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.