The time of year is upon us, where way too many college football bowls are played, and way too much disinterest is built up by the public. No one cares about the PapaJohns.com bowl or the Beef O'Brady's bowl. Those games simply do not matter, unless of course, your team is in the bowl. But once the new year comes, bowl games start to matter, the BCS becomes an entity and the national tunes in. As always we have 5 BCS games, and are usually guaranteed two thrillers and two blowouts, with a fifth game being a crapshoot.
Rose Bowl
Oregon vs. Wisconsin
Monday, January 2nd, 5 PM.
I'd have to certainly say that generically the Rose Bowl is my favorite bowl. Set in gorgeous Southern California, and always played at twilight, the Rose Bowl provides us with the most exciting sites of the entire bowl season. With that being said, Oregon always provides us with excitement no matter who they're playing. You know they're going to bring out some excessively sick uniforms, and the Ducks are certainly going to score some points, even with Wisconsin's defense only allowing 17 pts a game. I'm obviously biased toward Oregon, because well, Wisco plays in the Big Ten, and I think the Big Ten is just a B1G crock of you know what. Though, I will give transfer QB Russell Wilson credit, the kid can sling it and has done a magnificent job of allowing the Wisco offense to go beyond the complexities of the average Big Ten high school offense. Wisconsin should be undefeated, if it wasn't for a couple ridiculous hail mary's against OSU and Michigan State. Wisco rallied after those back-to-back losses by colcoking every single team they played, including a statement 42-7 win over #19 Penn State. They then capped their season off with a close 42-39 win over #13 Michigan State in the inaugural Big Ten Championship. I think we're going to see a lot of points in this game, including some magnificent runs by Kenjon Barner and LaMichael James. I simply see Oregon's explosive offense as too much for any Big Ten team, even as good as I think Wisconsin is.
Oregon 41, Wisconsin 35
Fiesta Bowl
Oklahoma State vs. Stanford
Monday, January 2nd, 8:30 PM.
Might as well be the National Championship #2. If there was no such thing as the SEC, these two teams would clearly be the BCS leaders. They are leaps and bounds better than BCS teams ranked 5th through 10th, but Alabama and LSU are just astronomically good. Anyways, I'm going to bet my bottom dollar on this being the bowl game of the year. Last time I checked Andrew Luck knows how to shred a defense and Justin Blackmon could catch a bullet out of a pistol. We've got offensive play makers abound and two defenses that simply can't keep up; probably the reason why they aren't playing in the National Championship. I'm glad Oklahoma State isn't playing Oregon, because if they were, then someone couldn't wear their unreal metallic helmets, and that would catastrophic. Phew, well now we get to see "swagger personified"in two bowls. Once they get on the field we should see an offensive slugfest, laced with all types of big and ridiculous plays. Oklahoma State's forty-something year old QB, Brandon Wheedan has shown that he can put up stats that rival Andrew Luck. Even though Stanford has the superior QB, I think Justin Blackmon can change a game with one play, and that makes the Ok. State passing offensive slightly more explosive. On the other hand, Stanford's running back Stepfan Taylor is one of the most underrated backs in the country, and I think he could be the key to a Stanford win. Though statistically the Cardinal are the better team, I think the Cowboys have something to prove to the world after not getting a bid to the National Championship game.
Oklahoma State 49, Stanford 47.
Sugar Bowl
Michigan Vs. Virginia Tech
The first thought that entered my mind when these two were paired up to play in a BCS game: blowout. That thought is still ringing through my mind today. Michgan, as I've mentioned a thousand times before, is the king of underachieving. They're like the San Jose Sharks on steroids, underperforming at it's finest. I'm not even sure that Virginia Tech deserves to be in the BCS mix after getting stomped out in the underwhelming game that is the ACC Championship. Luckily for the Hokies, they're playing Michigan. Expect Denard Robinson to throw a couple duds and get himself rocked by the 8th ranked scoring defense. Virginia Tech's schedule is like a Sunday stroll through Central Park, excluding the two games against Clemson, which they obviously lost. Michigan slipped into the BCS mix by surviving a painfully easy schedule as well. This game should be tagged as the "Underserving Bowl." Should have just thrown Arkansas and South Carolina in their, who cares if they were 3rd and 4th in the SEC respectively. Anyways, watch this game to be unwatchable by the 2nd half.
Virginia Tech 31, Michigan 7.
Orange Bowl
Clemson Vs. West Virginia
Wednesday, January 4th, 8 PM.
You can check this one off the blowout list as well. Clemson's offense is explosive, while West Virginia won the Big East, college football's fake BCS conference, by default. Clemson's freshman sensation, Sammy Watkins, will have a field day. Expect more than 300 yards of combined offense from the young gun, and expect this one to be over in a flash, literally. West Virginia got tattooed at home by LSU in it's only true test. A win against #23 Cincinnati was their season defining win, and pretty much won them the Big East. But a blowout loss against Syracuse and a loss at home vs. Louisville should be a tell tale sign that this year's Big East Champ won't be an anomaly.
Clemson 41, West Virginia 14.
BCS National Championship
LSU Vs. Alabama
Monday, January 9th, 8:30 PM.
I'm not sure I need to explain myself about this anymore. We have the two best teams in the country going at it. Don't expect it to be the highest scoring game in BCS history, but as don't expect it to be 9-6. Think about how exciting the first matchup of these teams would be if they had scored two more touchdowns each? 23-20 is a lot more exciting than 9-6. That's what I'm leaning toward in this game. This game will be much more refined and expect less turnovers, less "wide rights" and more big plays. I'm going to take Alabama in the rematch, I just think it's too hard to beat the same team twice in a season, let alone beat the #2 team in the nation twice.
Alabama 24, LSU 21.
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