Monday, December 28
5:00 PM ET Texas A&M vs. Georgia (-7)
ADVOCARE V100 INDEPENDENCE BOWL
Tuesday, December 29
4:30 PM ET UCLA vs. Temple (+4)
EagleBank BOWL
8:00 PM ET No. 15 Miami (FL) vs. No. 25 Wisconsin (+3.5)
CHAMPS SPORTS BOWL
Wednesday, December 30
4:30 PM ET Bowling Green vs. Idaho*
ROADY'S HUMANITARIAN BOWL
8:00 PM ET No. 20 Arizona vs. No. 22 Nebraska (Even)
PACIFIC LIFE HOLIDAY BOWL
Thursday, December 31
12:00 PM ET Houston vs. Air Force (+4.5)
BELL HELICOPTER ARMED FORCES BOWL
2:00 PM ET Oklahoma vs. No. 21 Stanford (+9.5)
BRUT SUN BOWL
3:30 PM ET Navy vs. Missouri (-6.5)
TEXAS BOWL
6:00 PM ET Minnesota vs. Iowa State (+2.5)
INSIGHT BOWL
7:30 PM ET No. 11 Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee (+6)
Chick-fil-A BOWL
Friday, January 1
11:00 AM ET Northwestern vs. Auburn (-7)
OUTBACK BOWL
1:00 PM ET No. 16 West Virginia vs. Florida State (+3)
KONICA MINOLTA GATOR BOWL
1:00 PM ET No. 13 Penn State vs. No. 12 LSU (+2.5)
CAPITAL ONE BOWL
4:30 PM ET No. 8 Ohio State vs. No. 7 Oregon (-4)
ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY CITI
8:30 PM ET No. 5 Florida vs. No. 3 Cincinnati (+12.5)
ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL
That's enough to bite off for now, I'll come back to look at the JAN2-7 games later. Here's my guesses for the coming days:
TxAM 24 - UGA 45
UCLA is only favored by 4? Over Temple? Take the bruins and run.
MIA favored by 3.5? Take Wisconsin for the win. Miami is either disappointed with the bowl they got, or excited to be in a bowl at all....and WISC is there for business as usual = prepared, focused, hungry. They will win over MIA by 10+
Unranked OU favored by more than a touchdown over STAN? I'm pretty sure STAN will win, but I am very, very confident they will at least cover. There's a chance they not only win, but blow OU out, considering how far OU has fallen and can't stop sucking wind after each beating
VT favored by 6 over TN? Actually, that's probably pretty accurate. I could see this being a 9-3 game, as I don't think TN can move the ball against VT, and I expect Monte Kiffin to have the defense fairly well prepared for Mr. Taylor and company (gotta love a kid named Tyrod). I predict neither team scores more than 20, and VT wins on the scoreboard while Lame Kitten claims another moral victory.
AU over NW by a touchdown, so they say.....NW is another Big10+1 team, and the conference typically knows to come down to Florida in DEC-JAN for unfinished business (I do respect Big10+1 teams in regular bowls in Florida, ya notice? That comes from getting our teeth kicked in my them, regularly
). AU is still experimenting with it's play calling and figuring out what it can do, what it wants to do, and what really works. I suppose it could really go either way, but I'm going to stick with AU (not just SEC homerism, I *do* think they'll win).
WVU - FSU, the ...??? bowl? What do you call Bowden's last game? A loss
WVU stomps them by a lot more than 3, more like WVU 31 - FSU 6.
PSU - LSU, a field goal difference in the line, #12 vs #13, perhaps one of the best, most even and interesting matchups of this bowl season so far. Here I
want to play SEC homer and go with LSU, but what it's going to come down to is Joe Pa putting too much conservatism in his gameplan (how much does he really call these days, anyhow?) and Miles putting too much risk in his gameplan (has he gotten burned enough to learn, or not?). Close game, one I look forward to watching, and I cannot honestly pick who I think will win. I want the SEC to win, though nothing against PSU other than needing another geriatric coach to get off the sidelines. Here's to a good game, may the best team win, despite their coaching
tOSU - OU, by about a field goal as well. #7 vs #8, our first BCS bowl game, the grandaddy of them all, etc. I know I've made my bias clear for tOSU to lose, both by my liking of the Quack Attack and of my general distaste for all things buckeye. My lust wants tOSU 12 - OU 45, but my head says it'll be more like tOSU 6 - OU 27.
UF - Cinci, with a 12 point spread? Who knows wtf is going to happen here with coaches going every which way, emotions all over the place, CIN riding high for getting their conference championship, UF being low after losing theirs (badly). I would say this is the biggest point spread in a game that could go either way
The biggest two questions in my mind are if UF's defense can contain CIN's offense, and if the UF offense is going to show up at all. My money says our defense tries to keep us in it, but our offense kills us. Maybe special teams wins the game for us with field position, I dunno. I hope to win, I don't expect to win or lose....I'll wait and see how this one plays out.