Prepare ye the bowls!

Prepare Ye The Bowls!

Season’s Greetings to you guys, as we come upon the final turn of the great college football season we have had. I always enjoy this sport because it brings up so much debate about who is the best, and who isn’t. No doubt that college football brings out the best, and sometimes the worst in the fanatics. It is my hope that we learn to temper those emotions to a minimum as we continue to talk about the sport we love.

With only a handful of regular games left, I have yet to see a bowl that has locked in two teams, but there are many stories of potential bowls that have come and gone. The first one was the Boise State vs. Ball State game, one a lot of people figured could be pretty good.

I didn’t agree.

If you read one of my blogs earlier, I said that I didn’t think these two teams should play against each other, because both were trying to earn the respect of the major conferences. You don’t earn that by playing each other, since you BOTH come from lesser conferences. You earn that by playing somebody from the power conferences.

And besides that, Boise State’s proposition was so one-sided that it was a joke. Boise State wanted Ball State to play in the Humanitarian Bowl….which by the way is the HOME FIELD of Boise State, and dare to call it “neutral”. You gotta be out of your minds!

To me, and no disrespect to Boise State, it just sounded too self serving to try to lure Ball State to their front door, and then beat them on their home turf, then use that excuse to claim that they are just as good as the Big 12, Pac-10, SEC, ACC, Big 10 or SEC. No Boise State, that won’t do it. You have to BEAT those teams, not talk about them.

So that bowl ain’t gonna happen, good for Ball State. They deserve every bit of respect as Boise State, and has every right to find leverage for themselves and their fans.

The Humanitarian Bowl matches up the WAC vs. usually an ACC team, in this case you could see Boise State vs. a mid card ACC team. But I have heard that maybe TCU might get the nod, which would be interesting. If so, this would be a decent game, but it still undermines the idea that Boise State should be trying to do. You need to play a power conference team, not a non-BCS team. And granted, TCU is very good, I still think you would have been better off playing a BCS team. We shall see how this shakes out, could you see maybe UNC if they take an ACC? Not sure, since UNC fans don’t travel that well.

We know that Navy is in the Eaglebank Bowl, or some call the Constitution Bowl, or whatever they are gonna call it. Because they are playing in Washington DC, and supposedly slotted against an ACC team, think Maryland, or maybe Wake Forest. But didn’t they already play Wake Forest? If so, then what about NC State? Hmmmm

The New Orleans Bowl seems to have already slotted Southern Mississippi against somebody from the Sun Belt. Southern Miss may never see the success they USED to have since they fired their former coach, who did nothing but give that team WINNING seasons and a great graduation rate. Shame on you Southern Miss. And playing a Sun Belt team will likely be one of the least watched bowls this year. Good luck on that.

(NOTE: No offense to any Sun Belt teams, in fact I wish you well)

It goes without saying that a bowl in Hawaii will certainly HAVE Hawaii in it as long as they qualify. So we know they will be playing somebody, and likely a team from the PAC 10. This actually is a eye-pleasing bowl, because who DOESN’T want to be in Hawaii? But because this isn’t one of the bigger bowls, we could be looking at a low seed Pac 10 team going there. Possibly California, if not then Arizona. The Pac-10 has almost half of its teams not qualified, so the pickings may be slim. It may be possible that the Hawaii Bowl could take a Big 12, or MWC team.

Rice will take the Houston Bowl, which is convenient for them and Conference USA, as they will likely play a team in the Big 12. This is interesting because since the Big 12 is so top heavy, you would hate to see a potential blow out. I mean, if Oklahoma State or Missouri plays Rice, I can see a 50-10 score real easy. If they take a Big 12 team, and to keep it competitive, the only teams I could see going might be Nebraska or Kansas, but rumor has it that Nebraska is going to play Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A bowl, formerly the Peach Bowl. Rice vs. Kansas? Still a potential for a lop-sided game, I wonder if the bowl will consider a Sun Belt team, or a Colorado State out of the Mountain West?

As mentioned, Georgia Tech is going to the Peach Bowl…and while I am at it, it sucks when businesses change the name of a bowl to fit their own selfish promotions… but that is business.

Georgia Tech plays in this bowl, and it is possible they could play a SEC team. If so, then one might consider an LSU, Mississippi or South Carolina team, but there is talk that maybe Nebraska has accepted the bid. That would actually be a nice matchup, one I would be willing to watch. Odd because bowls try to pick based on locale and potential of tickets to be sold, so Nebraska must have promised to sell a lot of tickets for the event.

There is a lot of juggling that may happen in the next few days, because bowls have conferences in mind, and some of them may not be able to fulfill it. For example, the SEC is almost guaranteed a spot in the National Title, as well as another BCS Bowl. That’s two teams right there. But if I am correct, the SEC also has ties to the Capital One Bowl, Outback Bowl, Chick-Fil-A Bowl, The Music City Bowl, The PapaJohns Bowl, and The Independence Bowl. That means a possible 8 spots for the SEC. I am not sure if the lesser bowls are willing to take a 6-6 team like Vanderbilt or Kentucky unless a bowl like the Music City, which is in Tennessee, takes a team like Kentucky or Vanderbilt. We will see.

The Mountain West could have as many as 5 spots, since Utah is going to be in the BCS, while TCU, BYU and Air Force are certainly assured a good bowl. Yet we have heard that TCU could take the bowl against Boise State, which would leave a gap for the MWC. Only 5 teams in this conference qualified for a bowl, so if TCU takes the Humanitarian Bowl, then that would leave an at large spot available.

The Big 10 has 7 teams eligible, but we know Penn State is going to the Rose Bowl, and there is talk that maybe Ohio State could be a second team in a BCS (not quite sure how, unless they are bringing lots of fans). But there are enough slots for the Big 10 to fill, from the Motor City Bowl, which matches up a Big 10 against a MAC, on up to the bigger bowls such as the Rose. The appealing thing about the Big 10 is that most bowls are played in warmer climates, like Florida, New Orleans, Atlanta and California. The Big 10 would be welcome to come out of the cold and into the warmer confines. For that reason I might imagine the Motor City Bowl being the least desired of the conference, but not ignored.

There is so much more to consider, but we must wait one more weekend…who will go where, who will be left out? We will all know these things soon.