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.