New Year's Day Bowls

I love New Year's Day football.  My memories of spending days watching football on New Year's Day are nice, especially in years when I won the FBP. So have a cup of coffee, a cinnamon roll, and later a nice snack and a beer, and enjoy the show.  We got bowls people. And with the looming play-off, this may be the last year we get to enjoy such a Smorgasbord of fun.

Bowl One - TaxSlayer Gator Bowl

 After spending my morning reading about how the Tea Party is going to destroy any type of state government spending in my state, I've decided to rename the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl to the TaxSlayerTeaParty bowl. Northwestern (sorry CandaceMargaret) has an all time bowl record of 1-9.  Their only win came in the 1948 Rose Bowl against California 20 to 14. I guess Northwestern fans made a pact with the Devil that day, because they haven't won since. I personally witnessed their loss to Missouri in the Alamo Bowl in 2008. Admirably they keep going to bowls though. This year they face Mississippi State, an SEC team. The SEC did lose last night when LSU choked it away to Clemson (couldn't convert a 3rd and 2 at midfield to seal the victory). The Bulldogs and Wildcats open our New Year's day.

Bowl Two - Heart of Dallas Bowl

What do you do when Jerry Jones swoops in and builds a billion dollar stadium and steals the bowl game named after your historic stadium (the Cotton Bowl) located in the heart of your metropolis? You organize another bowl game and call it the Heart of [insert your city name here] Bowl, that's what you do.  You play the game on an obscure network and get two teams that had fair seasons in their major conferences to wake up early on New Year's Day to battle it out. To the gambler there are several questions that go through your mind as you pick. Which team really wants to play this game? (In other words, do the Oklahoma State kids really want to play in Dallas at a minor bowl game?) Which team got to bed at a decent hour the night before the game? (In other words, did the Purdue kids slip past the idiot assistant coach and break curfew to party in the West End district of Dallas?) Which team is sick and tired of their coach and just wants to go home and get some home cooking? (In other words, do the OSU kids hate the "I'm a man; I'm forty" shtick of Coach Gundy?) You just don't know. And that's what makes this so hard.

Bowl Three - Outback Bowl

 It's the Ol' Ball Coach (Steve Spurrier) versus the Wolverines of Michigan. This is usually a good game every year between the SEC and Big Ten. South Carolina was doing well this season until they lost their stud running back to a horrific knee injury. Michigan has had a fair season; they are 8 and 4. This is the hurt QB bowl. Michigan's Denard Robinson has nerve damage in his arm and probably will play running back instead of QB. Spurrier will probably play two QBs. The Gamecocks are favored by 4.5.

Bowl Four - Capital One Bowl

I hate Bo Pellini. He coaches Nebraska. He continuously gets caught on the sidelines cussing out refs and his own players for crying out loud. They choked in the Big 10 title game and lost to unranked Wisconsin. Now, they have to play the Bulldogs of Georgia, who won the SEC East this year. They barely lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship game. I think they should wipe the field with Nebraska. So, obviously, Nebraska will win.

Bowl Five - Rose Bowl (presented by Vizio)

The granddaddy of them all is the Rose Bowl. (It's really the Vince Young Bowl. I'll let you look up the history.) Stanford plays Wisconsin. This will be a running slug fest and should be fun to watch if you like smash mouth running. I do. Wisconsin upset Nebraska and really was the fourth best team in the Big 10. (Ohio State was best but couldn't play in a bowl, then Penn State - I won't comment further, and then Nebraska - see above paragraph.) Stanford is just a solid team, beating higher regarded Oregon to win the Pac 12 North and then slaughtering UCLA in the Pac 12 Championship. Wisconsin lost their head coach to Arkansas and their athletic director and former head coach Barry Alvarez takes over the reigns. Stanford should win - key word being "should."

Bowl Six - Discover Orange Bowl

Well this is the Cinderella Bowl. Northern Illinois from a mid major conference plays Florida State from the ACC (for now). The Seminoles should win this, but will NIU come in with all the motivation and hang in there and scare FSU.  We will see. I just like NIU because they knocked OU out of consideration for a BCS bowl game, but I picked FSU.  FSU blogs are actually pessimistic about their team complaining about losses to NCSU and Florida. They also don't like the close game against Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship.  They think that despite the huge talent differential FSU is an underachieving bunch that could be upset by a motivated team from Northern Illinois that feature a stud quarterback named Jordan Lynch. Should be fun.

Hey, enjoy the games and Happy New Year.  I hope 2013 treats us all well.