It seems like just yesterday when college football fans and writers were speculating about 4 undefeated teams when it looked like Alabama, Oregon, Baylor and Ohio State could go unbeaten. It turns out that none of those teams are in the National Championship game. Championship Saturday saw Stanford winning the Pac-12 again as well and Florida State destroying Duke to punch their ticket to Pasadena. After a championship Saturday that gave us all the answers we needed for the BCS Championship thanks to Auburn running all over Missouri and Ohio State stubbing their toe against Michigan State, we are heading into bowl season.
It’s too early for me to give you strong predictions on all the BCS games, but you know I will when we get a little closer to the games. What I will do now is give my 5 most interesting bowl match ups with my reasons behind each pick. Often times, the best bowl match ups are not the BCS games even though they get the majority of the attention. Here’s my list:
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Utah State Aggies (8-5) vs Northern Illinois Huskies (12-1)
Before you call me crazy, remember how fun the Belk Bowl was last year? Well this game has the best chance of being that type of game this year. Even though Utah State lost star QB Chuckie Keeton for the season with a knee injury, Darell Garretson has done a fine job filling in. Plus on the other side we have the likely 2nd place finisher in the Heisman in Jordan Lynch who has a chance to go 3000 passing yards/2000 rushing yards on the season. We could get some good ol MACtion right here.
Oregon players whined about the Rose Bowl not being a big deal but I’m willing to bet that they would trade places with Stanford right now. If they come motivated, they should send Mack Brown out with a bad loss. The big question here is will the Texas players try to “win one for the gipper” or just fold up? A focused Oregon team could use a blowout win as momentum heading into next years Championship run with the players they have returning. We will see if Mack truly does have 9 lives or he just calls it quits after this one.
This is a matchup between two teams that figured to be playing for much more when the season started. Miami started on fire at 7-0 before losing their next three games. On the Louisville side, they started 6-0 before a stunning 3 point loss to UCF that ended their BCS dreams. That game also ended Teddy Bridgewater’s Heisman hopes(so I added a little career highlights video for you guys), though I disagree that it should.There is also a nice side storyline of Teddy facing off against the team he originally committed to in what should be his final collegiate game.
How could you not tune in for Clowney’s last game? This is the last chance we will get to see him in a college uniform so I added a highlight package from last year since most people wrongly think he was better then. If that wasn’t enough Wisconsin is underrated and quietly posted 9 wins this season in Gary Andersen’s first season. Linebacker Chris Borland is the real deal and is a ton of fun to watch. It will be interesting to see how South Carolina’s defensive line/linebackers hold up against the combo of James White and Melvin Gordon.
This game has the potential to be one of the best games of the bowl season if both teams get over the hangover from their last game. Oklahoma St had a shot to get an at-large BCS bid but stumbled against bitter rival Oklahoma. Missouri had a shot to win the SEC and go to the Sugar Bowl but I think Auburn is still running up and down the field on them. the Cowboys bring their own potent rushing attack into the game and will surely follow Auburn’s game plan. This one should be good when the two old Big 12 teams hook up in JerryWorld.
