Bowling!

34.

34 bowls. 68 teams. There's 120 teams in Division 1-A (or FBS for the super-literal among you.) and more than half of them make the post-season. Ridiculous, yes?

Oh, well. Let's size up the bowl picture thus far, starting over a week ago with the...

Eaglebank Bowl: Wake Forest-29, Navy-19

Normally we don't deal with unranked teams here at CFR, but we'll make an exception here (and in about 20 other bowls...) This game was a rematch, and not the best one. It was two weird option offenses facing off against one another, and Wake won. Do these small bowls merit such analysis? No. So let's get brief!

New Mexico Bowl: Colorado State-40, Fresno State-35

So...I watched this game out of the corner of my eye while eating dinner. Fresno lost by five but got outgained by 185 yards. So...I wouldn't say that this one was as close as the score says it was. Honestly, most people couldn't care less about this game. But, come on, this wasn't anywhere near the worst bowl matchup this year!

MagicJack St. Petersburg Bowl: South Florida-41, Memphis-14

Know what I'm sick of? Teams getting to play in home games for their bowls. Saint Pete is a bit closer for South Florida (hometown: Tampa, just a bridge away) than it is for Memphis (I am not explaining where Memphis's hometown is. Wikipedia it). There is a distinct home field advantage, and I'm not just talking about crowd noise. Teams are built around the weather that they are used to. The pass-wacky spread offense would not work well in Michigan, especially if there's a snowstorm going on. So South Florida had a leg up on Memphis before this game started. And this is a trend that's been going on for a while now.

Seriously, USC playing in Pasadena every year? It's ridiculous! Hawaii in Hawaii? Why? Boise playing on that hideous blue abomination they call a field? Come on! It's just a little bit silly, at least as far as I'm concerned...Oh, and South Florida destroyed the Tigers thus proving that the #6 team in the Big East is better than the #5 team in C-USA. I guess this is important.

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl: Arizona-31, #16 BYU-21

So much for the Cougars being potential BCS busters, eh? Honestly, it's best that this defeat happened here, rather than on the big stage where Hawaii failed so miserably last year. As for 'Zona...good to see them win a bowl. I guess. The PAC-10 still has a lot to prove this bowl season, but they got off to a good start, beating a ranked opponent from a conference that owned them during the regular season. (Positive PAC-10 press?! What am I doing?!)

R + L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Southern Miss-30, Troy-27

Nothing snarky to say here. Other than the fact that Southern Miss has the ugliest uniforms known to man. Seriously, looks like they killed the entire canary population of...wherever the heck canaries live...and slathered it on their uniforms. As a side note, a get well message to Southern Miss receiver DeAndre Brown, who suffered a nasty leg injury during the game.


Aaaaaand that is all for the first part of this little review. Tune in next time when we take a look at some Christmas-themed bowls. And the inferiority bowl!