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.

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!