My Wonderful Gambling Odyssey Through The Bowl Season, Part 1

I can say without reservation that this was a bowl season unlike any other for me. You see, instead of trying to set couch potato records or attempting the Herculean feat of watching every bowl game, I was doing something different.

I was gambling. And I loved it.

My grandfather lives just outside of Las Vegas so, for the first time since he moved out there about 12 years ago, my mother’s family decided to spend Christmas in Las Vegas. It had been long discussed within the family but this ended up being the year to do it. Thanks to the economy and the usual down period – who wants to spend Christmas in Vegas? – we were able to score spectacular deals. I stayed at the Monte Carlo for seven days, six nights and my room cost a grand total of $114.

You know what that means? I had gambling money.

Not everything about Vegas for Christmas is great. Namely, it’s that painful sinking sensation that you’re going to hell for playing blackjack on the birthday of Jesus. Or it could’ve been the Christmas carols, once songs that reminded me of my childhood, now becoming the soundtrack of my gambling exploits.

It didn’t matter. I was gambling on football.

If you’ve read this site or followed me on Twitter, you know that I’m obsessed with college football and bowls. I can’t explain why but since I was about 10 years old, everything about bowls fascinated me. The random matchups. The crazy locations. The wonderfully awful tourist commercials for places like Boise and Shreveport. The insane amount of games squished into a small window.

For roughly two weeks, my college football experience reached an unusual and exciting peak. I’ve always been obsessed. But now, I actually had a reason to be obsessed. And thus begins my first journey through the bowl season with money riding on everything.

Please note: I may be off by a point or two on the lines and over/unders. Sue me. I do know what I needed to cover and, really, isn’t that all that matters?

Friday, Dec. 24

I arrived in Las Vegas in the wee hours of Christmas Eve morning. The city was in the strangest state I’ve ever seen it in. For one, the place was practically deserted. I’m used to the Strip always being packed with people, especially at midnight on a Thursday. The people would return but not on the Christmas holiday. I guess some people don’t like going to hell.

The Strip was also covered in water as it had rained for three straight days. Without storm drains or run-off, the water just sat there. The cab driver from the airport told us that he had never seen it rain so much in his ten years of living out there. I didn’t know if that was a good omen or a bad omen – I just knew that it was slowing down my arrival at the Monte Carlo.

After staying up way too late playing blackjack, I woke up on the afternoon of Christmas Eve with my eye on Tulsa. I had seen Tulsa play twice. I watched them beat Notre Dame and thought, “I know everyone will bag on Notre Dame, but this is a good team.” The second time I saw them was the day after Thanksgiving, when they scored I believe 120 points against Southern Miss. I knew they were good.

As a true sports gambling tourist, I bet everything. I parlayed Tulsa +10 and the over. I put some on the Tulsa money line. I even took Tulsa +5 in the first half. It cannot be stated enough that the only thought running through my mind around this point was I LOVE GAMBLING I LOVE GAMBLING GAMBLING LOVE GAMBLING.

On our way to my grandfather’s for Christmas Eve dinner, I realized our family has a tradition of not watching television during Christmas Eve. Hmm, this could be tricky. But it’s Las Vegas, everyone must have money on the game, right? I know my dad has Tulsa…are we the only two losers with money riding on this game?

As we arrived, the game had just started and my uncle was yelling at a Hawaii player for missing a tackle. How did I celebrate Christmas before this?

Tulsa took the lead into halftime, winning my first bet. They looked good to cover. And the money line seemed reasonable. But the over/under, something well past 70, was going to be close.

The family sat down to eat, a wonderful Italian array of pasta, crab cakes, shrimp and lobster. The game faded briefly to the background as the meal started – the TV remained on but muted.

And then, a Christmas miracle.

Touchdown. Pause. Touchdown. Pause. Touchdown. Pause. Touchdown. In the span of about 10 minutes, or about two minutes of game action, the teams combined for four touchdowns. It was simply perfect.

When you gamble on sports, you always imagine the perfect scenario for you to win your bets. It never happens. During halftime, I told my dad, “I’d be happy with about four touchdowns in the third quarter.” He said he wanted five for the cover before the fourth quarter even started. I laughed. But he was right. They put up five and the over was hit in three quarters.

I spent the fourth quarter constantly looking over my tickets. It made so happy. I did it, I thought. I’m a winner, I told myself.

Hawaii Bowl: Tulsa 62, Hawaii 35

Sunday, Dec. 26

I’m going to skip my NFL bets for this day but let’s just say that if Tampa Bay didn’t beat up the Seahawks, I may have had to walk home from Vegas. It wasn’t pretty. I knew my day was going to be painful when I bet on the Jets, a total no-no, and sat down in the sportsbook next to a guy in a Bears jersey. To make matters worse, the Bears guy had his wife with him…and she was wearing a Packers jersey. To make everything even more deplorable, they kissed after every Bears touchdown.

My only solace is that karma’s a bitch and they’re probably not having sex this week.

As for that night’s bowl game, Mother Nature had made that game significantly more important to gamblers. The Vikings/Eagles Sunday night game had been pushed back to Tuesday meaning gamblers looking for a fix bet in droves on the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. And they must’ve all bet on FIU. When I bet that morning, FIU was a one-point favorite. By the time the game started, FIU was a 2.5 point favorite.

Not feeling confident, I parlayed FIU and the over. And for a while, it didn’t look good. Toledo was dominating the game and FIU looked like a bunch of high schoolers who had showed up for the Super Bowl – completely and totally in over their heads. I contemplated leaving the Monte Carlo sportsbook since everyone there had evidently bet on Toledo. It was a bad scene.

Then FIU returned a kick for a touchdown. Then Toledo’s QB threw a pick. Then he threw another one. Out of nowhere, FIU had sprinted to a 31-24 lead with time running out. There was just one minor problem – I was one point short of hitting the over. In that moment, I realized the cruelty of sports gambling.

Even though I had FIU, I needed Toledo to score a tying touchdown to force overtime. If the game ended 31-24, I would lose. At least at 31-31, I would have a chance. So as Toledo marched down the field, I rooted for them. When they scored a touchdown, I whooped it up. Then, they called timeout.

They’re going for two?? What?!?

Things were still okay – if FIU stopped the 2-point conversion, they’d win by 1. I’d push on the spread but still hit the over/under. Okay, a little victory is better than a loss. I reverted back to an FIU fan. It was too late. Toledo hit the 2-pointer. To put it bluntly, I was screwed.

When it got to 4th and forever for FIU, I was more than screwed. I was done. I took my ticket out of my pocket and prepared for the ceremonial “ripping of the losing ticket” that I have perfected at many horse tracks across the country. I never ripped up the ticket.

Straight out of the Boise State no effin way playbook, FIU ran a hook and lateral and it worked! While the sportsbook yelled at the announcers and claimed Toledo was being unfairly screwed, I sunk into my seat and bit my fingernails. This couldn’t happen, could it? I couldn’t win this bet like this…could I?

As FIU lined up for the possible game-winning field goal, I felt all eyes on me. The sportsbook knew I was the only one who had FIU. They knew I was the only one who would celebrate if that kick went through. I said nothing. I didn’t have that much riding on the game, I just knew I wanted it. I don’t remember being more nervous for a kick in my life that didn’t involve my team. The kick went up and, how glorious, it was good from the moment toe hit leather.

I jumped up, pumped my fist twice and yelled, “Hell yeah!” like an absolute idiot. I went right over, cashed in my ticket and walked away with fresh gambling money.

It may not have been the greatest cover in gambling history, but man it felt like it. A hook and lateral? A game-winning field goal? It didn’t dawn on me until a few days later that it took a ridiculous set of circumstances for me to cover. That didn’t matter – I couldn’t lose.

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Florida International 34, Toledo 32

Monday, Dec. 27

As a warm-up to Monday night’s huge Falcons/Saints showdown, I put a nice sum on Air Force -3 to take out Georgia Tech. I missed the first half because I got caught at the Bellagio – I sat down with $20 to play a couple of blackjack hands and walked away with $300.

Air Force, though, couldn’t get its option game going. Georgia Tech’s backup punt returner even muffed a kick at midfield. Didn’t matter as Air Force punted. Down 7-6, it looked like my luck had…

“He did it again!” That was the scream I heard from the group behind me with the southern drawls. And they took great pleasure in the Georgia Tech backup punt returner muffing another kick, this time in the red zone.

“You got Air Force?” I asked the Dad of the family.

“Nah, we’re Bulldogs fan. I hate Tech,” responded the Dad.

“And it’d be nice to see an academy win a bowl,” added the Mom.

“Yeah, but it’s more that I hate Tech,” the Dad chimed in.

Air Force punched it in. They would hold on for dear life. I was undefeated in bowl season and coming to grips with the fact I may be the World’s Best College Football Gambler thanks to my undying devotion to the sport.

Independence Bowl: Air Force 14, Georgia Tech 7

Of course, pride comes before the fall.

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UConn Needs To Be A Football School To Remain A Basketball School

There is only one thing we learned from the now-completed job search for the next University of Connecticut football coach – UConn is, was and will always be a basketball school.

When Randy Edsall first scampered away to College Park, UConn fans were buzzing with possibilities for the next head man. Former NFL coaches like Eric Mangini were bandied about. Pro coordinators with impressive resumes, like Kevin Gilbride, came to the forefront. Hot college coordinators like Tom Bradley at Penn State and Garrick McGee at Arkansas were legitimate candidates. Arguably the best coach at the FCS level, Delaware’s KC Keeler, was also a serious candidate.

In the end, UConn ended up with the recently-fired Mark Whipple and the elder Paul Pasqualoni as the two final candidates. They are not exactly the type of names that get the blood going. It was, to say the least, a letdown.

UConn ended up hiring Pasqualoni, the former Syracuse coach that led the then-Orangemen to two BCS bowls and two New Year’s Day bowls prior to that, when New Year’s Day was the equivalent of the BCS. He recruited the heck out of Connecticut, furnishing a pipeline from the Nutmeg State to upstate New York. His Syracuse teams, especially in the late 1990s, produced a boatload of NFL talent. There is no question he is a far superior hire to Whipple, who was just fired at Miami, Fla. and was routinely criticized as a coordinator that failed to dramatically improve the Hurricanes’ woeful offensive output from the previous coaching staff. The Hurricanes scored less points in 2010 than UConn did, and every UConn fan hated how ineffective the UConn offense could be at times.

I’m okay with Pasqualoni, though I think any UConn fan would be lying if they said they were pumped. Yes, Pasqualoni is a respected defensive mind and was about to be defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. But Pasqualoni was also fired from Syracuse six years ago because the Orange had devolved into a very mediocre squad for a half-decade. He is now 61 years old. He is not the Jim Tressel the UConn fans were hoping for.

You remember Jim Tressel pre-Ohio State, right? He was the winning I-AA coach but without the big name or the fancy price tag, at least not yet. He had potential. He was an up-and-comer. He was the future.

UConn fans, from the outset, realized the job was not going to lure a big-name coach. UConn isn’t Michigan, we couldn’t call Les Miles or Jim Harbaugh without being laughed off the phone. But the fans were okay with that. We know the potential in the UConn program. We see the new facilities, the still-new stadium and the general feeling that UConn athletics means winning. We saw an opportunity for a coordinator or lower-division coach to finally get an opportunity at the big time.

It didn’t happen.

And during the process, it became increasingly clear that UConn was hamstrung by the fact the basketball coaches need to make more than the football coach. Edsall left because of it. UConn AD Jeff Hathaway’s refusal to increase the salaries of assistant football coaches played a role in driving Edsall away and scaring off exciting, potential candidates.

It’s unfortunate because football is driving college athletics right now. If you look around the country, I bet you could count on one hand the number of BCS conference basketball coaches that make more than the football coach. And I’m pretty sure Geno Auriemma is the only women’s coach making more bank than the football coach. Still, UConn has refused to address this issue and I have this horrible feeling the football program is going to be left behind.

I hope I’m wrong and very wrong but the current UConn administration seems far too content to keep the basketball coaches happy at the expense of the football team. It may make sense locally, since Connecticut is and has been a basketball state, but it could eventually come to the detriment of the basketball teams.

Former UConn AD Lew Perkins has said over and over again that the decision to bring UConn football to the I-A level was to protect the basketball programs. Football is king and football is going to pave the future of college athletics.

When the rumors about superconferences and conference expansion took over the sporting landscape this summer, it was about football. The Big Ten didn’t invite Nebraska for their basketball team. Utah isn’t joining the Pac-12 because they made the Final Four in 1998. Colorado has one of the worst basketball programs in college sports – they’re moving up to the Pac-12.

UConn has one of the best basketball programs in the nation and is situated in one of the most populous areas of the entire country. Did anyone want UConn? No. Why? Because the football isn’t up to par yet. And one 8-5 Fiesta Bowl-losing season isn’t going to change that.

If Jeff Hathaway really wanted to show how much he cared about Jim and Geno, he would’ve opened up the wallet. He would’ve given the new coach – or Edsall – the $2 million per year they deserve. He would’ve increased the salaries for assistant coaches. He would’ve told the athletic department that UConn cannot fall behind in football or it risks losing everything. The superconference era is coming and UConn needs to be ready.

Right now, UConn isn’t ready. Because being ready right now in college athletics means having an elite football program. Not an 8-win program, not a program that makes bowl games, but a program that challenges for a BCS berth year in and year out.

Look at this year’s BCS lineup. If any of the other nine BCS teams lost its coach, would Pasqualoni or Whipple have even been candidates for the job? Of course not.

But for UConn, that was the best we could do. And that’s not good enough.

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Why Auburn Will Be The 2010 National Champion

Regular Season Record: 107-94-3
Bowl Record: 17-17
Best Picks: 13-3

Auburn -3 over Oregon
BCS Championship Game
Monday, 8:30 p.m., ESPN

I want everyone to realize that I hope everything I right doesn’t come true. College football has fallen into a bit of a rut when it comes to title games since the transcendent 2006 Rose Bowl between Texas and USC. Florida and LSU handled Ohio State easily in the next two title games. Oklahoma/Florida was a close game for three quarters but poorly played and tough to watch. Last year’s title game had one moment when Texas had gotten it within one score in the second half but, let’s be honest, that game was over the second Colt McCoy went down.

I want an all-time classic tonight. I want touchdowns every minute. I want LaMichael James to go for over 200 yards, only to be matched by Cam Newton. I want every fan’s voice hoarse from screaming too much. I want to go to bed early Tuesday morning in that familiar trance you’re in after a fantastic game – the type that stays on your mind and you have to talk about it with co-workers the next morning.

The problem, though, is that Auburn is going to crush Oregon. And it’s not going to be pretty.

This prediction is not about the supposed advantage the SEC has on every other conference college football. TCU proved New Year’s Day that competition during the regular season is little indicator of a team’s worth – blowing out inferior teams by 50 can be the same as beating good teams by a field goal. You can make the argument that Auburn would be more familiar with the big game atmosphere but even the Iron Bowl can’t prepare a team for college football’s Super Bowl.

No, it’s not the intangibles that make this an easy victory. It’s actually two specific advantages that Auburn has over Oregon that will fuel the Tigers – defensive line and endurance.

Oregon received by far its stiffest test of the year from Cal in early November as the Cal defensive line, with some help from faked injuries, were able to effectively slow the Oregon offense to a crawl. Cal was a mediocre 5-7 team that got embarrassed by Nevada and Stanford during the year. But against Oregon, they were able to control the line of scrimmage and effectively plug the Oregon running game early, preventing LaMichael James and company to get into the open field, where they are able to use their speed and elusiveness.

When you watched Auburn this year, two things become readily apparent on defense – they couldn’t defend the pass but they weren’t extremely hard to handle on the line of scrimmage. Look at the difference between the Arkansas and Alabama games. Despite facing the backup quarterback from Arkansas, the Tigers could not stop the passing attack and the Razorbacks shredded Auburn for 43 points. Of course, when you have Cam Newton and put up 65, that 43 gets the job done. But for a passing team – that would’ve been an indicator of success to come.

Alabama, of course, is not a passing team. After a hot start, Auburn was able to successfully put the clamps down on the vaunted Alabama running game by securing the line of scrimmage. Eventually, Auburn knocked Alabama QB Greg McElroy out of the game and won a spirited Iron Bowl. The much-maligned Auburn defense had come up huge yet again, but it was lost in the virtuoso performance put on by Cam Newton.

Against Oregon, Auburn is going to be able to control the line of scrimmage. Yes, Oregon isn’t going to be ramming it down Auburn’s throat but they need to move the defensive line to get its running game going. Those holes aren’t going to be there early. And they won’t be there later.

Oregon’s biggest advantage is how its tempo on offense wears down opponents and, with its opportunistic defense, the second half and fourth quarter become Oregon’s domain. We saw in the showdown against Stanford where the Ducks withstood Stanford’s early blows and subsequently blew the Cardinal’s doors off in the second half. They did the same to Tennessee. They did the same to Arizona. They didn’t score a point in the first quarter against Washington – they ended up scored 53 in the next three.

For the first time this season, though, Oregon will be facing a team that is just as adept at finishing strong. How many fourth quarter wins did Auburn pull out this year? Clemson, South Carolina, Arkansas, LSU, Alabama…the list goes on. Auburn has no issue with tempo. Auburn has no problem going the full 60, and longer if needed, to secure a victory. To put it bluntly – Oregon won’t wear down Auburn.

The key to this game is squarely on the Oregon offense and its ability to stay on the field. I don’t mean they need to stay on the field for 10 minute drives. They do need to stay on the field for at least a few first downs on each possession. They need to get their tempo going and they need to make the Auburn defense work. A three-and-out here and there will effectively eliminate any chance Oregon has at wearing down Auburn.

In the end, this game will likely be decided by the fact Oregon does not have a championship defense. Auburn’s defense, when push came to shove, proved its championship worth when it shut down Alabama, when it slowed down LSU and when it put the clamps on Clemson, South Carolina and Mississippi State late in close games. It wasn’t always pretty but it was effective. Do you trust Oregon’s defense to make a stop with the game on the line? Do you trust Auburn’s?

And at the end of the day, there is another huge advantage tilting in Auburn’s favor and his name is Cam Newton. We saw in the 2006 Rose Bowl that a clash of two juggernauts was decided by the better quarterbacks.

Even if this game is a close one, against my prediction, Oregon still doesn’t have an answer for Newton. They shouldn’t feel bad, of course, as no one has had an answer for Newton. But if superior defenses like LSU and Alabama were helpless against Newton – what will Oregon’s subpar defense bring to the table? Not enough.

It should be Auburn by a lot. It may be Auburn by a little. But it will be Auburn. And you can cue the “S-E-C” chants for another long, nine months until we kick off the 2011 season.

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Randy, You're A Fine Coach....But We Can Do Better

There was one moment in UConn’s devastating Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma that accurately summed up why I’m not too upset Randy Edsall left town. After giving up a touchdown far too easily, the UConn offense mustered an excellent drive that left them deep in Oklahoma territory with a 4th and 1. Edsall was going for it, as he should. Unfortunately, he forgot one of the oldest truths about college football – get the ball to your All-American. In UConn’s case, there was an actual All-American on the field.

Well, technically, I should say in the stadium because UConn’s All-American running back Jordan Todman was on the sidelines. Yes, with a fourth-down against quite possibly the best team UConn has ever faced, Randy Edsall decided to hand the ball off to his backup running back. He didn’t get the yard. Oklahoma was soon up 14-0 and UConn was playing a game of catch-up it couldn’t possibly win.

The news of Edsall’s departure came in between flights back from the West Coast. It was an odd sensation because I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t upset, though I later would become upset for how he handled it. (Here's an excellent article from Tim Keown on ESPN.com about that) In fact, I must admit, I was sort of happy. The team I saw on the field Saturday night didn’t cut it for me as a fan. I don’t care that we were playing Oklahoma. UConn wasn’t in the same league as Oklahoma. That should never happen. I never want to root for a team that has no chance.

For all the praise heaped upon Edsall from the national football media, that same love has not always been there for him locally. I can’t claim to be a “longtime” UConn football supporter, since I jumped on the bandwagon in the early 2000s after the move to I-A was already in progress. Randy Edsall is the only football coach I’ve known. And I haven’t always been happy about it. In fact, it could be argued that Edsall actually regressed as a coach – his 2003 and 2004 teams were as good as any team he produced since.

More pressing, there have been times I wanted Edsall gone. During losing seasons in 2005 and 2006, head-scratching decision after head-scratching decision left me wanting a new coach. Even the school’s first Big East “championship” came after a six-touchdown loss to the real champion in 2007, West Virginia. In 2008, with four players set to be picked in the first two rounds of the NFL draft, UConn could do no more than a win in the International Bowl.

Then we come to this year and, in retrospect, UConn should’ve finished the regular season 12-0. Maybe 11-1, since Denard Robinson played so outstanding in the opener. The loss to Temple should never have happened, considering the game turned when an injured Todman fumbled the ball away. The loss to Rutgers should never have happened, blowing a fourth-quarter lead to a team that wouldn’t win another conference game. The Louisville debacle, the low point, caused many in the state to call for Edsall’s job.

Edsall, however, had the media in his pocket and the local writers, particularly the [expletive deleted] at the Hartford Courant, lambasted fans for wanting a change. They defended Edsall up and down and felt vindicated when he took UConn to the Big East crown. Never mind the fact we needed a complete Pitt meltdown, or seven West Virginia fumbles, or a win over a USF team starting a walk-on QB…Edsall had proven himself again. I appreciated Edsall for what it had done but I always felt like he was receiving an inordinate amount of praise.

Sure, this may sound like sour grapes after our coach just left town but, to be quite honest, UConn can do better than Randy Edsall. How do I know? Because 25 years ago, our men’s basketball program was in far worse shape and Jim Calhoun turned it into one of the absolute elite programs, matching Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke with multiple national championships in his tenure. Do I even need to rehash what Geno Auriemma has done?

But football is different, people say. It takes time, reporters write. You can’t win at UConn, critics lament. I want to know why UConn can’t succeed in the most populous section of the country but Boise State, who navigated their own path from I-AA and play in Idaho, has two BCS bowl wins and we have zero.

I want to know why everyone says there are no good football players from Connecticut but homegrown Aaron Hernandez is starting for the Patriots. I want to know why each year, the best Connecticut players head to Iowa and Penn State. I want to know why the five-star recruits from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, within a few hours drive, are somehow impossible for UConn to get.

The myth, perpetuated by the national football media and driven by Edsall himself, is that UConn is nearly an impossible job with almost zero chance of success. Excuse me? Did Jim Calhoun ever say that in the 1980s? Has Geno ever made that excuse? Of course not.

I will never criticize Edsall for how hard he worked or how he did, without question, build the program. But at some point, going 8-5 every year doesn’t cut it. Did we enjoy the victories? Of course. Did we hate the losses? You bet. But it’s different for a UConn fan.

You can call UConn a basketball school and some say that’s a deterrent, a reason why UConn fans as a whole haven’t embraced the football program. That’s false. This community was ready for football – the home opener at Rentschler Field in 2003 was sold out.

This community, though, has high standards. Our men’s basketball team has two national titles and countless Big East titles. The women…well, they just won 90 games in a row. Our soccer teams are always nationally ranked. Our baseball team – yes, our baseball team in frozen Connecticut – is becoming an annual contender.

At the University of Connecticut, you need to produce a winner. I don’t mean a “barely above .500” winner, I mean a “national title contender” winner. We don’t want excuses. We don’t want reasons why we can’t be that. We want to be that.

If I were a coach looking for a prime opportunity, UConn would make my mouth water.

A conference with no power team and an automatic BCS berth. One of the largest television markets in the country sandwiched between two of the biggest, in NYC and Boston. A television deal with SNY, a cable network in the nation’s biggest city. The largest sports network in history is literally right down the road. A brand name in UConn that is known practically the world over thanks to the basketball teams. A new stadium that could be expanded if necessary. New $30 million facilities on campus that are among the newest and plushest in the country. A day’s drive to some of the best high school football talent in the country in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

UConn is a better job than Maryland. We deserve a better coach than them too.

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College Football's Last Great New Year's Day

As of this morning, it has now been 17 years to the day when college football lost its innocence. New Year’s Day 1994 took place on a Saturday – fitting for a sport that become synonymous with autumn Saturdays and tradition. It was the last time college football, and the powers that run the sport, could claim they cared about their athletes without an entire room laugh at the hypocrisy.

There was no BCS and no ‘true’ national champion for the 1993 college football regular season, only a loosely defined Bowl Coalition that was hopelessly flawed in every way possible. But the Rose Bowl was Pac-10 vs. Big Ten, period. The Big 8 champion played in the Orange Bowl. The SEC champion played in the Sugar Bowl. The Southwest Conference champion played in the Cotton Bowl.

Success in college football was defined by two things – winning your conference and/or playing on New Year’s Day. Playing in a New Year’s Day bowl was the equivalent of a BCS bowl in today’s era. Except the games wouldn’t be spread out over 10 days – they would be spread out over 10 hours.

The 1993 college football season was one of the more epic in the decade. Notre Dame defeated Florida State in the Game of the Century – no regular season game since has been watched by more people. The Irish followed up the win with its legendary loss to Glenn Foley and Boston College. West Virginia completed a remarkable undefeated regular season, dethroning Miami. Arizona and its famed Desert Swarm defense made national headlines. Nebraska believed it was poised to finally win a national title for Tom Osborne. Wisconsin was heading to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 31 years and playing the home standing UCLA Bruins.

For the next 12 hours, the traditions of college football would go out in a blaze of glory that ended up being, quite frankly, the best day of football in my lifetime. I was 11 years old and, thanks to New Year’s Day falling on a Saturday, I knew I could stay up late to watch all the football. On a scale of 1 to 10, my excitement level was a 23.

It began in the Fiesta Bowl. Because the Rose Bowl agreement with its partner conferences included a clause preventing conference teams from competing with it, the Fiesta Bowl between Arizona and Miami was moved to earlier in the day, 1pm on NBC. Sun Devil Stadium was sold out and they saw a historic game – the Wildcats and its Desert Swarm defense shut out Miami.

It could be argued that the 1994 Fiesta Bowl marked the end of the U as we knew it. They would go 10-1 in the 1994 season, but lost to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, probation would soon follow and the team wouldn’t reemerge as national powers until the 2000s under drastically different circumstances. Arizona was the first team in nearly a decade to embarrass Miami on a national stage. The day was just beginning.

The start of the Rose Bowl brought with it a shock that is still being discussed today – tens of thousands of Wisconsin fans who flew to the Rose Bowl thinking they had tickets but they in actuality had counterfeits. Google “Rose Bowl Wisconsin” and you’ll see news stories today warning Badgers fans to avoid being duped again. The Rose Bowl game itself marked the end of UCLA’s dominance in the Pac-10 – they’ve been back only once since – and the beginning of the current Wisconsin run. The strong Badgers program you’ll watch take the field later today was born, in some cases quite literally, in 1993.

But I wasn’t watching the Rose Bowl game. My father is a Notre Dame alum. We were watching Notre Dame battle Texas A&M in the last great Cotton Bowl. The Southwest Conference would send only one more champion to the game – a woeful Texas Tech that would be drilled by USC the following year. The Cotton Bowl had been moved to late afternoon by NBC and the network was rewarded with one of the best games in the bowl’s history.

There was more than a little background. The Irish were 10-1 and its fans believed they should win the national title over a one-loss Florida State team since the Irish beat the Seminoles. It was also the third Cotton Bowl matchup between the teams, with the Aggies beating the Tim Brown-led team in 1988 and Rick Mirer leading an easy 28-3 victory the year prior. It was the rubber match. The two teams went back and forth in classic fashion until the Irish finally pulled out a 28-24 victory.

My father, ever embodying class, said, “Good game R.C.” to the television as NBC lingered on a shot of a defeated and dejected A&M coach R.C. Slocum. With the notable exception of the 1998 Big XII championship victory over Kansas State, Texas A&M hasn’t reached those heights since. Neither has Notre Dame.

The stage was now set for two primetime showdowns to crown a national champion. In the Sugar Bowl, undefeated and #3 West Virginia aimed to make a statement against SEC champion Florida. There was a statement made in that game…by the Gators. Florida demolished West Virginia 41-7. It was Florida’s first Sugar Bowl victory ever. Yes, the vaunted Florida program was not the juggernaut you see today for its entire history. No, the juggernaut you see today was born on New Year’s Night in 1994 – Florida has claimed the mantle of SEC’s poster team from Alabama and they haven’t relinquished yet. As for West Virginia, their inability to finally win a national title has lingered until just last week, as coach Bill Stewart was pushed aside because, as their AD said, he couldn’t win a national championship.

The main event of the evening took place in the Orange Bowl between undefeated Nebraska and one-loss Florida State. There were storylines everywhere. Both Tom Osborne and Bobby Bowden were certified Hall of Famers with one glaring omission on their resumes – winning a national title. The Seminoles were led by Heisman winner Charlie Ward. Nebraska was a 16-point underdog, the memory of so many previous Orange Bowl beatdowns fresh in everyone’s mind. Heck, just a year prior Florida State had whipped Nebraska in the same bowl game. History, most assumed, would repeat itself.

Instead, the Orange Bowl was treated to arguably its last classic – the BCS has been unkind to the prior king of bowl games. In a defensive battle and an emotion struggle, the teams battled late into the night – thanks to television and the game’s notoriously long halftime show, the game ended at some point past 1 a.m. The ending is a famous one with Bowden getting a premature Gatorade bath, a second being put back on the clock and Nebraska’s last chance field goal attempt sailing wide left. Florida State had prevailed 18-16.

The next morning, the polls came out and confirmed Florida State as the #1 team in the country with Notre Dame at #2. Yes, the team that beat Florida State ended up behind them in the polls. I remember my disappointment that Sunday morning about Notre Dame finishing #2. But I also remembering being thoroughly satisfied and over the moon about the previous day’s games.

When people ask me why I love bowl games, my thoughts immediately turn back to that New Year’s Day. I can vividly remember everything about that day, including where I positioned my bean bag chair in front of the television and how the food tasted – my Dad would get finger foods like little hot dogs and shrimp cocktail for New Year’s, a tradition I’ve continued.

I remember the images. The sight of Arizona dancing on the field as they whipped Miami. The thousands of Wisconsin fans forced to watch the Rose Bowl on large screen televisions. The Cotton Bowl, the first on natural grass, played under the cover of darkness for the first time. The speed of Florida as they ran by West Virginia. The grit of Nebraska. The respect my father had for Tom Osborne. The way the Orange Bowl field managed to cover every player in grass stains. The look on Bobby Bowden’s face as he was told about the extra added second. The look on Osborne’s face when that final kick sailed wide.

It is amazing to look back and see how much that day impacted college football for the next decade. Powers such as UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Miami would never be the same. New powers such as Wisconsin, Florida and Florida used the day to cement its status. And one power, Nebraska, served notice that it would no longer be subject to annual bowl game beatings from Florida schools.

The day was perfect, maybe in part because it never happened again. The next year, New Year’s Day fell on Sunday meaning most games would be played on Monday, Jan. 2, 1995. The contrarian Orange Bowl, sensing opportunity, played its game on New Year’s Night and effectively crowned Nebraska as the national champion before the other games could be played.

By the 1995 season, the dreaded Bowl Alliance took shape – moving one of the big bowl games to New Year’s Eve and another to Jan 2. New Year’s Day was effectively ruined. I remember something vividly from that year too – the shocking number of empty seats when Florida State played Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. College football had gone down a different path and fans weren’t happy about it.

On New Year’s Day 1994, 70,000 fans packed the Cotton Bowl. 72,000 watched the Fiesta Bowl. The Sugar Bowl attracted 75,000. The Rose Bowl had more than 101,000 fans. The Orange Bowl fit 80,000+ and drew an insane 18.0 TV rating. In one day, nearly 400,000 fans packed the stadiums for five bowl games.

It was everything college football was ever about. The pageantry, the traditions, the exciting matchups, the thrilling storylines and the New Year’s Day holiday.

On New Year’s Day 2011, 7-5 Texas Tech will play 7-5 Northwestern at a half-empty Cotton Bowl. The only game on broadcast television will be a matchup between 7-5 Florida and 7-5 Penn State that will likely not be sold out. The evening’s matchup between UConn and Oklahoma will be a technical sellout, but there could be up to 15,000 unsold tickets from the two schools’ allotment. The Rose Bowl will not feature a Pac-10 team for the third time in ten years, following a half-century of Pac-10/Big Ten matchups. The Orange and Sugar Bowls won’t be played on New Year’s Day and the national champion won’t be crowned for another nine days.

When people talk about how the BCS has ruined college football, they focus on the national championship. In truth, that’s the only thing the BCS has managed to get right, producing only one split national championships in its history.

Unfortunately, what we have lost due to the BCS, we may never get back unless the powers at be wake up. There was a time when college football produced the best sporting day of the year each and every year.

I wanted to write, “a time not too long ago,” but 17 years is a long time.

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My College Football Christmas Wishes

This is what I hope Santa brings for me….and college football….this Christmas.

Less bowl games

Look, I love bowl games. A lot. If there were 50 bowl games, I’d probably end up watching most of them. But that doesn’t mean I’d like it. The number of bowl games has exploded, doubling in the BCS era. I’m not going to fault any organizer for trying to create a game but, come on, we’ve reached our limit. In fact, we’re over our limit.

So let’s cut the number to 30, at least. A bowl game needs to again reward teams for having good seasons, not just average seasons. To make it easier, let’s raise the number of wins necessary to reach a bowl up to seven wins. If you go .500, I’m sorry, you really don’t deserve a reward. It’s more than a little unfair that 8-4 Temple is staying home, losing its coach in the process, while a dreadful 6-6 UTEP team gets national television exposure.

Far less FBS vs. FCS games

There was a time not so long ago that FBS teams could play FCS teams – then I-A vs. I-AA – but the victory would not count toward bowl eligibility. Then, the NCAA changed the rules and allowed teams to count one victory toward eligibility. That has backfired in the worst way possible. Every FBS team save for UCLA, USC and Notre Dame has played an FCS team in the past five years. It’s a joke. Some schools, such as Syracuse and Arizona, actually scheduled TWO FCS teams.

We need these games to be eliminated or at least drastically reduced. How do we do that? Simple – go back to having them not count toward bowl eligibility. If Florida or Alabama want a late-season scrimmage against an FCS team for a nice, easy payday, bully for them. But it won’t help them get into a bowl.

More specifically, these would eliminate teams such as Syracuse or Clemson sneaking into bowl games thanks to victories over lower division teams. There’s absolutely no reason why these games should count. It’s ruined September – once a month filled with exciting, inter-conference matchups. Now, it’s a month filled with 62-7 scores and dreadful schedules.

More unique bowl matchups

Did you know that the Auburn/Oregon game will be the first Pac-10/SEC BCS bowl matchup in the BCS era? What a joke. I don’t need to see five Big Ten/SEC games every year. I don’t need to see the ACC/Big East have any more pillow fights. Can the Pac-10 and Big XII play other conferences?

Here’s a few suggestions:

A Pac-10/SEC bowl series. The Holiday Bowl and the Gator Bowl are two traditional bowls that are rapidly losing its standing in the bowl hierarchy. Let’s fix that. Both games become Pac-12 vs. SEC – somewhere between the #3 and #6 selections for each conference. The tickets will be divided up so the “home” conference will be on the hook for most of the tickets. For example, the Gator Bowl will give 15,000 tickets to the SEC team but only 5,000 to the Pac-10. Flip that for the Holiday Bowl.

An ACC/Big Ten matchup. This existed the last few years at the Champs Sports Bowl and produced two interesting matchups, at least on paper, in the past two years with Wisconsin/Florida State and Wisconsin/Miami. Why did this stop? The conferences have a good basketball rivalry, it could translate to the gridiron.

The MAC champion vs. the Sun Belt champion. In the 2010 GMAC Bowl, MAC champion Central Michigan and Sun Belt champion Troy played a wonderfully exciting game. We need more champion vs. champion games. The GMAC Bowl is now the GoDaddy.com Bowl but its location in Alabama makes it a prime candidate to host an annual battle of champions – a mini-Rose Bowl if you will.

More flexibility. I’m tired of the same conference matchups every year because it inevitably forces teams lower on the bowl food chain if they played in a bowl the year before. I would like to see a couple of bowls come together to split up teams differently each year. I’m envisioning a group of three to four bowls signing deals with six conferences, maybe Notre Dame and the independents, to create different matchups each year. Create a poor man’s BCS, with a selection order and deals to give us the best games. We know the bowls are created to give us the best matchups – so give us the best matchups.

No more excessive celebration penalties on game-winning plays.

Is there anything stupider than a team being penalized because the whole team rushed the field after a likely game-winning touchdown? The excessive celebration penalty was instituted to prevent taunting, not raw showings of emotion.

Start overtime at the 30 yard line

There’s nothing less exciting than a team getting a turnover in overtime and then turning around a kicking a field goal without having to gain a yard. It sort of ruins the excitement. Most college kickers are able to drill a 42-yard field goal. For some reason, most college kickers are not able to drill a 47-yard field goal. The point of the college overtime was to eliminate the NFL-style of winning games by playing it safe and kicking field goals. At least make a team gain some yards before kicking a game winner.

No BCS bashing until Thanksgiving weekend

I can’t tell you how many articles I read and how many personalities I listened to ripping the BCS for excluding an undefeated Boise State and/or TCU from the national title game and/or a BCS bowl. This started in October. It ended up being a lot of wasted time. The BCS doesn’t make its selections in October, or even November. You would think after 12 years, we’d realize we have to wait for the entire season to play out but I guess that would fly directly in the face of our Twitter generation. Speaking of which…

Let them tweet!

I’m so sick and tired of football coaches, and coaches in general, preventing their players from using social media, particularly Twitter. Why? Why are the players forced to talk to the media but not allowed to directly talk to their fans? College football players should be allowed to share with their world their feelings, whether that means dissing an opponent, talking about how good the team is or, in the case of Terrelle Pryor, making news. Twitter is the future, embrace it.

More inter-conference home and home series

I loved Virginia Tech/Boise State in DC. I enjoyed LSU/North Carolina in the Georgia Dome. But the trend of preseason “bowl games” is getting really old, really quick. I know LSU is playing Oregon in Dallas. Wouldn’t you rather see a home and home between those two? Boise is playing Georgia in Atlanta – wouldn’t a Georgia trip to Boise be infinitely more exciting?

Regular season college football is not meant to be played at neutral sites. A game or two to showcase the sport on opening weekend, that’s fine. And that’s more than enough. Give me LSU/Oregon in Death Valley and Boise State/Georgia on the blue turf. I don’t want to see Alabama play Michigan at JerryWorld in Dallas, I want to see Alabama in the Big House. Don’t you?

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Bowl Picks Part III: New Year's Bowls

Bowl Picks Part I: The Undercard

Bowl Picks Part II: Bowl Week

I miss New Year’s Day. I don’t think enough is made about what we lost when the BCS took hold in 1998 and the Bowl Alliance prior to that starting in 1995. New Year’s Day was the undisputed best sporting day of the year. There wasn’t even a close second. Even as a kid, I knew, New Year’s Day meant football, food and at least 12 hours of awesome.

Now clearly the decision for the bowls to move to different days was to prevent channel-flipping and increase ratings but it ruined the essence of New Year’s Day. When all the games were on New Year’s Day, you were all but guaranteed a full day of exciting football – exciting being the key word. The Rose Bowl not doing it for you this year? Switch to the Fiesta Bowl. The Sugar Bowl a blowout? It’s all good, there’s the Orange Bowl.

The problem with the current setup is that there’s always a chance that your New Year’s Day falls far short of expectations. I remember New Year’s Day 2003 vividly – Oklahoma and Georgia came through with blowouts in the Rose and Sugar Bowls. I ended up watching VH1’s I Love The 80s that entire day and I was really sad. Something similar happened in 2007 when USC embarrassed Illinois and then Georgia did the same that night in the Sugar Bowl. No surprise that was the lowest-rated Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl of the BCS era.

Channel flipping is okay if it’s between football games. The NFL seems to do okay every Sunday. Channel flipping is not okay if it means no football on New Year’s Day. Oh well, enough of my bitching. Maybe someday, the powers at be will realize that a vibrant New Year’s Day would silence a lot of the BCS haters via distraction.

Texas Tech -9.5 over Northwestern
TicketCity Bowl
Saturday, Jan. 1, noon, ESPNU
You know, just because the Cotton Bowl left the Cotton Bowl stadium doesn’t mean you need to shove a game in there on New Year’s morning. I say that now but there was a very real chance that Texas was going to land here for most of November. As is, we have a Texas Tech team that showed a little fight late in the year against a Northwestern team without its best player, QB Dan Persa. In the two games Persa has been out, Northwestern has been destroyed by Illinois and Wisconsin. I understand getting a month to prepare might help but it’s not nearly enough. Texas Tech will enjoy stomping the yard in the Cotton Bowl. If they close their eyes and make believe the 40,000 empty seats don’t exist, they could fool themselves into thinking they’re winning the Cotton Bowl. Or not.

Penn State +7 over Florida
Outback Bowl
Saturday, Jan. 1, 1 p.m., ABC
I’m a little worried with reports that disenfranchised Florida fans starting gobbling up tickets once they found out it would be Urban Meyer’s last game. Will this Florida team rise up and send Urban out with a victory? Most times, I would agree Florida has the superior motivation along with superior talent, so they should win easy. But despite Florida’s talent, they have failed to beat a team with a pulse all year, with the possible exception of 6-6 Georgia. They finished the year with two pathetic efforts in blowout losses to South Carolina and Florida State. Forget about SEC strength – Florida is not very good this year. Penn State, on the other hand, ended the year strong, going 4-2 with the losses coming to two Top 10 teams. And they gave Michigan State all they wanted and Ohio State all they wanted for a half. Penn State is a young, improving team and those are usually the type of teams that come up big in bowl games. I’ll take them over the underachievers from Florida.

Michigan State +10 over Alabama
Capital One Bowl
Saturday, Jan. 1, 1 p.m., ESPN
In my mind, this game is a total toss up. On paper, Alabama has better talent. But on paper, Alabama has better talent than every team they played this year and they lost three times. I also have serious concerns about Alabama’s motivation. They were supposed to contend for another national title, with the BCS as an absolute must. Instead, they lost three times, gave away the Auburn game and have a boatload of players with one foot out the door for the NFL. Mark Dantonio has his Michigan State team believing they need to win this game to validate their regular season and you know he wants to beat his former mentor, Nick Saban. And for Michigan State fans – they haven’t forgotten about Saban jumping ship back in 1999 at the first opportunity to do so. Alabama is about a touchdown better in my opinion but Michigan State has about a touchdown advantage in motivation. This game will be close and Michigan State will pull out a close one late.

Mississippi State -5 over Michigan
Gator Bowl
Saturday, Jan. 1, 1:30 p.m., ESPN2
I am really, really looking forward to this game, probably more so than just about anyone else is. I remember Mississippi State bottling up Cam Newton back in September, basically the only team all year that was able to do so. Will they be able to do the same thing to Denard Robinson? How does Michigan come out knowing that Rich Rodriguez’s job could be on the line if they lose? I also believe Mississippi State will come out with extra fire knowing that coach Dan Mullen, in all likelihood, isn’t going anywhere this offseason and they can continue to build on a remarkable season. There will be a lot of Bulldogs fans and cowbells in the stands…and I think they’re going to be celebrating.

Wisconsin +2.5 over TCU
Rose Bowl
Saturday, Jan. 1, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
I have gone back and forth on this pick and I continue to do so. And I will likely continue to do so up until kickoff time. Why Wisconsin? Because last year’s Fiesta Bowl remains too fresh in my memory. TCU was simply not ready for the enormity of the moment against a confident, veteran Boise State team that understood the early struggles were part of the big game experience. You could say TCU has learned but how do we know? What other big game did they play in? They played one big game this year and they blew Utah out. The only other “big game” they played was against a 5-7 Oregon State team, who they let hang around until Oregon State shot themselves in the foot. Wisconsin is not going to shoot themselves in the foot. Wisconsin is not going to be overcome by the moment. The Badgers have the confidence, the talent and the running game to dictate the pace and feel of the game. In the end, this will end up being a Wisconsin game more than a TCU game and the Badgers will win out in the end. One unfortunate by product of blowing everyone out is not going through the myriad situations that come up in close games.

UConn +17 over Oklahoma
Fiesta Bowl
Saturday, Jan. 1, 8 p.m., ESPN
Okay, so as a UConn season ticket holder, I’m not going to make an objective pick here. I fully understand Oklahoma is a superior team. I know the Sooners have a better offense. There are two things UConn can match up with Oklahoma, though, and they’re pretty important – coaching and defense. I’m not going to say Randy Edsall is a better coach than Bob Stoops but it’s an even matchup, in my eyes. And secondly, UConn simply has a better defense than Oklahoma. You can argue the OU defense is underrated because the offense puts up such gaudy numbers. However, the UConn defense has carried the Huskies in their five-game winning streak. So how does UConn win, or at least cover? It’s all about defense. The UConn defense stands firm, clogs up Oklahoma with its bend and don’t break philosophy and the Sooners get frustrated with field goals. I saw it happen to West Virginia. I saw it happen to Pitt. I hope to see it happen again New Year’s Night.

Or Oklahoma wins by 50. There’s really no in-between here.

Stanford -3 over Virginia Tech
Orange Bowl
Monday, Jan. 3, 8 p.m., ESPN
I think this game is a bigger referendum on ACC football than people are making it out to be. The conference has won a grand total of ONE major bowl game since Florida State won the national title in 1999. The lone win? Virginia Tech taking down Cincinnati in the least attended, least viewed Orange Bowl in many, many years, if not ever. The ACC needs a victory. Virginia Tech has been the conference’s standard bearer since it joined in 2004 but has been stunningly unable to beat the quality nonconference opponents. Here’s another opportunity…and they have no chance. Stanford is going to obliterate Virginia Tech. Stanford would’ve gone 12-0 in the ACC and may not have been played a game within two touchdowns. At some point, we may realize the ACC is the worst football conference but at least on Jan. 3rd, we’ll get another reminder. And sadly, there will be another round of “the ACC is finally good in football!” stories come August, because there is every August. The ACC falls to 1-10 in BCS bowl games since 2000. Yes, 1-10!

Arkansas +3.5 over Ohio State
Sugar Bowl
Tuesday, Jan. 4, 8 p.m., ESPN
I cannot wait for this game for a multitude of reasons. First, the atmosphere should be incredible with at least 25,000 Arkansas fans fired up and ready to go, along with the usual horde of Ohio State fans that show up anywhere. Secondly, there is NFL-quality talent all over the field, starting with both quarterbacks. Third, the coaching matchup is delicious with the new-school Bobby Petrino matching wits against the decidedly old-school Jim Tressel. As if all of that weren’t enough, we get the fun added subplot of Ohio State being a miserable 0-9 against the SEC in bowl games. It will be 0-10 come Jan. 5th because Ohio State does not have a defense good enough to slow down Arkansas. And unless Pryor morphs back into his Rose Bowl form, Ohio State won’t be able to keep up in a shootout.

Middle Tennessee +1.5 over Miami, Ohio
GoDaddy.com Bowl
Thursday, Jan. 6, 8 p.m., ESPN
Middle Tennessee is the best 6-6 team in Sun Belt history. They were without QB Dwight Dasher, the team’s best player for the first four games that included two tight losses to Minnesota and Memphis. If Dasher plays all 12, I saw Middle Tennessee is at least 8-4, if not 9-3. Miami, Ohio, on the other hand, made a crazy turnaround from last year’s 1-11 record but were handed the MAC title game by Northern Illinois, which has inflated their team’s reputation. Middle Tennessee should be favored – especially since Miami just lost its coach to Pitt – and they will prove so in a nice win for the Sun Belt. And we saw another Sun Belt/MAC matchup in the New Orleans Bowl and it wasn’t pretty for the MAC.

LSU -1 over Texas A&M
Cotton Bowl
Friday, Jan. 7, 8 p.m., Fox
Another game that should benefit from an electric atmosphere in JerryWorld on a Friday night. Texas A&M definitely enters the game with more momentum but how well will that hold up roughly six weeks after its last game? LSU could use the time off to get the bad taste out of its mouth following the year-end loss to Arkansas that really soured the season for LSU. Did you know this is the only Big XII/SEC matchup of the postseason? That doesn’t seem right, does it? Texas A&M’s vaunted offense looked downright pedestrian in its last outing against an elite defense, struggling mightily to score in an ugly victory over Nebraska. Unfortunately for A&M, LSU has an even better defense. LSU wins a close, low-scoring, ugly affair.

Pitt -3 over Kentucky
BBVA Compass Bowl
Saturday, Jan. 8, noon, ESPN
What’s the opposite of an electric atmosphere? I’d say the decrepit Legion Field on a Saturday afternoon in January with two football teams that would rather be anywhere else in the world. Pitt just fired its coach while Kentucky fans, even though it was the first year for new head man Joker Phillips, are tired of 6-6 seasons ending with crappy bowl appearances. I give Pitt the nod here since they have better players, they showed a lot of heart in the season-ending win over Cincinnati and they’ll be motivated internally to win the game for Dave Wannstedt. Kentucky just isn’t very good, as evident by their poor season-ending loss to Tennessee.

Nevada -9.5 over Boston College
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl
Sunday, Jan. 9, 9 p.m., ESPN
Hide the women and children. Nevada is a legit top 10 team with an unstoppable offense and they’re very excited to be in San Francisco along with more than 20,000 of its fans who have reportedly snapped up tickets. Boston College is a middling, offensively offensive team that only made it to bowl eligibility thanks to a Charmin soft schedule. Nevada’s best win: national title contender Boise State. BC’s best win: 6-6 Clemson. Uhh, yeah. If Nevada didn’t want to be here, they could lose. But they do want to be here. This game will serve as a nationally-televised three-plus hour celebration of the winningest class in Nevada football history. Boston College is just there to get beat.

I’ll leave you with the immortal words of Randy Edsall, since I’m in an anti-BC place right now, “UConn is the first team from New England to play in a BCS bowl.” Indeed, Coach Edsall, indeed.

National title pick coming and analysis coming in 2011. Hint: Auburn, by a lot.

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