What You Have Been Waiting For: My Bowl Predictions

There are only 32 bowl games this year, which proves that the NCAA is more interested in rewarding mediocrity than in rewarding great teams. (And don’t even get me started with the idea that they aren’t interested in money, and that a playoff wouldn’t bring in money and…..okay, I’ll stop.)

Some of you have been waiting to see who I would pick for each bowl game, I know (ha ha). Without keeping you waiting any longer, here you go:

1. San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl (by the way, I just wonder if people who have money in this credit union are upset that they aren’t getting more interest on their savings…hmmmm.). Utah vs. Navy.

• Winner: Utah by 10 (hey, Navy’s coach is leaving)

2. R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. Memphis vs. Florida Atlantic (has there ever been a more boring match-up?

• Winner: Florida Atlantic by 3

3. Papajohn.com Bowl (no, I’m not making this one up). Cincinnati vs. Southern Mississippi

• Winner: Cincinnati by 20 (at least)

4. New Mexico Bowl. Nevada vs. New Mexico. Yes, New Mexico is in the New Mexico Bowl, but New Mexico’s starting RB is suspending for the New Mexico Bowl.

• Winner: Nevada by 9

5. Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl. UCLA vs. BYU. Didn’t they already play this year? Oh, yeah, they did (good matchup, guys!).

• Winner: BYU gets revenge for their loss; Cougars by 8

6. Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. Great game here (dripping sarcasm) with Boise State playing East Carolina.

• Winner: Boise State names their score (at least 25)

7. Motor City Bowl. Purdue vs. Central Michigan. They already played this year, too. Isn’t this a sign there are too many bowl games?

• Winner: Purdue (again) by 13

8. Pacific Life Holiday Bowl. Now, this really is a great matchup! Arizona State vs. Texas in a bowl that consistently comes down to the wire.

• Winner: Texas (in an upset) by 4

9. Champs Sports Bowl. Isn’t it funny how the corporate sponsors don’t even try to give the bowl game a legitimate name anymore? Boston College plays Michigan State in this game.

• Winner: Boston College by 10

10. Texas Bowl. Texas Christian vs. Houston (which, the last time I checked, was in Texas).

• Winner: Houston by 6

11. Emerald Bowl. Maryland vs. Oregon State (terrible game, good almonds)

• Winner: Oregon State by 10

12. Meineke Car Care Bowl. Connecticut vs. Wake Forest.

• Winner: Wake 4, Connecticut 2 (unless they can fake a few more fair catches). This game will be terribly low-scoring.

13. AutoZone Liberty Bowl. Central Florida vs. Mississippi State

• Winner: Central Florida has the great running back (Kevin Smith), but State has a good defense. I think this might be the surprise “great” bowl game of the season: UCF by 4

14. Valero Alamo Bowl. Valero? Penn State vs. Texas A&M.

• Winner: Penn State. It’s not like A&M players will be putting it all on the line for their coach!

15. PetroSun Independance Bowl. Alabama’s “$32million for the same bowl we went to last year with Coach Shu**” Fightin‘ Sabans vs. Colorado and their New Age coach Hawkins.

• Winner: Colorado by 2 in a sloppy game

16. Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (your tax dollars at work!). California-Berkley vs. Air Force.

• Winner: Air Force. Cal wouldn’t be so un-patriotic as to beat Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl, would they?

17. Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl (isn’t this the one that used to be the Poulan Weedeater something or other Bowl?). Georgia Tech vs. Fresno State. Gotta love a team from the deep south playing a team from Cali in Idaho!

• Winner: Fresno State by 7

18. Brut Sun Bowl (wouldn’t it be cool if it were the “B-R-U-T-E” Sun Bowl? It would be more manly, for sure). South Florida vs. Oregon in the battle of “We used to be #2 teams.”

• Winner: South Florida in a great game by 3

19. Gaylord Hotels (read: Opryland) Music City (read: Nashville) Bowl. Kentucky vs. about 13 players from Florida State after a zillion team members were suspended. If UK loses this….

• Winner: Kentucky over the Semi-Noles by 12

20. Insight Bowl (does that mean the coaches are smart?). Indiana vs. Oklahoma State. Indiana is one of the best stories of the season, but…

• Winner: Oklahoma State by 9

21. Chick-fil-A Bowl. Again, this used to be the Peach Bowl, then the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, now they just don’t care about fruit! The Presidents of the United States of America would be angry (“millions of peaches, peaches for me…”). Clemson Tigers vs. Auburn Tigers.

• Winner: Clemson by 1

22. Outback Bowl (winner gets a Bloomin‘ Onion, but has to return it so the NCAA doesn’t put the program on probation). Tennessee vs. Wisconsin. Big 10 over-rated vs. SEC runner’s up.

• Winner: Tennessee by 10 (although we thought they’d walk through this game last year, too…)

23. AT&T Cotton Bowl. Missouri (who should be in the BCS) vs. Arkansas. I just wonder if Bobby Petrino has put his name in as the Falcons new head coa…oh, yeah. Anyone else looking? Hasn’t he been in Fayetteville long enough already?

• Winner: Missouri by 12

24. Konica Minolta Gator Bowl (shouldn’t Florida be contractually obligated to play in this game every year?) Texas Tech vs. Virginia in a very intriguing match-up.

• Winner: After last year’s Texas Bowl, I’m never going against Mike Leach in a bowl game. Texas Tech by 5, after they fall behind by 10 early.

25. Capital One Bowl (what’s in your stadium?). Michigan says goodbye to Lloyd Carr vs. Florida.

• Winner: Florida by 21. Hey, they run the spread!

26. Rose Bowl presented by Citi (and brought to you by…). Illinois (how in the world did they get into a BCS game?) vs. Southern California.

• Winner: USC by 18

27. Allstate Sugar Bowl. Hawai’i vs. Georgia. Last year, Boise State proved the WAC could play with the big boys of the BCS bowls. Can Hawai’i make it two in a row against a white-hot Bulldog team?

• Winner: Georgia by 7 (although there will be points galore in this one)

28. Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. West Virginia (minus a QB [
maybe] , minus a coach [maybe]) vs. Oklahoma (who lost to Boise State in this same game last year).

• Winner: Oklahoma by 17 (at least)

29. FedEx Orange Bowl. This is a classic “strength-on-strength” match-up. Kansas’s O vs. Virginia Tech’s D.

• Winner: With over a month to prepare the offense, I’m going with Kansas by 8

30. International Bowl (featuring two teams from America). Rutgers vs. Ball State.

• Winner: Ray Rice will run wild over the BSU defense. Rutgers by 20

31. GMAC Bowl (a.k.a. your car payments hard at work). Bowling Green vs. Tulsa. This game should have about 90 points total.

• Winner: Tulsa 50, Bowling Green 42

32. Allstate BCS National Championship Game. With all the commercial breaks and about a 2-hour halftime, I’m figuring this game will only take about 5 1/2 hours. LSU tries to become the first 2-loss team to win a national championship in the BCS era, vs. Ohio State, who got embarrassed in this game last year.

• Winner: Expect more of the same: LSU by 14

Happy bowling!