Let’s get one thing out of the way: there is no such thing as too many bowl games. If you think there are, I don’t want to hear you kvetching in July when it seems like meaningful sports will never occur on your Saturday night, especially that of the football variety.
For the most part, we got a decent slate of bowl games this season. Obviously, due to the convictions of blogging, we need to write things about how good stuff could be even better, hence this piece.
National University Holiday Bowl: Penn State vs. Southern Cal
Call it the “pro potential without the expected college wins” bowl, which somehow is more catchy than National University Holiday Bowl, which sucks the fun out of the word “holiday” about as much as fruit cake. Set an over/under of 50 on the number of times it’s mentioned that Christian Hackenberg and Cody Kessler are future NFL opponents.
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl: Arkansas vs. Louisville
Aside from it being the Bobby Petrino Bowl, the loser has to rename the game and make the title somehow longer than it already is.
Russell Athletic Bowl: Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia
I know, I know, this bowl is set up to have more highly ranked teams in it. But be honest, we all want more Backyard Brawl in our lives, right? North Carolina-Baylor is pretty “plain yogurt” by comparison.
Foster Farms Bowl (whatever Foster Farms is): Nebraska vs. Missouri
Granted, Mizzou turned down a shot to be in a bowl game at 5-7, but it would have been decent to kick the tires on this old rivalry gone dead if you’re going to have to watch 5-7 football teams “earn” their way into a bowl game.
Foster Farms Bowl (still, whatever it is): Wisconsin vs. Cal
The Badgers quietly have the second best pass efficiency defense in the nation, and the juice would be worth the squeeze to see “future No. 1 pick banished to the Cleveland Browns,” Jared Goff of Cal, go up against it.
Cactus Bowl: Washington State vs. Texas Tech
They’d need to start it at 8 p.m. Eastern time to get it done by 2 a.m., but it’d be completely worth it to see Mike Leach’s offense go against Kliff Kingsbury’s. Add a little saltiness from The Pirate to his old school, and you’ve got yourself a Jim Dandy, if the young people still say that anymore.
TaxSlayer Bowl: Arkansas vs. Wisconsin
I mean, Bret Bielema is crazy when he’s talking about his weekly grocery shopping trips, I’d imagine. I can only fathom the fun to be had if he has to talk about Wisconsin for a month, considering the bad blood when he left and the fact that he loves taking shots at pretty much everyone, valid or not.
Sugar Bowl: Ole Miss vs. TCU
Yeah, yeah, last year’s installment wasn’t much to get all hot and bothered about. Give Ole Miss another shot, and maybe if they keep non-overachieving, we can make this an annual thing.
Citrus Bowl: Michigan vs. LSU
Yeah, I know, the Citrus goes SEC East most of the time, but both Florida and LSU have three losses, and the intrigue of Les Miles playing Michigan would have been thoroughly enjoyable. Plus, just imagine the Jim Harbaugh and Les press conferences leading up to this one. Both do it in completely different ways, with their own brand of crazy driving them.
Cactus Bowl: West Virginia vs. Arizona
Instead of the Rich Rod Bowl, sponsored by Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” we get WVU versus Arizona State. Both are 6-6, but can you imagine the salty story lines with Rich Rod playing his old school? Once you add the fact that WVU hasn’t really excelled under the current regime, and that Rodriguez was linked to the South Carolina opening (likely by his own doing … floating out availability), the intrigue and backstory would be amazing.
