NCAA Bowl Schedule & Picks

The bowl season is upon us. There are a total of 32 bowl games. There are 4 key factors when picking bowl games. Consider what conference the team is from, the location of the game, the team's past bowl success/failures and the current coaching situation. There are several teams with interim coaches, others whose coach is coaching his last game and some whose coach is seeking other jobs.

12/20/07-Pointsetta Bowl: (San Diego) Utah (-9) vs Navy-
Navy's coach has already announced that he is headed to GT. Utah has gone 7-1 since starting 1-3. Navy can't stop anyone other than Army. In their 4 losses, Navy has yielded178 points (45.6 ppg). They also gave up 43 to Duke, 45 to Pitt and 62 to North Texas. Utah has won 6 straight bowl games.

12/21/07- New Orleans Bowl: Memphis (+2.5) vs. Fla. Atlantic-
The CUSA has won 3 of the last 4 New Orleans Bowl games against the Sun Belt. Tigers have won 5 of 6 since starting 2-4.

12/22/07- PapaJohns.com Bowl (Birmingham, Ala): Cincy (-11) vs. S.Miss-
The Big East went 5-0 in bowl games last year. CUSA went 1-3. Cincy only lost 3 games and that was by a total of 16 points. S. Miss doesn't have their coach anymore either.

12/22/07- New Mexico Bowl: New Mexico (-3) vs. Nevada-
Both teams went 0-3 against bowl teams this year. New Mexico was 5-1 at home and that's where this one is. Plus, its hard to take a 6-6 WAC team.

12/22/07- Las Vegas Bowl: BYU (-6.5) vs. UCLA-
UCLA beat BYU(at UCLA) 27-17 the first time around. At that time, UCLA was ranked 13 and looking at a promising season. Since, they've lost 6 of 10 and their coach has been fired. My guess is the BYU players can behave much better in Las Vegas than UCLA. BYU beat Oregon in last year's Las Vegas Bowl.

12/23/07- Hawaii Bowl: Boise St. (-10.5) vs. E.Caro-
CUSA sucks and so does this Carolina. Boise has the bowl experience and the Hawaii fans will cheer for the WAC team.

12/26/07- Motor City Bowl (Detroit): Purdue (-9) vs. Central Michigan.
The Boilermakers won the first meeting 45-22 despite 5 turnovers and it wasn't even as close as the score indicates. Purdue led 31-0 at halftime.

12/27/07- Holiday Bowl (SD): Texas (-2.5) vs. Arizona St.-
Love it. Az St. is soft and they fade down the stretch every year.

12/28/07- Champs Sports Bowl (Orlando): Michigan St. (+3.5) vs. Boston College-
BC was one of this season's most overrated. Yes, Matt Ryan is a 1st round pick, but BC has crappy wideouts and struggles to run the ball.

12/28/07- Texas Bowl (Houston): TCU (-3.5) vs. Houston-
The favorite is 4-0-1 in the last 5 Texas Bowls. TCU has won 3 of 4 and covered 4 in a row. Hou is 0-6 as dogs of 3.5 to 10

12/28/07- Emerald Bowl (San Fran) Oregon St. (-5.0) vs. Maryland-
OSU has been playing great down the stretch (6-1 in their last 7). Md. hasnt played great all season and was only 3-5 in the ACC.

12/29/07- Meineke Car Care Bowl (Charlotte, NC) Wake Forest (-3) vs. Connecticut-
Basically a home game for Wake. UConn got walloped in 2 of their last 3. Wake beat UConn 24-13 @ UConn last season

12/29/07- Liberty Bowl (Memphis): Mississippi St. (+3) vs. Central Florida-
C Fla won an awful CUSA, but Ole Miss qualified out of the best conference in the country.

12/29/07- Alamo Bowl (San Antonio): Texas A&M (+5.5) vs. Penn St. -
Neither team has beaten anyone good this season. The Big 12 is slightly better than the Big 10 and the game is being played in Texas. The Big 10 went 2-5 in bowl games last year.

12/30/07- Independence Bowl (Shreveport, La.): Alabama (-3.5) vs. Colorado-
As much as I hate Nick Saban, I gotta go with the Tide. Both teams finished 6-6, but Bama showed a lot more promise and was in the top 25 in November. Colo. did have a stunning win over OK, but the Tide just have more speed and more talent.

12/31/07- Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas): Air Force (+3.5) vs. California-
I am not picking against Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. Cal has lost 6 of 7 since starting 5-0.

12/31/07- Sun Bowl (El Paso, Texas): South Florida (-6.5) vs. Oregon-
Oregon was 8-1 and ranked #2. Then, Dennis Dixon hurt his knee and they are 0-3 since. S. Fla was 6-0 and ranked #2 before they lost 3 in a row. They have righted the ship, winning three in a row during which they averaged 48 ppg. Oregon is simply lost at the QB postion right now.

12/31/07- Humanitarian Bowl (Boise, Idaho): Fresno St. (+4.5) vs. Georgia Tech
Tough call. Fresno hasn't beaten anybody good, but all 4 of their losses were to quality teams. GTech coach Chan Gailey is on the way out. It's hard to see Tech being excited to go to Boise and play a WAC team.

12/31/07- Music City Bowl (Nashville): Kentucky (-3) vs. Florida St.-
Love Kentucky in this one. Andre Woodson is far and away the best player on the field. Fla. St. hasn't had a good season in a long time and this year was no different (7-5). Kentucky lost 5 of thier last 7, so the month off was huge for them. Hopefully, they will bounce back.

12/31/07- Insight Bowl (Arizona): Oklahoma St. (-4.5) vs. Indiana-
The Big 10 just isn't that good and Indiana didn't even finish with a winning conference record (3-5).

12/31/07- Chick-fil-a Bowl (Atlanta): Auburn (+2) vs. Clemson-
Clemson is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 bowl games. Since starting 1-2, Auburn has gone 7-2 with losses at Georgia and at LSU. They also went to Florida and won.

1/1/08- Outback Bowl (Tampa): Tennesee (-3.5) vs. Wisconsin-
Tenn played great down the stretch (5 in a row) before stumbling 21-14 against LSU. Wisconsin has relied on home field (7-0), but was only 2-3 outside Madison.

1/1/08- Cotton Bowl (Dallas): Missouri (-3) vs. Arkansas-
The game is in Big 12 Country. Ark canned its coach and controversly stole Bobby Petrino from the Atlanta Falcons. Karma is a boomerang. Mizzou should be out to prove they belonged in a BCS game.

1/1/08- Capital One Bowl (Orlando): Florida (-10) vs. Michigan-
Florida has a home field advantage in every bowl game because Gator nation is enormous. Mich is too busy looking for a coach to focus on the game.

1/1/08- Gator Bowl (Jacksonville): Texas Tech (-6) vs. Virginia
Virginia (9-3) had 3 one point wins and 2 two point wins. That's how close they were to being a 4-8 team. Tech can score a ton of points and they have been more relaxed since Dennis Franchione resigned. They will send him out with a victory.

1/1/08- Rose Bowl (Pasadena) USC (-13.5) vs. Illinois-
Ill hasnt been to a bowl game in 6 years. USC is playing it's best football right now and they're healthy. There will be plenty of Trojan faithful in attendance too.

1/1/08- Sugar Bowl (New Orleans): Georgia (-9) vs. Hawaii-
Georgia has a solid running game and they are aware that Boise beat OK last year. They will not take Hawaii lightly. Georgia has won 6 in a row and is 4-0 against ranked teams. Hawaii will score, but they haven't beat anyone other than Boise.

1/2/08- Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, Az): Oklahoma (-6.5) vs. West Virginia
Tough call. Both teams have faired well in their bowl games. Expect the OK defense to give Pat White problems. Rich Rodriguez's flirtation with Michigan won't help things.

1/3/08- Orange Bowl (Miami): Virginia Tech (-3) vs. Kansas-
Kansas played a light schedule and they haven't seen the type of defense and special teams that Tech plays.

1/5/08- International Bowl (Toronto): Ball St. (+10) vs. Rutgers-
Why do they put these two extra games in between the BCS games and the title game? How do you go from OK-West Virginia and watch Ball St.? In Toronto! Ball St. has gone 7-1 ATS in their last 8 out of conference. The easy pick is Rutgers. The right pick is Ball St.

1/6/08- GMAC Bowl (Mobile, Ala): Bowling Green (+4.5) vs. Tulsa
BG has cashed 4 in a row and Tulsa is favored despite coming from CUSA

1/7/08- BCS Championship (New Orleans): LSU (-4.5) vs. Ohio St.
The big one. It should be fairly low scoring with lots of running from both teams. I don't think OSU even deserves to be in this game since they couldn't beat Illinois at home and haven't had a huge win all year. I will take the athletes on LSU.