We've arrived at the still-largely-meaningless-but-at-least-moderately-entertaining bowls! Much like the previous post, this will be short and sweet. OK, short and bitter. Let's go!
#19 Houston/#22 Penn State: Ladies and gentlemen, here you have it--the first ranked bowl matchup of this postseason comes a full 2 weeks into bowl season. It features a team that played no one and a team that spent the entire last half of the season mired in the worst scandal college football has seen since the late 1980s. What fun. Guess I need to throw up some analysis. Uhh, Houston has only one loss and it came to the lone team they played with an OK defense. For all their faults, Penn State has a good defense. Pick: Penn State
Ohio State/Florida: Yeah, these two teams have slid very far downhill, as ESPN has helpfully pointed out roughly 9 billion times by this point. Hope Ohio State enjoys this one, since they won't be bowling next year thanks to the NCAA's nifty "delayed action" punishment policy that's worked so well at Southern Cal. Gah, this game is so mediocre that even a USC joke can't spice up the preview. Pick: Ohio State, because the bowl committees decided to prove that the SEC is the dominant conference by giving them the easiest bowl schedule this side of their nonconference schedule, and I'd like nothing more for every SEC team to get destroyed to prove the ludicrous stupidity of Alabama (not LSU, their nonconference schedule was legit) in the national title game. My picks don't show that, but that's because I'm still in the hunt to win the pick competition. (PS: Don't you dare watch a second of this football game. There are going to be 3 other, better, games going on at the same time.)
#17 Michigan State/#16 Georgia: MSU again fell just short of the BCS. Georgia recovered from early season letdowns to become a pretty darn good team. All told, this game should be better than the last game MSU played against an SEC foe. Then again (and if you clicked that link you already know this), it couldn't get much worse. Pick: Georgia. It'll be closer than last time, that doesn't mean Michigan State will win.
#20 Nebraska/#9 South Carolina: One reason I'm a major proponent of a playoff with a first round home game is due to climate. Look at a map. Nebraska is a relatively far-north state, with a cold climate, strong winds, and relatively frequent snowstorms. Football teams from Nebraska have to be built to withstand such conditions. South Carolina is a southern state with mild winters, calm breezes, and a long history of racism very little inclement weather (no, hurricanes don't count, they cancel football games when those come through, thanks). South Carolina's football teams are built for that sort of climate. This game is being played in Florida. Florida is a southern state with mild winters, calm breezes, and very little inclement weather. Gee, which of those teams do these conditions favor? Pick: If you have to look at this, clearly you didn't read the rest of this game's preview. Or just click the dang link to the predictions.
#10 Wisconsin/#5 Oregon: This game bears a ton of similarities to the previous game I posted about. Oregon isn't a southern state and I have no idea what the climate's like, but they're a team built for speed and they're playing in lovely (if a bit warm) conditions. Wisconsin is still a bruising run team built for midwestern winters. The Pac-10 and the Big-10 met in the Rose Bowl 7 times between 2000 and 2010, and the Pac-10 won 5 of those games. Climate (and cheating on Southern Cal's part) played a huge role in that lopsided decade. Expect more of the same here. Pick: Oregon's speed blows past trudging Wisconsin.
#4 Stanford/#3 Oklahoma State: I'm riding high on my correct prediction that Baylor/Washington would end with 100+ points, so I'll make another one: this game will have a total of fewer than 60 (Current over/under is 74!). Yes, both teams throw up points aplenty, but they're coming off long breaks and their offenses both heavily depend on planning and timing. Look for a relatively defensive game, similar to what we got in last year's national title match. Pick: Oklahoma State should be in the title game, if only in the name of giving us something that wasn't a rematch. No, I don't think they'd win that one, and I don't think they'll win this either. I've fired off many hateful missives about the Cowpokes' lack of defense this season, and I'll not back down now. Stanford wins because OSU can't stop Andrew Luck.
That's all for January 2nd! Come back tomorrow for the ACC BCS Blog Blowout Bash! It will be long and angry and nonsensical!
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