Final Bowl (P)Review

2 bowls remain. "But I thought there was only the national championship!" you say. Well that is because you are ignorant! Oh, wait. Probably shouldn't insult the readers. But there are two games remaining. One is highly important. The other one is the...

January 6, 2010
GMAC Bowl
Central Michigan vs. Troy

Oi. You'd think that someone, somewhere would say something about this bowl being the second to last one available. Seriously, Central Michigan and Troy? If you did not attend those schools, what is the impetus to watch the game? Seriously, the BCS games are all-but done, the season is winding to a pretty exciting climax, and we get a MAC team and a Sun Belt team. Readers! How many of you knew that those conferences existed? Those of you who did know, how many teams from those conferences can you name? The lone reason to watch this game (as ESPN has probably shoved down your throat multiple times by this juncture) is Central Michigan QB Dan LeFevour. LeFevour has tossed for 3000 yards and run for 700 this season. That's pretty good, even by MAC standards.

Should I watch this game? Well, Central Michigan has a good quarterback, Troy's got a good offense through the air, and this game should feature a boatload of points. So this game has all of that working for it. Know what's working against it?

IT'S FRIGGIN' CENTRAL MICHIGAN AND TROY!!!!

Jeez. Read a book or something. (NOTE: The lengthy archive of this blog probably qualifies by now...)

CFR Pick: Central Michigan. And no, I won't be watching this one.

January 7, 2010
BCS National Championship Game
#2 Texas vs. #1 Alabama

Well, it's all lead up to this. Two undefeated teams that the computers liked better than the other three duking it out for that ugly crystal football (see below)

So how did we get here? Texas went undefeated in the Big 12, running into some friction in their final two games against Texas A&M and Nebraska. Texas hasn't faced too many big tests this season, and they're up against a very very tough team from Tuscaloosa.

For what it's worth, Alabama's looked really good this season. They ran all over Virginia Tech (score said there was a 10 point difference, trust me, it should have been much greater), went undefeated in a very good SEC, survived a very real scare against Tennessee, and beat the tar out of former #1 Florida during the SEC Championship game.

Now, I've griped about Texas's schedule all season, and Alabama's non-conference other than Virginia Tech was a complete joke (Florida International, Chattanooga, North Texas). I believe Mack Brown possesses almost no loyalty to his school (ask a Carolina football fan, if you can find one) (good luck with that, by the way) and that Nick Saban could, in fact, be the devil (see below:)

With that said, I believe that this is the best possible National Championship matchup. Cincinnati played in an awful conference and Florida made them pay, TCU and Boise State play in lesser conferences, Florida itself relied on help from the officials all season long (not to mention got beat by Alabama), and everyone else had at least 2 losses. So the BCS did get a pretty good national championship matchup. Congrats, I guess. We still lost the excitement that a playoff would have provided.

Should I watch this game? If you don't watch the college football championship, then why would you be here on College Football Review?! Just throwing it out there. Yes, you should watch this game. Heck, it might turn out to be good!

CFR Pick: Alabama. Their defense is solid, and their offense sucks much less than Nebraska's did. And Nebraska only lost to Texas by one. Mind you, Texas has been hearing about that ever since it happened, so we'll have to see how it goes. Still, gotta pick Alabama for the win.

That's all for the previews...reviews come later. Enjoy the games!

Orange Bowl (P)Review

And the BCS rolls on, eh? Tonight, we have the Orange Bowl, featuring the ACC champions, Georgia Tech, and the Big 10 at-large team, Iowa. Oh, I forgot the stupid bold and color thing that I do. Wait a sec...

FedEx Orange Bowl
Georgia Tech vs. Iowa

OK, look. Why is Iowa in a BCS Bowl? The simple answer is because no one else could be found. Mark my words: This team has no business in a BCS Bowl. Even if this Iowa team wins tonight, I cannot vindicate their presence in this bowl with any argument. The only reason they're in is, as stated, because of their "competition" for the last at-large bid...

• #11 Penn State: A team that played 3 good teams (counting bowl opponent LSU) and lost to 2 of them. One of those losses? Iowa.

• #12 Virginia Tech: A 3-loss team, including a stinker against UNC. Plus, since you can't have ACC teams playing each other in a BCS bowl, you'd have to change up the matchups, which would lead to TCU and Boise playing big schools. Anarchy ensues.

• #13 LSU: 3 losses against legitimate programs, but poorly timed losses since they were all late in the season. Losing 2 of their last 4 didn't help, nor did the overtime win against Arkansas. Lastly, that's 3 SEC teams in BCS games. All told, though, LSU would have made the most sense to send to the BCS.

• #14 Miami: Beat Georgia Tech, but got smacked by Virginia Tech, lost a heartbreaker to Clemson, and suffered a crummy loss to UNC. As the ACC is considered a weak conference (not without cause) it doesn't make much sense to send 2 ACC teams. Plus Miami was ranked lower than Virginia Tech, also giving cause to send Miami to a lesser bowl.

• #15 BYU: 3 non-AQ teams in the BCS? Puh-leeze. Plus, BYU got killed by Florida State, in a loss that still hurts, even in January.

So, Iowa was the only logical choice. Despite the fact that they needed 2 blocked field goals to beat a 1-AA team, needed Indiana to blow a huge lead to beat them, edged Arkansas State, barely clipped an awful Michigan team, beat Michigan State by 2 in a weird, weird game, and lost 2 straight to Northwestern and Ohio State. I'm not bitter, I promise. But I hope they lose by 40.

Should I watch this game? Yes, because Georgia Tech's option is a blast to watch, just pray that you don't watch them throw the ball. Because that's when things get ugly. Plus, since Iowa lives by the skin of its teeth, this may yet be an exciting game.

CFR Pick: I'm going with Georgia Tech. The option relies on speed, and I think that's something that the Hawkeyes lack. To be fair, the Big 11 is on the up and up, and they've looked quite dynamic this bowl season. Still, the Yellow Jackets have only done poorly in two games this year, and I think the loss to Georgia may have galvanized the rage of super-jerkish coach Paul Johnson.

Fiesta Bowl (P)Review

Well, back from Dallas. Bonus Cotton Bowl stuff is forthcoming, along with reviews of the myriad games I've missed reviewing. But for now, hours before it happens, the Fiesta Bowl (P)Review!


Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Boise State vs. TCU

I figure that this matchup was determined at BCS headquarters. I imagine that BCS headquarters is a place wreathed in shadow and intrigue, located high atop a mountain next to Dracula's castle. Jimmy Hoffa's body is hidden in BCS headquarters. Oh, I've digressed. Let's move on down...

Look, the BCS is a joke. A joooooooooooooke. No one who likes college football to any degree would disagree with this statement. But the BCS isn't happy to be merely hated. No, they seek a greater degree of disgust. I'm talking abject loathing. Hatred that most people are incapable of feeling. To do that, they must not merely mess up the chances of 10 conference champions who don't get to play for a bowl, but also mess up the seasons of 3 teams who bought the "you must be undefeated to go to the championship" racket, only to get screwed in the end.

But, here in 2009, the BCS wasn't content with just doing that, either. No, they decided to give us all an extra good screwing by placing the two little teams safely away in Arizona, where they couldn't upset Iowa, Georgia Tech, Florida, Cincinnati, Oregon, Ohio State, Texas or Alabama. Heck, we all know that couldn't happen anyway...Oh, wait:

2008: Utah-31, Alabama-17
2006: Boise State-43, Oklahoma-42
2004: Utah-35, Pitt-7

The only non-automatic qualifying team to lose its BCS bowl? Hawaii, who was actually overrated. So, basically, we've had non-AQ teams in 4 BCS bowls prior to this, and they're 3-1. That's really good. But we're being played to swallow that "the season is the playoff." Bull crap. If the season were the playoff, then we'd give out 5 championship trophies to the 5 undefeated teams! Because in a real playoff, undefeated = championship. In college football, however, undefeated = stuffed into a corner where you can't hurt any of the big boy schools. Puh-leeze. The BCS has become nothing more than a schoolyard bully, and it needs to be gotten rid of. Immediately, if not sooner.

Should I watch this game? Yes, if only as a protest. The Boise State/Oklahoma game is one of the lowest rated BCS games ever. The reason? People didn't watch it because they figured that Oklahoma would kill Boise and because only one team (Oklahoma) had any pro prospects at all. The fact that the game turned into an all time classic is irrelevant, because people assumed that they would see the OU players in the pros and the Boise State players growing potatoes.

People treat college football like a training ground for the pros. I hate these people, because these are the people who think that because a guy went to Southern Cal he is more likely to be NFL-ready than someone with similar stats who went to Alcorn State. Will someone please call Ryan Leaf, Ki-Jana Carter, Akili Smith, or Matt Leinart and tell me how that philosophy's treating them right now?

These are also the people who have helped to kill the integrity of college sports. Will many TCU players play in the NFL? No. Same with Boise State. But we can appreciate them for what they are (What they are = student athletes) instead of considering them non-pro worthy and therefore not worth our time. Plus, TCU has an awesome defense that shut down 4 teams from automatic qualifying conferences. Now, none of those teams was very good, but that's still a little bit impressive.

CFR Pick: Gotta go with TCU. I know I've provided very little in the way of football analysis here, but I really think that the Horned Frog defense is something to contend with. TCU held Clemson's CJ Spiller of Clemson to 4.3 yards per carry and 112 yards of rushing on the day back in October. Spiller ripped off one big play, and if you remove that one outlier (yes, I'm cheating, I know, but stick with me here) then he carried for just 78 yards. I have trouble believing that Boise's offense can score that much, especially since Boise comes from a pretty weak conference. Top to bottom, the MWC (TCU's conference) could have stuck with the Big 10, Pac-10, Big East, Big 12, and ACC this season. The WAC (Boise's conference) could have stuck with none of them. The Mountain West is 4-0 in bowls, and only one of those games came against a non-AQ foe. The WAC is 1-2 with its lone win coming against Bowling Green. So, yeah, I'm picking TCU based on strength of schedule...

That's all for now. See you later on...

College Football review proudly presents...

A cheap cop-out. Er, I mean, the lightning quick overview of the New Year's Day and January 2nd bowl games! Because of a long drive, I can't do in-depth anything for these 10 games. I promise to make it up to you with good reviews and a decent preview set for the last couple games. Thus, without further ado...here are the games (picks in school color and in bold) and a list of games you should watch (particularly compelling reasons given in parenthesis:

January 1, 2010:

Outback Bowl: Northwestern vs. Auburn

Capital One Bowl: #13 Penn State vs. #12 LSU

Gator Bowl: #16 West Virginia vs. Florida State (side note for this one, pour out a glass of your favorite beverage for Bobby Bowden. The man's earned that much from all of us who love college football.)

Rose Bowl: #7 Oregon vs. #8 Ohio State

Sugar Bowl: #3 Cincinnati vs. #5 Florida

January 2, 2010:

International Bowl: South Florida vs. Northern Illinois

Cotton Bowl: #19 Oklahoma State vs. Ole Miss

Papajohns.com Bowl: South Carolina vs. UConn

Liberty Bowl: Arkansas vs. East Carolina

Alamo Bowl: Michigan State vs. Texas Tech


Games you should watch:

• Capital One Bowl
• Gator Bowl (last game of the second winningest coach of all time. Watch this game, if only for historical value)
• Rose Bowl
• Sugar Bowl (Tebow's last game, forget Urban Meyer.)
• International Bowl (to say that you watched it. You'll be in the minority.)
• Cotton Bowl (you might just see me on TV. Isn't that worth it?)
• Alamo Bowl (see how Texas Tech performs without its coach...

That's all for that. Happy New Year, and I'll see you guys with a full writeup of the week and a half I've missed...