still a bit baffled the Holiday didn’t take Texas – despite TAMU’s victory over UT, I still feel the latter is probably a better team. At any rate, I like the Bears here.

That’s it, kids! Tune in the 28th or 29th for the remainder of the non-Jan. 1 bowls.

A little late, but yeah….I don’t have much to write, just want to keep up the streak. Anyway.

Hawaii has a decent team this year. However, it’s hard to predict what they’ll do against this Arizona State squad. They played Oregon State in their last regular season game and despite the massive home field advantage for the Warriors they still lost.

Once again, Hawaii has the home field advantage here. Will they be able to pull it off against a Pac-10 team this time? I think ASU is not nearly as good as OSU, so they have a shot and I’ve picked Hawaii to win. We’ll see what happens.

Lots of stuff on the plate the next couple of days.

• Georgia @ Georgia Tech (FSN, 6:00 PM CST) in basketball. Tech has struggled since their victory over Memphis in Maui. It’s hard to take away much of anything from the blowout over Centerary Monday night other than that Morrow shot well, which may indicate he has a finally recovered from an off-season injury. Georgia is playing very inspired ball right now and beat Gonzaga earlier this week. Tech has played with little inspiration, especially on defense. Hopefully we can crank it up tonight.
• New Orleans Bowl, Troy vs. Rice (ESPN2, 7:00 PM CST): WTF, mate? Rice makes a bowl for the first time since 1961, Troy makes a bowl for the second time in their history. No idea who is going to win this. C-USA is obviously a better conference than the Sun Belt, but I mean, we’re talking about Rice here. I’ve seen Troy in person this season, but I’m not sure that helps. I don’t even know if Rice still runs that wishbone/flexbone offense – I’d have to guess not since they have a WR who’s caught 20 TDs. Troy runs a wide open offense – usually 4 or 5 WR on the field at a given time. I expect some points to be scored, but the question is who will come out on top? I picked Troy here, but it could go either way.
• Papajohns.com Bowl, East Carolina vs. South Florida (ESPN2, Noon CST): There is nothing remotely interesting about this game except that it’s being played down in Birmingham at the legendary Legion Field. Expect to see lots of Iron Bowl footage during the game. I probably won’t even be able to see it. Also, I thought the “.com” thing died like 3-4 years ago? Even the Insight.com Bowl is now the Insight Bowl. Just silly. I also like USF for what that’s worth.
• New Mexico Bowl, New Mexico vs. San Jose State (ESPN, 3:30 CST): Did You Know that SJSU has their own passenger jet plane? It’s true – I saw it while I was landing at San Jose’s airport. It was one of those old tri-engine jets from the early 70’s, like the DC-10 or the Lockheed 1101 or some such. Anyway, while New Mexico has home field advantage here, they’re just not a good football team. SJSU is back from the basement of the WAC and should take care of business.
• Armed Forces Bowl, Utah vs. Tulsa (ESPN, 7:00 CST): The Mountain West started well, but I don’t see New Mexico winning and I don’t see Utah winning either, though I don’t really know to be honest. Tulsa should be much more motivated than Utah’s previous bowl opponent, and Tulsa is a lot closer to Fort Worth than Salt Lake City is, so I give Tulsa the edge.

That takes care of the bowls through Saturday. I’ll put something up about the Hawaii Bowl on Saturday night or sometime Sunday. Enjoy the holidays and the bowl games, kids!

In a recent article in the Macon Telegraph:

Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson expects one-on-one coverage from West Virginia’s secondary, which allowed 236 passing yards per game this season.

“We see opportunities there,” Johnson said of watching film of WVU’s cornerbacks, “so yeah, we’re looking forward to it.”

Opportunities indeed. Hopefully we can take advantage of them.

Couple of news items of interest to, well, me before I talk about tomorrow’s bowl game.

• FSN fires one of my least favorite announcers ever. It’s hard to explain how idiotic I thought Bob Rathburn was. My only question is whether or not he’s going to continue doing other FSN broadcasts, namely, college basketball and baseball. Now only if FOX would fire Joe Buck and ESPN would fire Joe Morgan, we’d be in business.
• CB Kenny Scott and QB Reggie Ball declared academically ineligible. I don’t have a lot to say about this, except I remember being on that field after that Auburn game and carrying Reggie off. Times have changed mightily since then.

So, the Las Vegas Bowl: BYU-Oregon. Oregon is an okay Pac-10 team, meanwhile, BYU is the best Mountain West team. It’s hard to get a read on that, though. BYU lost to both of the BCS conference teams they played (Boston College and Arizona), but if there were any justice in this world Oregon would be 6-6. Oregon has also lost 3 straight games, including a loss to their rival. Meanwhile, BYU hasn’t lost since September 16th and beat their rival. The edge, for me, has to go to BYU – these are two teams heading in completely opposite directions. That said, I only like the Stormin’ Mormons by a touchdown, so I’m not certain of this one.

Also, my completely bowl predictions have been uploaded, and the link to your right is updated with the new URL.