January First

January 1st isn't what it used to be. I used to know the day's schedule by heart. Today I've had to search the listings for just when and on what station these games will be played. So here we go people...

Dallas Football Classic: Really? You are playing the Cotton Bowl in a week? Not today? Here's how weird the college football world has become. The sponsors of the Dallas Football Classic say the reason they have created the game is to bring football back to the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day. They mean the Cotton Bowl as in the building. The Cotton Bowl the game is being played in Arlington at Jerryworld (What we Texans call the new stadium the Cowboys entertain in). This game features Texas Tech and Northwestern. Tech plays in the Big XII which is 1-4 in their bowl games so far. Northwestern has a chance folks. The Big 10 ain't bad.

Outback Bowl is the retiring Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators versus the "hell no I'm not retiring" Joe Paterno and Penn State. Gators have stolen the Texas D Coordinator as their new coach. Hate them. Go Penn State.

The Gator Bowl has Michigan and Mississippi State. Both teams do not believe in defense. This should be a high scoring affair. The Michigan QB was the early darling of the media this season, but he faded against good competition. Mississippi State didn't pay Cam Newton enough to play there so they faded too. It's the fading bowl. At least they didn't disappear like Texas.

Capital One has Michigan State and Alabama. I think this will be a good game. Nick Saban the Alabama coach used to coach at Michigan State, and then he left them to go to LSU, then the Miami Dolphins, and then Alabama. I don't think he is a very good guy, but he can coach. I wanted him to be the coach of Texas instead of Mack Brown. But, that's water under the bridge now. This bowl will be all about whether Saban can motivate his studs to play.

Rose Bowl: TCU against Wisconsin. I like this match-up. The TCU program is based on all the Texas recruits that don't go play for the Big XII schools. They are undersized usually as high school athletes. The TCU coach figures out though who can play and who might still grow. Often he hits on a kid that comes out of nowhere his senior year in high school. It's working. These kids go to TCU and they are hungry to prove the recruiting services missed on them. So they work and play hard. However, Wisconsin features big boys running. TCU may not have the power to withstand that pounding. Should be fun to watch.

Fiesta Bowl: The Mismatch Bowl. I'm glad I'll be at the Spurs game tonight and can miss this one. If Oklahoma loses to Connecticut, the team should walk back to Norman. Oklahoma is on a dreadful bowl losing streak though where they flop and either lose against underdogs (Boise St. and West Virginia) or get blown out (Florida). They better win this against UCONN, which is a basketball school and shouldn't have been in the BCS after a four loss season.

Enjoy your football people.