The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl and the Little Caesars Bowl are just a few of the un-prestigiously-named bowl games that combine to make up the 2011-12 college football bowl season. Offering 70 Division I-A football programs a postseason berth is enough to make anyone shake their head.
Which games should you spend time watching? Which appear to be complete wastes of time? This issue of Gridiron Nation highlights the five most entertaining bowl games outside the BCS Championship, Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange Bowl games, as well as warns you against five bowls that could leave you passed out on your plate of holiday dinner.
First, a look at the best of the non-BCS bowl variety:
The TicketCity Bowl is one bowl that brings a lot of intrigue. The scandal-plagued Penn State Nittany Lions with take on the fellow felines of the University of Houston Cougars. Houston was ranked sixth last week in the BCS until it lost the C-USA Championship to Southern Mississippi. At 12-1, Houston’s top-ranked offense looks to pose a tough task for Penn State, which has lost two of its last three games. Given time to catch its breath and prepare, Penn State should play well and make this a good football game, as Houston will hope to take out its frustration after missing out on a BCS game. Pick: Penn State on a game-winning field goal.
The Chick-fil-A Bowl simply has two good teams that know how to play good football. Virginia finished 8-4 out of the ACC, and Auburn is ranked No. 25, despite going just 7-5 this season. All of Auburn’s losses are to teams that are currently ranked, and though Virginia’s last game was a stinker against Virginia Tech with an ACC Championship Game appearance on the line, the Cavaliers can play some very stingy defense. Pick: Auburn in a close one.
The AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic features two of the best offenses in football, both of which had chances to win their conferences late in the season. Kansas State and Arkansas will put up a lot of points and do it different ways. The Wildcats have a strong running game, and the Razorbacks love to air it out with Tyler Wilson, who threw 22 touchdowns and just six picks on the year. Pick: Wildcats by seven.
The Capital One Bowl is Nebraska’s first opportunity to bring some street cred to the Big Ten. Taking on a very good South Carolina team, Nebraska will have to make sure to contain Gamecock quarterback Connor Shaw, who has played some very solid games since taking over for the dismissed Stephen Garcia. Pick: Gamecocks by 10; the SEC still rules.
The Outback Bowl is another setup game for the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl, and it should be a great contest, matching up second-place Big Ten team Michigan State against second-place SEC team Georgia. Both squads lost their conference championship games, though quite differently. Michigan State lost by three to Wisconsin in the final minutes, and Georgia got blown out by LSU in the second half. Both will be looking for a positive note heading into the offseason. Pick: Spartans by a score.
Now, a look at the snoozers:
The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl pits the Big Ten’s Illinois, loser of six straight after starting 6-0, against Pac-12 default entry (due to USC being ineligible) UCLA, the only bowl-bound team with a losing record at 6-7. It’s difficult to argue that any bowl has two less deserving teams playing in the same game. These two teams don’t even deserve to have anybody watch this game, and the winner should probably receive a bronze miniature toilet to put in its trophy case back on campus. Pick: Slight advantage UCLA.
The Maaco Bowl Las Vegas could prove less of a snoozer and more of a winner depending on which team Arizona State decides to bring onto the field against the Boise State Broncos. After being denied a BCS bid, the Broncos may be looking to run the score up as much as possible. Arizona State was ranked as late as week 10, but after losing five of its last six games and firing its head coach, it’s a wonder how the Sun Devils lasted that long. Pick: Broncos in a blowout.
The Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl is yet another obscene bowl title and another game to blaze through while flipping channels on the couch at home. Mississippi State takes on Wake Forest in Nashville, Tenn. Mississippi State began the season with high expectations and played inconsistently all season, winning consecutive games just one time. Wake Forest started 4-1 and then lost five of seven. Pick: SEC >ACC. Mississippi State in a close, low-scoring affair.
The Insight Bowl never figured to have powerhouse and early-season No. 1 Oklahoma as a representative, but alas, here the Sooners are. Oklahoma is a better team than its current No. 14 BCS ranking indicates, and Iowa doesn’t appear capable of putting up a fight against such an offensive power. Against ranked opponents this year, all from the Big Ten, Iowa was 1-2 and averaged just 17.3 points per game. The Sooners averaged over 40 on the season. Pick: Sooners surge.
The Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl is the last of the games you should try hard to avoid. It’s a warm up on Jan. 2 for the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl and has big-name programs, but the inputs just don’t translate to positive outputs. Ohio State takes on Florida, ironically featuring the last and upcoming Urban Meyer-coached team. The Buckeyes lost three in a row to end the season, and the Gators lost six of their last eight. Both teams should feel pretty happy to be playing in a January Bowl game that sets up some of the best games of the year. Pick: The game in is Jacksonville, Fla. Gators by double digits.
