2012 Beef O'Brady Bowl - some brief thoughts

According to the Guardian, this bowl has the worst college bowl name. The game itself wasn't a classic either. Central Florida was just much better than Ball State and the game was probably over at the end of the 1st quarter. What killed it off was the final 2 minutes of the 1st half. At 21-7 to UCF, Ball State threatened to score but ended up missing a field goal. UCF then went down the field and scored another touchdown. What should have been 21-10 and could have been 21-14 at half-time, became 28-7. Game over. Second half was a non-event as Ball State never threatened any sort of comeback.

2012 Poinsettia Bowl - some observations on a poor game

The first bowl game I've managed to watch was the Poinsettia Bowl and I'm not sure I should have bothered. Frankly it was a very poor game. Here's a few observations on it:

• San Diego State should have been at least 10 points up at half-time instead of just 3. In the first half BYU's offence was awful (it wasn't much better in the 2nd half) but San Diego State's wasn't much better.
• In the 2nd half BYU benefited from much better field position, mainly because their defence took over. That was the difference between the two teams - BYU's defence in the second half won the game.
• BYU's punter also made a significant contribution with several punts pinning the Aztecs inside their own 10 yard line in the 2nd half.  This gave BYU a huge advantage with field position in the 2nd half.
• Kyle Van Noy looks a hell of a player. He always seemed to be at the centre of any significant plays BYU's defence made.
• One thing I kept noticing during the game was that ESPN didn't show many shots of the crowd. Any crowd shots always seemed to be close ups of small groups and the aerial shots were always from a distance. Was this deliberate? The crowd was around 35,000 (1) in a stadium which holds twice that so maybe the bowl didn't want shots of a half empty stadium shown on TV.

Some thoughts on the bowl games

Now we have the full bowl game line-up I'm left with a feeling of almost disappointment. Apart from 4 or 5 games, I'm struggling to find ones I'll definitely want to watch. Last year we had match-ups like Florida-Ohio State, Florida State-Notre Dame, Georgia-Michigan State as some of the highlights outside the BCS bowls, along with many other intriguing bowls. This year, well I'm not sure how many I'll make a point of watching.

The biggest story of the bowl line-up announcement was Northern Illinois making it. I'm in 2 minds about this. Part of me thinks every team should have a chance to reach the biggest games at the start of the season and its good to have rules that allow for this. But then the point of the bowls for me is to create a series of match-ups between teams from different conferences who, on the basis of what they achieved in the season, should be evenly matched. The effect of Northern Illinois making it (and the knock-on effects) has been to make 2 of the BCS bowls look like they are going to be very one-sided games (a third may also be one-sided but that's due to the sanctions against Ohio State, which is another story). This is unfortunate but it is not Northern Illinois fault, they have qualified fairly under the rules.

Having said that, here are some thoughts on the bowls I'll be trying to watch, starting with the one I'll make the most effort to watch (and the last 3 are only their because they are the BCS bowls):

• Alabama vs Notre Dame - The National Championship game. Enough said.
• Kansas State vs Oregon - This is the sort of game we should be seeing, 4 vs 5. But also a game we won't see in a couple of years due to the 4 team play-off.
• Oklahoma vs Texas A&M - This is by far the most interesting non-BCS bowl game. Texas A&M finished the season playing as well as anyone. Can they carry on?
• UCLA vs Baylor - will the Holiday Bowl be this years pointsplosion like the Alamo Bowl last year?
• LSU vs Clemson - a good SEC-ACC match up.
• Oregon State vs Texas - This (and the Fiesta Bowl) will be an excellent guide to the relative strengths of the Pac-12 and Big-12. On paper these 2 have had similar seasons in conferences of similar strength. So this should be close.
• Northern Illinois vs Florida State - I may only last the 1st quarter with this unless it close. It's either going to be the biggest car crash of the bowl games with Florida State dominating, or possibly the biggest upset of the bowls if Northern Illinois can keep it close.
• Florida vs Louisville - Should be an easy win for Florida but then they didn't have many easy wins during the regular season even when heavily favoured.
• Stanford vs Wisconsin - If the Wisconsin offence that put 70 on Nebraska turns up we could have a good game. Otherwise this may be an easy win for Stanford.

Some thoughts on week 14 - Championship weekend

• The SEC Championship was a hell of a game. Brutal, dramatic and played at a much higher level than almost everything else I've watched this season. It was proper grown-up football.
• If only Chris Conley had thought quicker and dropped the pass on the final play, Georgia would have had time for another play. Though there's no blame against him as its almost impossible to make the decision that quick, it's a big what-if to end the game on.
• The closeness of this game is more evidence of how close the top 6 teams in the SEC are. They've all beaten and lost to each other so it's not clear even now which is the best team in the SEC. How would Florida have done against Alabama for example?
• Another good win for Kansas State and Colin Klein. He's probably sealed a top 3 finish in the Heisman race now.
• When will Nebraska's defence turn up in Indianapolis? Where on earth did that demolition by Wisconsin's offence come from? And where has that offence been all year?
• Why was the stadium in Charlotte half-empty for the ACC Championship game?
• Will anyone from a non-AQ conference sneak into the top 16 and grab a BCS bowl spot?
• Just Army-Navy and the bowl games to go. Why is the season so short?