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Happy New Year! It's the day when a lot of people park themselves in front of the TV and watch football from sunrise to sunset (your darkness may vary). Then you get to end of the last game of the day and you think to yourself "Just who the hell is playing in this game?"
There are four "minor" bowls and two BCS bowls. Although from my perspective, there is the Rose Bowl and five other bowls. But people in Georgia and Hawai'i may disagree.
Game 1 - Outback Bowl at 8 am PT in Tampa - #16 Tennessee (9-4) takes on #18 Wisconsin (9-3).
The Vols are 24-22 in previous bowl appearances and lost this bowl game last year to Penn State 28-10.
The Badgers are 10-8 in their previous bowl games and beat Arkansas 17-14 in the Capital One Bowl last year.
Wisconsin and Tennessee have met once before and it was in the 1981 Garden State Bowl. Tennessee won 28-21.
This bowl from 1986 to 1994 was called the Hall of Fame Bowl. Why? Because the College Football Hall of Fame is located in South Bend, Indiana. This is not to confuse this bowl with the old Hall of Fame Classic which was played in Birmingham from 1977 through 1985 before changing its name to the All-American Bowl and then giving up after 1990.
Game 2 - Cotton Bowl at 8:30 am PT in Dallas - #7 Missouri (11-2) vs #25 Arkansas (8-4).
The Tigers were primed to play for the national championship until they were found out by Oklahoma in the Big XII championship game and now they get to spend New Year's Day playing in a bowl game that used to be big. Arkansas upset LSU in their final game of the season and their coach resigned soon afterwards.
Missouri is 10-14 in bowl games, losing the 2006 Sun Bowl to Oregon State. Their first bowl game was a 20-7 loss to USC in the 1924 Los Angeles Christmas Festival. The Tigers lost to Texas in the 1946 Cotton Bowl.
Arkansas is 11-21-3 in bowl games, including eight trips to the Cotton Bowl. The Razorbacks are 2-5-1 in Dallas.
The Tigers and Razorbacks are tied 2-2 alltime. They met in the 2003 Independence Bowl and Arkansas won 27-14. The two schools have played each other on a campus site just once, an 11-0 win by Missouri in Columbia back in 1906.
Game 3 - Capital One Bowl at 11 am PT in Orlando - Michigan (8-4) vs. #9 Florida (9-3).
The Wolverines, whose season started out with an ingnominious loss at home to Appalachian State and finished with a loss at home to Ohio State, will be playing their final game for coach Lloyd Carr.
Michigan is 18-20 in bowl games and the Wolverines have lost their lost four bowl games and haven't won one since the 2003 Outback Bowl against the Gators, 38-30. The Wolverines have played in this bowl three times with two wins and a loss.
Florida is 16-18 in bowl games. The Gators did well in their last bowl, the 2007 BCS Championship Game win over Ohio State 41-14. Florida has played in this bowl four times and have gone 2-2.
The 2003 Outback Bowl game is the only previous meeting between the two schools.
This bowl game started out as the Tangerine Bowl. Then it became the Florida Citrus Bowl and now its the Capital One Bowl.
Game 4 - Gator Bowl at 11 am PT in Jacksonville - Texas Tech (9-3) vs #21 Virginia (8-4).
The final Florida bowl game of the day matches an unranked team that beat a team in the BCS (Oklahoma) versus a ranked team with a worse record that beat only one ranked team all season (Wake Forest).
The Red Raiders are not a great bowl team, going 9-20-1 in previous bowls. They did pull off a comeback from a 35-7 deficit to Minnesota last year in the Insight Bowl to win 44-41 in overtime. Texas Tech lost to Georgia Tech 31-21 in the 1965 Gator Bowl.
Virginia is 7-9 in bowl games and the Cavaliers won their last one, the 2005 Music City Bowl against Minnesota.
This is the first meeting ever between the two schools.
Game 5 - Rose Bowl at 2 pm PT in Pasadena - #13 Illinois (9-3) vs #6 USC (10-2).
The Granddady of them All got its favored Big Ten vs Pac-10 matchup although for the second straight year, it's the Big Ten runnerup coming to Pasadena.
USC is 29-16 in bowl games and have played in 31 Rose Bowls, going 22-9 in them. After playing Illinois, the Trojans will have played every Big Ten school in the Rose Bowl except for Minnesota. USC played Penn State in the first Rose Bowl game in its present site back in 1923 before the Nittany Lions joined the Big Ten.
Illinois is just 6-8 in bowl games. This will be their fifth Rose Bowl game and last played in it in 1984, a 45-9 loss to UCLA. The Illini won their first three Rose Bowls.
USC has played Illinois 12 times and won 10 of the games. Illinois won 19-0 in 1935 and 14-13 in 1989. Both of those games were at the Coliseum. Illinois is 26-43 alltime against Pac-10 schools. USC is 64-27-2 against Big Ten schools.
When Illinois last won the Rose Bowl, Dick Butkus was playing for the Illini (a 17-7 win over Washington in 1964).
Game 6 - Sugar Bowl at 5:30 pm PT in New Orleans - #4 Georgia (10-2) vs #10 Hawai'i (12-0)
Still awake? The fans in Hawai'i will be as it's not that late for them. And this is THE game for fans of the 'Bows. As for fans of the Dawgs, it's time for them to demonstrate that they deserved a spot in the BCS Championship game. More importantly, what about me? I will likely be calling to have a pizza delivered around the time this game starts.
Hawai'i is 5-2 in bowl games, but only one of them has been played on the mainland, a 27-17 win over Illinois in the 1992 Holiday Bowl.
Georgia is 23-16-3 in bowl games. They are 3-5 in the Sugar Bowl.
The Dawgs and 'Bows have never played each other before.
You're turning into Kirk Van Houten aren't you?
Of course, I meant that with all due respect....
I hope you get your job back at the cracker factory.
They started at 10 am PT.
There are four games going on at the same time and I just have picture in picture. Not pictures in picture.
#1 will be Red Grange or else I will be very angry.
That's what Pat Summeral asked of Frank Broyles.
And another interim coach is going down to defeat.
West Virginia is doomed.
Oregon won by 35. Missouri up by 31 with 6 minutes to go.
It rained a lot in New Orleans that day.
Better even than Lets Make a Deal.
They're giving Florida all they can handle.
The SEC started out 5-0, but is now 5-2 after Arkansas and Florida lost.
Big XII is 4-2. ACC is 2-5. Big East is 1-2.
There would have been a quick drive down to the Rose Bowl to take care of it.
A friend of mine thinks it will be OJ Simpson, although, even if you throw out OJ's baggage, he wasn't THE GREATEST college football player. And he's not even the best USC player.
That doesn't seem very According to Jim.
Let the false hits fall like a heavy rain!
I'd like to think I'm doing my part.
But I think the Sugar Bowl is going to have to be good for people to get interested in commenting.
Baby steps.
I would credit UCLA's athletic department with shrewd marketing, but I think its incompetence just paid off accidentally.
I've been wondering about this. Do people really care about Hawaii, or are we all just humoring Linkmeister?
The New York Times seems to like UH a lot.
http://tinyurl.com/2t3bks
And they did.
Root for UH because they're the Little Engine That Could. Also root for them because the SEC is one of the power conferences trying to keep the little guy down. Or if you have some William T. Sherman in you, root for Georgia to get burned again.
ASU wouldn't have had a prayer against the Buckeyes.
true, ohio state probably would wipe out arizona state. not sure how they'd do against oregon or a healthy cal.
UCLA/USC - 87
Illinois - 19
The kickoff is alleged for 5:30 pm PT.
So it will probably be 6:00 pm PT.
The USC seniors tend to get nice sendoffs unless it's a bowl game Vince Young is playing in.
The other bowl game wins had scores of 38-17, 28-14, 55-19, and 32-18.
i'd be the first to sneer at hawaii (though not their cheerleaders) if they played a crappy schedule while the other bcs teams all played nothing but best... but, uh... youngstown, akron and kent state are the three football powers ohio state scheduled this year outside their big 10 death march... ou swept, if you're wondering.
TIA
Fox.
Yes, you will now be subjected to the pontificating of Thom Brennaman.
Look for him to be morally outraged at some college player tonight.
Except not Colt Brennan. His crime wasn't THAT bad...
No on screen programming guide? Fox
(Cincinnati 31, Southern Miss 21)
http://www.tvguide.com/listings
Pizza sounds like a good idea.
UCLA beat Illinois by 36 (45-9) in 1984 and Washington beat Minnesota by 36 (44-8) in 1960.
Booo......
The owner died?
I've only been there once and I guess that since I had to wait so long, I was expecting pizza that would make my renounce sin forever so I could keep eating, or alternatively, sell my soul to Satan to keep it eating it. Instead, it was just very good.
A whole lot.
But nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded.
Very competitive.
Why?
1) I need something to occupy the time while my laundry gets done.
2) It's earlier out here.
3) I'm not working tomorrow.
I was putting away laundry during halftime. But I noticed they did show the UH band which will make my coworker happy.
It might be mandated.
Gosh, if I had the NFL Network, I could watch the Scouting Combine.
Then I would have to kill myself.
Clearly, you have never seen an hour of prospects getting their body fat measured.
Exciting television.
Now that you've put it that way, I better call Time-Warner to ask for the NFL Network.
You really are still sticking with this game.
I made a pledge.
All that talk about how this season is so great and crazy, because things kept changing.
Illinois has a very good marching band.
June Jones looked to be extremely pissed off at Mark Richt for the last challenge. Has Richt always been such a jerk?
115
And Matt Vasgersian of course loves St. Louis. And if Tom Hoffarth has his way, Vasgersian will be Vin Scully's replacement.
The survey was done among head coaches with the last name of Stoops.
BTW - Richt's annual salary exceeds the entire annual budget of the Hawaii football program.
Mark Richt looks very creepy. If Vince Dooley were dead, he'd be rolling over in his grave in moral outrage.
If you like whiny wussies, he is your man!
Those are "youthful indiscretions."
In addition to the B52's, (which you knew right off the top of your precious heads) Otis Redding, James Brown, and Ray Charles were all from Georgia.
Try to be more white.
But it was the black announcer (Charles Davis) talking about the B52s and R.E.M.
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I think people in Hawai'i are still watching. What else do they have to do?
Smoke ice and hate white people.
I can't imagine that Georgia's ranking next year will be affected by the final score of this game.
Grumble, grumble, grumble.
At that, Davis and Brenneman were more polite to UH than the clowns in Bristol were after the game.
How do you romp something?
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