Remember that all the college football bowl games are de facto exhibition games – that should not dampen your enthusiasm, in fact it is not every year that you get a matchup like the 2012 Fiesta Bowl.

Elite WR Justin Blackmon leads the high-scoring Oklahoma State attack (Icon SMI)

Glendale AZ hosts the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Stanford Cardinal on Monday January 2 at 8pm ET, and in any other year this would be a fantastic BCSMNC (BCS Mythical National Championship).

Heck, one could well argue that the Cowboys deserved to be in the title game but that nasty loss at Iowa State “left it to the judges”.

Nonetheless, a great consolation prize and a true 3-4 matchup for bragging rights. Two respected coaches leading their alma mater to heights previously not known for the programs. Two of the best quarterbacks in the sport. And fans can enjoy the football for football sake.

Breakdown and predictions after the yump.

Read the rest of this entry →

BCS Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Saturday, January 1 8 PM ET

Jordan Todman, currently #5 FBS in yards form scrimmage per game, will be an impact player in the Fiesta Bowl against the Oklahoma Sooners (Icon SMI)

Connecticut Huskies (8-4, 5-2 Big East) v. #7 Oklahoma Sooners (11-2, 6-2 Big 12)

Could this be the worst Bowl Championship Series Bowl game ever? Of course, the current system we call BCS has only been around since 1998. Still, many pundits in the college football world are calling out Connecticut. The Huskies finished the regular season outside of the BCS top 25 and Connecticut has four losses (the fourth four loss BCS team ever).

Of the nine other teams that qualified for a BCS bowl game this season, Connecticut’s four losses are at least double more than any other team. In fact, the Huskies were 3-4 at one point in the season before rattling off five straight wins to claim the Big East title (via tie-breakers). Will the spotlight be too bright for head coach Randy Edsall’s Huskies, who were playing in D-1AA as late as 2000?

Conversely, the Oklahoma Sooners, thought by many to be a national champion contender, won the Big 12 and were a team that was consistently in the top 10 all year long. While Connecticut is making it’s first BCS appearance, Oklahoma is making it’s eighth BCS trip (second most only to Ohio State).

The Sooners have the marque players, Landry Jones and DeMarco Murray, and the big name head coach, Bob Stoops. It’s well documented that Oklahoma under Stoops has lost BCS games to teams they should have dominated. In fact, Stoops has a five game losing streak in BCS games.

The big question for OU is – Will they overlook Connecticut?

Read the rest of this entry →

FIESTA BOWL:  Boise State vs TCU; Janaury 4, 2010; University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ; 8PM Eastern; FOX

The first BCS Bowl Game, with two oppponents not members of BCS automatic-qualifying conferences, should be a classic confrontation between  the most dominant non-BCS programs of the decade…..the Boise State Broncos and the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs (TCU).

Both Boise State and TCU contain very productive offenses, and, tough slobber-knocking defenses.  Although the two schools may not belong to the more affluent BCS conferences….the 2010 Fiesta Bowl will be one of the best bowl games to close out the 2009 season…. Read the rest of this entry →

I had dismissed this Fiesta Bowl game from my mind, thinking of it as just another top-level bowl for the Buckeyes to lose and another opportunity to be aurally assaulted by Longhorns demanding a recount of their conference standings.

The Buckeyes have bowled in Arizona six times during Tressel’s eight years at the helm (two of them title game losses) and the Longhorns likely harbor some ill will about being left out of the title game, so the potential for lasseiz-faire approach to the contest is possible on both sides. You may remember the 2006-7 home-and-home between these titans that set up the Buckeye title runs and think that this game has little to offer over those clashes.

But after reorienting myself (perhaps still dizzy from a New Year’s Eve rendezvous with a bottle of Bombay Sapphire) I am legitimately excited for this collegiate version of Monday Night Football. Both offenses feature excellent QBs who can run it and stout defensive lines. Perhaps it is my early upbringing in Akron, OH and early baptism in the Buckeye fire, maybe it is just resetting myself to a really stellar matchup in this excellent exhibition game. Read the rest of this entry →