Top 10 Bowl Games of 2010

2100 Bowl Preview Extravaganza Part 3

Whoops, sorry for the delay Husker Nation. The Christmas season is a busy time.

Here we are. We made it. Part 3 baby! Lets get everybody caught up before getting to the action.

Part 1: Bowls 20-35

Part 2: Bowls 10-19

Repeated Intro: You get some weird matchups, some traditional matchups, some teams fired up to play in them, other teams that couldn’t give a rat’s ass (Nebraska fits the mold), big-time upsets, confidence rankings, internal debates about what new coaches mean to their respective teams, gatorade showers (including this beauty right to Nick Saban’s temple), annual Florida St. academic suspensions (hopefully not just a Bowden thing), false rape allegations from crazed fans (I got your back, Ell),Joe Paterno sprinting across the field with a turtle head poking (wait, not a bowl game, but still great), overanalyzing Florida International’s schedule (weak non-con), wandering why the New Mexico Bowl isn’t held on a red field, deciphering the silliest name for a bowl game (Beef O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl narrowly edges the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl), and last but not least, the overjoying feeling of watching 5 bowl games at the same time in a euphoric-hungover-daze on New Year’s Day.

I’ll present you with a compacted preview of each of the bowl games, in descending order of the matchups I am most excited for. That means least excited to most excited. This ain’t your grandfather’s rankings though, so g’ready….

(Due to a silly miscalculation, I left only 9 games to be previewed for part 3, but will just repeat #10 to make the list complete. I’m baffled at how this could have happened, but don’t worry my editor has been fired.)

10. Insight Bowl, Dec 28, Missouri vs. Iowa: A matchup between Nebraska’s soon-to-be-former pest on their side and their soon-to-be biggest rival. Should provide an interesting transformation of time for Husker fans. Unfortunately, Iowa will be short-handed due to a number of players slinging (not the fun kind like Todd Reesing, or the gun kind like Brett Favre), but the drug kind. Hawkeye players must be watching too much of The Wire. Fortunately, Adrian Clay(Davis)Born isn’t one of the players suspended. He’s the next Tyson Jackson (no good?).

9. Sun Bowl, Dec 31, Notre Dame vs. Miami: A game for the revivalists out there. While I remarked that traditions alone weren’t enough for the Penn St/Florida game, it is for this game. Why? Because I’m bored with those teams. These two teams bring me back to the early 90’s. This rivalry used to be billed as Catholics vs. Convicts, although I believe it was Notre Dame that was under investigaton this year, while “The U” was seeking a new head coach with class and integrity suddenly high on the list of job requirements. What has our world come to? Don’t know whether to sport the Ray Lewis chest-high jersey or my Jerome Bettis Los Angeles Rams jersey for this one.

8. Sugar Bowl, Jan 4, Arkansas vs. Ohio St: This game seems like a straight toss-up to me, which is exactly what you want out of the BCS games. The Sweater Vest is very dependable in BCS games, unless he’s facing an SEC team in the National Championship. In fact, the Buckeyes have lost 9 straight bowl games to SEC opponents. Your rooting interests may be decided by which style of QB you prefer, the scrambla (Terrelle Pryor) or the All-American type (Ryan Mallett). Mallett will have millions of moneys on the line in this one. Great performance and he could be a Top 5 pick. Lousy performance and some might question his performances in big games.

7. Gator Bowl, Jan 1, Mississippi St vs. Michigan: This is the game to watch on New Year’s Day morning. I had the Bulldogs as an overrated team throughout most of the season, but couldn’t deny their entertainment value when I caught their game against Arkansas. They’re an up and coming team. On top of that, they face The Nard Dogg and one of Nebraska’s new mates in the Legends division. It was kinda funny how people thought The Nard Dogg had the Heisman all but wrapped up early in the season, and couldn’t even get a mention down the stretch. Now what reamains is a teaching lesson for all you kids out there to not overreact, and to let things play out before forecasting the future as a certainty.

6. Las Vegas Bowl, Dec 22, Utah vs. Boise St: The Broncos could make a statement aimed at their adopted rivals, the TCU Horned Frogs, in this game. It’s pretty cool that we can have a prestigious, non-conference, rivalry between two non-BCS teams. TCU received praise when they blew out the Utes earlier in the season. It could be tough for Boise St to top the Horny Toads’ performance in that one, but it’s possible they take out their frustrations from blowing their undefeated season on the Utes. However, Utah is no pushover.

5. Champs Sports Bowl, Dec 28, West Virginia vs. North Carolina St: If you love unpredictable, playmaking Quarterbacks (which I do), then this is your kinda bowl game. Russell Wilson of NC State and Geno Smith of West Virginia are the players to keep your eye on. Wilson more of the playmaker. Smith more of the unpredictabler. West Virginia counters with one of the best defenses in the country. Both teams rank in the top 5 in sacks. There should be some excitement every time these two QB’s drop back to pass.

4. Independence Bowl, Dec 27, Georgia Tech vs. Air Force: Earns my distinction as the best non-BCS bowl game on the slate. Why? Because I LOVE option football. These are the top two rushing offenses in the nation. It should be option heaven in what could be one of the quickest games of the season.

3. Orange Bowl, Jan 3, Virginia Tech vs. Stanford: The Hokies may very well be playing for the National Championship if they hadn’t dropped their first game of the season against Boise St (surely wouldn’t have lost to James Madison after that). I’ve been driving the Stanford bandwagon throughout much of the season, but the Hokies might be the hottest team in the country. This is the kind of game that we’d be seeing if Mark Cuban gets his wish in developing a 16 team playoff for College Football.

2. Rose Bowl, Jan 1, Wisconsin vs. TCU: Heavily considered putting this ahead of the National Championship game in the rankings. Didn’t pull the string though. I would love for somebody to explain to me why the Rose Bowl had to select TCU to play in this game because I don’t get it. Previously stating Virginia Tech as the hottest team in the country wouldn’t be fair to Wisconsin, whose ball control offense consistently puts up 70 points. I have yet to watch one of these games, so I’m not quite sure how that’s possible. I expect TCU to play with plenty to prove in this game, with frenemies Boise St and Utah already notching a BCS victory in their history. My head tells me Wisconsin. My heart tells me TCU. But, I’ll probably go with what my manhood says.

1. BCS National Championship Game, Jan 10, Auburn vs. Oregon: First off, for all the  BCS haters out there, this year is the perfect example of the BCS working to perfection. With a playoff system, these two teams would receive little reward for finishing undefeated as opposed to finishing with one loss (they’d also be playing meaningless football down the stretch). Second, this game should be the beginning of the fast break offense trend in College Football. While these two teams were the most successful, other teams like Oklahoma and Oklahoma St found great success with the offense that really limits the options of the defense (just a warning: this game could last 5 hours). Lastly, I like Auburn in this game. I think they won the National Championship when they came back from 24 points down against Alabama IN Alabama. That was by far the most impressive feat I’ve seen this season (ironically, Oregon came back from 18 down in their biggest game of the season against Stanford). I feel like the SEC (although kinda down this year) is superior to the Pac-10 (which only produced 4 bowl-eligible teams, 5 if USC were eligible). I feel like the drama surrounding Cam Newton has only motivated him on the field. I feel like the Oregon offense has slowly but surely been getting figured out (starting with Cal), while the Auburn offense was hitting on all cylinders down the stretch. Auburn 41, Oregon 28.