NCAA Football Bowls thread
12-15-2018
, 05:37 AM
After a grueling week of just the Army-Navy game, our long national nightmare of college football is gone is over! Been a bit of a rough day & night and, though not finished, I'm out of gas for now, going to sleep, and uncertain if I will wake up before the games start, so posting what I have and may ask a mod to paste in the rest later.
Saturday, Dec 15, 2018
North Carolina A&T vs. Alcorn State in Atlanta, GA @ 12:00pm ET - ABC
Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl: Jonesing for some college football? Here you go, I guess.
Also guessing (but it feels like a solid guess) there is such a thing as "Air Force Reserves" and maybe it's airline pilots who may get drafted to serve as cannon fodder for the alien invasion Independence Day shootout.
Tulane -3.5 vs. Louisiana (Lafayette) in Orlando, FL @ 1:30pm ET - CBSSN
AutoNation Cure Bowl: You know who finished strong? Tulane. You know who played a bunch of weak teams down the stretch? Tulane. Adjusted YPP has also gotten better though, and in the first half they lost 1 score games to Wake Forest (in OT) and @UAB (who unexpectedly turned in a strong season) plus managed to beat Memphis. Their offense is a unique hybrid of various options, if not a particularly good one. Usually they run a little more than half the time, but will gladly make an exception if you're as bad against the triple option as South Florida (85% run plays that game). It will look like a great offense here either way though; LA-La *has* a pretty good offense (for the SunBelt) and a really, really bad defense (for the Sunbelt 8O). While I am not certain they are bad against the triple-option they are so awful against the run in general I am just going to *assume* that's the case and this is a relatively quick game if high scoring for the # of plays run. That is the only way I can explain the total being set at just 61.
I'm not one to say "Free Money" but I will say, "Go get ALL YOUR money and bet Tulane".
Not sure if Autonation is a chain of parts stores or an online store or something but if they found a cure for it, congratulations.
North Texas vs. Utah State -7.5 in Albuquerque, NM @ 2:00pm ET - ESPN
New Mexico Bowl: Two teams with a combined 19-5 record. Utah State's coach has already gone to Texas Tech, and of course you'll remember North Texas' rawdogging of Arkansas.
Can't argue with the name of this one.
Arizona State vs.*21*Fresno State -6 in Las Vegas, NV @ 3:30pm ET - ABC
Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl: Too bad HERM's 3 top QB recruits can't help him NOW! And they'd have no one to throw to with that good WR (N'Keal Harry) taking the game off. Lining up against your Mountain West Champion BullTedfordsand and being given quite a generous spot here. Technically the streak was broken by Oregon, but ASU's 4 losses by exactly 7 points is still legitimately weird.
When I hear "Las Vegas" I pretty much never associate "Mitsubishi" with it. Like if they called this the "Opposite of Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl" it would, to me, make more sense.
Georgia Southern -3 vs. Eastern Michigan in Montgomery, AL @ 5:30pm ET - ESPN
Raycom Media Camellia Bowl: Very directional, very remote. While in town, make sure you check out fun attractions like the new Lynching Museum, the Hyundai plant, and the giant bingo casinos (while almost certainly illegal, they rarely raid them around the holidays). A city on the move!
Raycom: the other Sinclair!
Middle Tennessee vs. Appalachian State -7 in New Orleans, LA @ 9:00pm ET - ESPN
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: The nightcap features the best of the Sunbelt vs some random Conference USA team (the one that beat UAB when it didn't count then failed the next week when it did). Appy's coach has moved on to Louisville, but the interim was the "Assistant Head Coach".
Not gonna lie; I always assumed R&L Carriers was a ship-building enterprise specializing in aircraft carriers. Turns out it's a trucking company. At least the ship thing would have some conceivable use to New Orleans.
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2018
UAB -2.5 vs. Northern Illinois in Boca Raton, FL @ 7:00pm ET - ESPN
Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl: Battle of MAC champions and CUSA champions! NIU is perhaps the worst offense in the entire country and, as you can imagine since they are here, that means their defense is pretty damned good. Only 4 times this season did an opponent score more than 24 points against them, and they help Utah and BYU to a combined 24 points. UAB's quarterback controversy (play the good QB or the senior leader?) is complicated by the senior leader's injury (DNP in their championship game) and uncertain status for this game.
I thought this "Cheribundi" company was on to a great idea with their cherry tart juice, but it's actually "tart cherry". "Mmmmmm, tart." said no one, ever, after gulping down some juice. Antioxisomething and it's like that pommegranate juice only just as expensive and more tart.
Wednesday, Dec 19, 2018
San Diego State vs. Ohio -3 in Frisco, TX @ 8:00pm ET - ESPN
DXL Frisco Bowl: Losers of 4 of their last 5 takes on winners of 5 of their last 6. SDSU may have lost them all pretty close, but they have played a number of truly terrible games in their. Meanwhile happy-ass Ohio is just pushing buttons and slanging **** around out there. Hmm...I wonder if Ohio State would beat them this year?
DXL is a Big & Tall shop that fails to make a weedeater, so I assume Frisco is one of those fat capitals. Frisco is a historic Dallas--it's Dallas.
Thursday, Dec 20, 2018
Marshall -3 vs. USF in Tampa, FL @ 8:00pm ET - ESPN
Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl: A rare home game outside of the Rose and Orange Bowls, USF has lost 5 straight but will get Blake Barnett back for this game. Marshall has a decent record mainly by having a weak schedule and making sound "business decisions" in their games against stronger opponents.
Bad Boy Mowers looks pretty much like the YETI of lawn mowers and mainly sold out of tractor dealers. Or maybe the Range Rover of mowers--nigh, the Range Rover Sport of lawn mowers. Range Rover Sport--the car that says "I can afford to spend an extra $15,000 *strictly* for a name, but somehow cannot afford the additional $50K to get the actual best SUV on the planet." There are discussion forums about lawn mowers where they assure me these are NOT just rebranded Husqvarna with a lot of crazy talk about driveshafts I think.
Friday, Dec 21, 2018
FIU vs. Toledo -5.5 in Nassau, Bahamas @ 12:30pm ET - ESPN
Hookers Wanted Bahamas Bowl: Finally a worthwhile location for a bowl! Seems like it's going to be a terrible game and that sure seems like a lousy time for it too. It's right near Atlantis, so shouldn't be that hard to find.
There's some Chicago industrial park sponsoring this for some reason. In the past I think it was Popeye's Fried Chicken.
Western Michigan vs. BYU -12 in Boise, ID @ 4:00pm ET - ESPN
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Two teams who switched QBs mid-season. For BYU it turned out to be a huge upgrade and saved their season. For WMU it was injury-forced, bad, and resulted in dropping 3 of their last 4 after having won their last 6 and being 4-0 in conference.
Can't fault this bowl name either.
Saturday, Dec 22, 2018
Memphis -4 vs. Wake Forest in Birmingham, AL @ 12:00pm ET - ESPN
Jared Birmingham Bowl: The only reason to watch this game was Darrell Henderson but he's skipping it. What, he thinks getting 9 yards per carry for the season was good enough?
Jared; the "women should propose to men" folks. Continue to think lots of people getting brutally murdered, mutilated, and enslaved by warlords in Africa for them is plenty good reason to not buy diamonds ever, at all, and it's sick this doesn't seem to even register with otherwise seemingly decent people. I don't particularly give a **** who asks whom.
Houston vs. Army -3.5 in Fort Worth, TX @ 3:30pm ET - ESPN
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Houston won't have Ed Oliver (draft) or QB D’Eriq King (knee asplode) and their backups have thus far looked woefully insufficient to the basic tasks required. I might look for a prop that Army runs a FB dive off the option on 50% of their snaps.
Lockheed Martin is not a trucking company but more like a southern non-oily Halliburton. Wonderful choice for a bowl sponsor.
Buffalo -2 vs. Troy in Mobile, AL @ 7:00pm ET - ESPN
Dollar General Bowl: This may be a decent game but Troy's another team who lost their QB in the middle of the season and their offense plummeted the rest of the year. Buffalo has a quarterback who is 8 feet tall and shoots lightning bolts out of his ass.
Hooters Bowl. There, see how much better that sounds?
Hawaii -1 vs. Louisiana Tech in Honolulu, HI @ 10:30pm ET - ESPN
SoFi Hawai'i Bowl: What you see is what you get--no players sitting out the game for the draft and no coaches have left.
SoFi is like payday loans for graduates, or like a sign of the appocolypse that this federal program for college debt has such high interest rates that an entire cottage industry has sprung up to take that off the governments hands, charge less, and still turn a hefty enough profit to sponsor a goddamned bowl game in Hawaii, ffs! Assinine is what it is. ****ing Reagan. I wish Hinckley was a better shot--way to miss and way to fall in love with a gay female movie star you total loser.
Wednesday, Dec 26, 2018
Boston College vs.*25*Boise State -3 in Dallas, TX @ 1:30pm ET - ESPN
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: BC's offensive coordinator left to take the head coaching job at Bowling Green (which is weird in a couple of ways), but they were pretty bad at offense so I don't really think that will hurt them much (one of the reasons the hiring was weird). Maybe they just said, "Hire the coordinator from Boston College"?
SERVPRO; When your building catches on fire like where you need first responders, we'll come in later and repaint it for you. So like last responders, really.
Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech -6 in Detroit, MI @ 5:15pm ET - ESPN
Quick Lane Bowl: Last chance to see the Paul Johnson offense. And against a team that has trouble stopping the run. And hasn't played the GT option before. And whose best defender (Blake Cashman) is skipping the game for the draft. You see whee I'm going with this, right?
Quick Lane looks like Ford's inhouse PepBoys.
California vs. TCU (pickem) in Phoenix, AZ @ 9:00pm ET - ESPN
Cheez-It Bowl: As a Cal fan I feel like I should be offended by this line, yet as a Cal fan I am not. Best unit in the game will be the Cal defense--bet you didn't see that one coming!
Cheez-It. Little crackers with cheese flavoring. Never had it but been slightly amused by some of the commercials. Can't remember if it has actual cheese in it or not. You take a cracker, you put some cheese on it; you got something way better than a cheez-it. You can also keep scaling it upwards with better and better cheeses.
Thursday, Dec 27, 2018
Temple -4.5 vs. Duke in Shreveport, LA @ 1:30pm ET - ESPN
Walk-On's Independence Bowl: Temple lost their coach to Georgia Tech, and their star QB and RB to injury, yet they are still favored. Should tell you how Duke's season ended...
Walk-On's is a Louisianna chain restaraunt sports bar. Never seen one but history tells me an unknown chain sponsoring a bowl means their master plan is world domination and soon they'll be in every shopping center.
Miami (FL) -3.5 vs. Wisconsin in Bronx, NY @ 5:15pm ET - ESPN
New Era Pinstripe Bowl: Manny Diaz is the new Temple head coach, but will be coaching the Miami D for this game. Two teams with generally disappointing years after being preseason top 10s, Wisky with good offense and meh defense, Miami great defense meh offense although I think they improved by at least sticking with just one of their bad QBs.
New Era; "You know us, we make baseball hats!"
Baylor vs. Vanderbilt -4.5 in Houston, TX @ 9:00pm ET - ESPN
Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl: It's a battle of 6-6 juggernauts! Baylor needed a bit more of a luckbox to be here, but Vandy looks pretty bad sometimes too.
Academy; not only do we not have lacrosse balls, we don't even have anyone here who knows if we have lacrosse balls.
Friday, Dec 28, 2018
Purdue vs. Auburn in Nashville, TN @ 1:30pm ET - ESPN
Franklin's Asses & Meats Music City Bowl: Two teams that have kept their coaches! Purdue's been all over the place this season; lost to Eastern Michigan, destroyed Ohio State, got destroyed by Minnesota, you get the idea. I don't have any idea what Auburn is trying to do out there.
16*West Virginia -1 vs.*20*Syracuse in Orlando, FL @ 5:15pm ET - ESPN
Camping World Bowl: Holy **** we finally get a top 20 matchup! Unfortunately one of them will be playing without Will Grier or the Big 12 offensive lineman of the year as they get ready for the draft. OK, I guess technically that is tru for both of them, but WVU is the one usually counting on those guys. These announcements even dropped the game from -7.5, so they must not think very much of the backup QB.
Camping World; Sure we could have called it "Camper World" or "RVs R Us" or something a little more clear but there's no wrong in brainstorming.
24*Iowa State vs.*13*Washington State -3.5 in San Antonio, TX @ 9:00pm ET - ESPN
Valero Alamo Bowl: An intriguing matchup of the Wazzu Air Raid with a pretty good pass defense. Also retained coaches.
Valero; Gasoline, hoo-ah!
Saturday, Dec 29, 2018
South Carolina -4.5 vs. Virginia in Charlotte, NC @ 12:00pm ET - ABC
Belk Bowl: The sad sack Cavaliers have lost two straight games by 3 in overtime. SCar will be without star WR Deebo Samuel (draft).
I've never been able to believe something that sounds like "bilk" became a successful retail chain.
10*Florida vs.*7*Michigan -7 in Atlanta, GA @ 12:00pm ET - ESPN
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Michigan DE Rashan Gary will be out (draft) and, shockingly to me, the game appears to be a strong matchup of Florida's #9 YPP offense and Michigan's #9 YPP defense. I spent much of the year believing Florida was a paper tiger, but they've hung in there and seemingly gotten better. Michigan may not have a psyche left.
Chick-fil-A really does taste better in Atlanta, but so does Zaxby's.
Arkansas State -1.5 vs. Nevada in Tucson, AZ @ 1:15pm ET - CBSSN
NOVA Home Looms Arizona Bowl: Given how janky Arkansas State has been this year, I can only imagine how much things must have sucked to be a Nevada fan.
NOVA Home Looms; Make your own clothes!
3*Notre Dame vs.*2*Clemson -13 in Arlington, TX @ 4:00pm ET - ESPN
Goodyear Cotton Bowl: See Playoff thread (which will totally exist at some point).
4*Oklahoma vs.*1*Alabama -14 in Miami Gardens, FL @ 8:00pm ET - ESPN
Capital One Orange Bowl: See Playoff thread
Monday, Dec 31, 2018
Cincinnati -6 vs. Virginia Tech in Annapolis, MD @ 12:00pm ET - ESPN
Military Bowl: Virginia Tech ran a bad defense this year. Cincy was helped by a weak schedule.
Stanford vs. Pitt in El Paso, TX @ 2:00pm ET - CBS
Hyundai Sun Bowl
Michigan State vs. Oregon in Santa Clara, CA @ 3:00pm ET - FOX
Redbox Bowl
23*Missouri vs. Oklahoma State in Memphis, TN @ 3:45pm ET - ESPN
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
22*Northwestern vs.*17*Utah in San Diego, CA @ 7:00pm ET - FS1
SDCCU Holiday Bowl
NC State vs.*19*Texas A&M in Jacksonville, FL @ 7:30pm ET - ESPN
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
Tuesday, Jan 1, 2019
18*Mississippi State vs. Iowa in Tampa, FL @ 12:00pm ET - ESPN2
Outback Bowl
11*LSU vs.*8*UCF in Glendale, AZ @ 1:00pm ET - ESPN
PlayStation Fiesta Bowl
14*Kentucky vs.*12*Penn State in Orlando, FL @ 1:00pm ET - ABC
VRBO Citrus Bowl
9*Washington vs.*6*Ohio State in Pasadena, CA @ 5:00pm ET - ESPN
Rose Bowl Game
15*Texas vs.*5*Georgia in New Orleans, LA @ 8:45pm ET - ESPN
Allstate Sugar Bowl
Monday, Jan 7, 2019
Semifinal Winners in Santa Clara, CA @ 8:00pm ET - ESPN
CFP National Championship
Saturday, Dec 15, 2018
North Carolina A&T vs. Alcorn State in Atlanta, GA @ 12:00pm ET - ABC
Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl: Jonesing for some college football? Here you go, I guess.
Also guessing (but it feels like a solid guess) there is such a thing as "Air Force Reserves" and maybe it's airline pilots who may get drafted to serve as cannon fodder for the alien invasion Independence Day shootout.
Tulane -3.5 vs. Louisiana (Lafayette) in Orlando, FL @ 1:30pm ET - CBSSN
AutoNation Cure Bowl: You know who finished strong? Tulane. You know who played a bunch of weak teams down the stretch? Tulane. Adjusted YPP has also gotten better though, and in the first half they lost 1 score games to Wake Forest (in OT) and @UAB (who unexpectedly turned in a strong season) plus managed to beat Memphis. Their offense is a unique hybrid of various options, if not a particularly good one. Usually they run a little more than half the time, but will gladly make an exception if you're as bad against the triple option as South Florida (85% run plays that game). It will look like a great offense here either way though; LA-La *has* a pretty good offense (for the SunBelt) and a really, really bad defense (for the Sunbelt 8O). While I am not certain they are bad against the triple-option they are so awful against the run in general I am just going to *assume* that's the case and this is a relatively quick game if high scoring for the # of plays run. That is the only way I can explain the total being set at just 61.
I'm not one to say "Free Money" but I will say, "Go get ALL YOUR money and bet Tulane".
Not sure if Autonation is a chain of parts stores or an online store or something but if they found a cure for it, congratulations.
North Texas vs. Utah State -7.5 in Albuquerque, NM @ 2:00pm ET - ESPN
New Mexico Bowl: Two teams with a combined 19-5 record. Utah State's coach has already gone to Texas Tech, and of course you'll remember North Texas' rawdogging of Arkansas.
Can't argue with the name of this one.
Arizona State vs.*21*Fresno State -6 in Las Vegas, NV @ 3:30pm ET - ABC
Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl: Too bad HERM's 3 top QB recruits can't help him NOW! And they'd have no one to throw to with that good WR (N'Keal Harry) taking the game off. Lining up against your Mountain West Champion BullTedfordsand and being given quite a generous spot here. Technically the streak was broken by Oregon, but ASU's 4 losses by exactly 7 points is still legitimately weird.
When I hear "Las Vegas" I pretty much never associate "Mitsubishi" with it. Like if they called this the "Opposite of Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl" it would, to me, make more sense.
Georgia Southern -3 vs. Eastern Michigan in Montgomery, AL @ 5:30pm ET - ESPN
Raycom Media Camellia Bowl: Very directional, very remote. While in town, make sure you check out fun attractions like the new Lynching Museum, the Hyundai plant, and the giant bingo casinos (while almost certainly illegal, they rarely raid them around the holidays). A city on the move!
Raycom: the other Sinclair!
Middle Tennessee vs. Appalachian State -7 in New Orleans, LA @ 9:00pm ET - ESPN
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: The nightcap features the best of the Sunbelt vs some random Conference USA team (the one that beat UAB when it didn't count then failed the next week when it did). Appy's coach has moved on to Louisville, but the interim was the "Assistant Head Coach".
Not gonna lie; I always assumed R&L Carriers was a ship-building enterprise specializing in aircraft carriers. Turns out it's a trucking company. At least the ship thing would have some conceivable use to New Orleans.
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2018
UAB -2.5 vs. Northern Illinois in Boca Raton, FL @ 7:00pm ET - ESPN
Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl: Battle of MAC champions and CUSA champions! NIU is perhaps the worst offense in the entire country and, as you can imagine since they are here, that means their defense is pretty damned good. Only 4 times this season did an opponent score more than 24 points against them, and they help Utah and BYU to a combined 24 points. UAB's quarterback controversy (play the good QB or the senior leader?) is complicated by the senior leader's injury (DNP in their championship game) and uncertain status for this game.
I thought this "Cheribundi" company was on to a great idea with their cherry tart juice, but it's actually "tart cherry". "Mmmmmm, tart." said no one, ever, after gulping down some juice. Antioxisomething and it's like that pommegranate juice only just as expensive and more tart.
Wednesday, Dec 19, 2018
San Diego State vs. Ohio -3 in Frisco, TX @ 8:00pm ET - ESPN
DXL Frisco Bowl: Losers of 4 of their last 5 takes on winners of 5 of their last 6. SDSU may have lost them all pretty close, but they have played a number of truly terrible games in their. Meanwhile happy-ass Ohio is just pushing buttons and slanging **** around out there. Hmm...I wonder if Ohio State would beat them this year?
DXL is a Big & Tall shop that fails to make a weedeater, so I assume Frisco is one of those fat capitals. Frisco is a historic Dallas--it's Dallas.
Thursday, Dec 20, 2018
Marshall -3 vs. USF in Tampa, FL @ 8:00pm ET - ESPN
Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl: A rare home game outside of the Rose and Orange Bowls, USF has lost 5 straight but will get Blake Barnett back for this game. Marshall has a decent record mainly by having a weak schedule and making sound "business decisions" in their games against stronger opponents.
Bad Boy Mowers looks pretty much like the YETI of lawn mowers and mainly sold out of tractor dealers. Or maybe the Range Rover of mowers--nigh, the Range Rover Sport of lawn mowers. Range Rover Sport--the car that says "I can afford to spend an extra $15,000 *strictly* for a name, but somehow cannot afford the additional $50K to get the actual best SUV on the planet." There are discussion forums about lawn mowers where they assure me these are NOT just rebranded Husqvarna with a lot of crazy talk about driveshafts I think.
Friday, Dec 21, 2018
FIU vs. Toledo -5.5 in Nassau, Bahamas @ 12:30pm ET - ESPN
Hookers Wanted Bahamas Bowl: Finally a worthwhile location for a bowl! Seems like it's going to be a terrible game and that sure seems like a lousy time for it too. It's right near Atlantis, so shouldn't be that hard to find.
There's some Chicago industrial park sponsoring this for some reason. In the past I think it was Popeye's Fried Chicken.
Western Michigan vs. BYU -12 in Boise, ID @ 4:00pm ET - ESPN
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Two teams who switched QBs mid-season. For BYU it turned out to be a huge upgrade and saved their season. For WMU it was injury-forced, bad, and resulted in dropping 3 of their last 4 after having won their last 6 and being 4-0 in conference.
Can't fault this bowl name either.
Saturday, Dec 22, 2018
Memphis -4 vs. Wake Forest in Birmingham, AL @ 12:00pm ET - ESPN
Jared Birmingham Bowl: The only reason to watch this game was Darrell Henderson but he's skipping it. What, he thinks getting 9 yards per carry for the season was good enough?
Jared; the "women should propose to men" folks. Continue to think lots of people getting brutally murdered, mutilated, and enslaved by warlords in Africa for them is plenty good reason to not buy diamonds ever, at all, and it's sick this doesn't seem to even register with otherwise seemingly decent people. I don't particularly give a **** who asks whom.
Houston vs. Army -3.5 in Fort Worth, TX @ 3:30pm ET - ESPN
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Houston won't have Ed Oliver (draft) or QB D’Eriq King (knee asplode) and their backups have thus far looked woefully insufficient to the basic tasks required. I might look for a prop that Army runs a FB dive off the option on 50% of their snaps.
Lockheed Martin is not a trucking company but more like a southern non-oily Halliburton. Wonderful choice for a bowl sponsor.
Buffalo -2 vs. Troy in Mobile, AL @ 7:00pm ET - ESPN
Dollar General Bowl: This may be a decent game but Troy's another team who lost their QB in the middle of the season and their offense plummeted the rest of the year. Buffalo has a quarterback who is 8 feet tall and shoots lightning bolts out of his ass.
Hooters Bowl. There, see how much better that sounds?
Hawaii -1 vs. Louisiana Tech in Honolulu, HI @ 10:30pm ET - ESPN
SoFi Hawai'i Bowl: What you see is what you get--no players sitting out the game for the draft and no coaches have left.
SoFi is like payday loans for graduates, or like a sign of the appocolypse that this federal program for college debt has such high interest rates that an entire cottage industry has sprung up to take that off the governments hands, charge less, and still turn a hefty enough profit to sponsor a goddamned bowl game in Hawaii, ffs! Assinine is what it is. ****ing Reagan. I wish Hinckley was a better shot--way to miss and way to fall in love with a gay female movie star you total loser.
Wednesday, Dec 26, 2018
Boston College vs.*25*Boise State -3 in Dallas, TX @ 1:30pm ET - ESPN
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: BC's offensive coordinator left to take the head coaching job at Bowling Green (which is weird in a couple of ways), but they were pretty bad at offense so I don't really think that will hurt them much (one of the reasons the hiring was weird). Maybe they just said, "Hire the coordinator from Boston College"?
SERVPRO; When your building catches on fire like where you need first responders, we'll come in later and repaint it for you. So like last responders, really.
Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech -6 in Detroit, MI @ 5:15pm ET - ESPN
Quick Lane Bowl: Last chance to see the Paul Johnson offense. And against a team that has trouble stopping the run. And hasn't played the GT option before. And whose best defender (Blake Cashman) is skipping the game for the draft. You see whee I'm going with this, right?
Quick Lane looks like Ford's inhouse PepBoys.
California vs. TCU (pickem) in Phoenix, AZ @ 9:00pm ET - ESPN
Cheez-It Bowl: As a Cal fan I feel like I should be offended by this line, yet as a Cal fan I am not. Best unit in the game will be the Cal defense--bet you didn't see that one coming!
Cheez-It. Little crackers with cheese flavoring. Never had it but been slightly amused by some of the commercials. Can't remember if it has actual cheese in it or not. You take a cracker, you put some cheese on it; you got something way better than a cheez-it. You can also keep scaling it upwards with better and better cheeses.
Thursday, Dec 27, 2018
Temple -4.5 vs. Duke in Shreveport, LA @ 1:30pm ET - ESPN
Walk-On's Independence Bowl: Temple lost their coach to Georgia Tech, and their star QB and RB to injury, yet they are still favored. Should tell you how Duke's season ended...
Walk-On's is a Louisianna chain restaraunt sports bar. Never seen one but history tells me an unknown chain sponsoring a bowl means their master plan is world domination and soon they'll be in every shopping center.
Miami (FL) -3.5 vs. Wisconsin in Bronx, NY @ 5:15pm ET - ESPN
New Era Pinstripe Bowl: Manny Diaz is the new Temple head coach, but will be coaching the Miami D for this game. Two teams with generally disappointing years after being preseason top 10s, Wisky with good offense and meh defense, Miami great defense meh offense although I think they improved by at least sticking with just one of their bad QBs.
New Era; "You know us, we make baseball hats!"
Baylor vs. Vanderbilt -4.5 in Houston, TX @ 9:00pm ET - ESPN
Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl: It's a battle of 6-6 juggernauts! Baylor needed a bit more of a luckbox to be here, but Vandy looks pretty bad sometimes too.
Academy; not only do we not have lacrosse balls, we don't even have anyone here who knows if we have lacrosse balls.
Friday, Dec 28, 2018
Purdue vs. Auburn in Nashville, TN @ 1:30pm ET - ESPN
Franklin's Asses & Meats Music City Bowl: Two teams that have kept their coaches! Purdue's been all over the place this season; lost to Eastern Michigan, destroyed Ohio State, got destroyed by Minnesota, you get the idea. I don't have any idea what Auburn is trying to do out there.
16*West Virginia -1 vs.*20*Syracuse in Orlando, FL @ 5:15pm ET - ESPN
Camping World Bowl: Holy **** we finally get a top 20 matchup! Unfortunately one of them will be playing without Will Grier or the Big 12 offensive lineman of the year as they get ready for the draft. OK, I guess technically that is tru for both of them, but WVU is the one usually counting on those guys. These announcements even dropped the game from -7.5, so they must not think very much of the backup QB.
Camping World; Sure we could have called it "Camper World" or "RVs R Us" or something a little more clear but there's no wrong in brainstorming.
24*Iowa State vs.*13*Washington State -3.5 in San Antonio, TX @ 9:00pm ET - ESPN
Valero Alamo Bowl: An intriguing matchup of the Wazzu Air Raid with a pretty good pass defense. Also retained coaches.
Valero; Gasoline, hoo-ah!
Saturday, Dec 29, 2018
South Carolina -4.5 vs. Virginia in Charlotte, NC @ 12:00pm ET - ABC
Belk Bowl: The sad sack Cavaliers have lost two straight games by 3 in overtime. SCar will be without star WR Deebo Samuel (draft).
I've never been able to believe something that sounds like "bilk" became a successful retail chain.
10*Florida vs.*7*Michigan -7 in Atlanta, GA @ 12:00pm ET - ESPN
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Michigan DE Rashan Gary will be out (draft) and, shockingly to me, the game appears to be a strong matchup of Florida's #9 YPP offense and Michigan's #9 YPP defense. I spent much of the year believing Florida was a paper tiger, but they've hung in there and seemingly gotten better. Michigan may not have a psyche left.
Chick-fil-A really does taste better in Atlanta, but so does Zaxby's.
Arkansas State -1.5 vs. Nevada in Tucson, AZ @ 1:15pm ET - CBSSN
NOVA Home Looms Arizona Bowl: Given how janky Arkansas State has been this year, I can only imagine how much things must have sucked to be a Nevada fan.
NOVA Home Looms; Make your own clothes!
3*Notre Dame vs.*2*Clemson -13 in Arlington, TX @ 4:00pm ET - ESPN
Goodyear Cotton Bowl: See Playoff thread (which will totally exist at some point).
4*Oklahoma vs.*1*Alabama -14 in Miami Gardens, FL @ 8:00pm ET - ESPN
Capital One Orange Bowl: See Playoff thread
Monday, Dec 31, 2018
Cincinnati -6 vs. Virginia Tech in Annapolis, MD @ 12:00pm ET - ESPN
Military Bowl: Virginia Tech ran a bad defense this year. Cincy was helped by a weak schedule.
Stanford vs. Pitt in El Paso, TX @ 2:00pm ET - CBS
Hyundai Sun Bowl
Michigan State vs. Oregon in Santa Clara, CA @ 3:00pm ET - FOX
Redbox Bowl
23*Missouri vs. Oklahoma State in Memphis, TN @ 3:45pm ET - ESPN
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
22*Northwestern vs.*17*Utah in San Diego, CA @ 7:00pm ET - FS1
SDCCU Holiday Bowl
NC State vs.*19*Texas A&M in Jacksonville, FL @ 7:30pm ET - ESPN
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
Tuesday, Jan 1, 2019
18*Mississippi State vs. Iowa in Tampa, FL @ 12:00pm ET - ESPN2
Outback Bowl
11*LSU vs.*8*UCF in Glendale, AZ @ 1:00pm ET - ESPN
PlayStation Fiesta Bowl
14*Kentucky vs.*12*Penn State in Orlando, FL @ 1:00pm ET - ABC
VRBO Citrus Bowl
9*Washington vs.*6*Ohio State in Pasadena, CA @ 5:00pm ET - ESPN
Rose Bowl Game
15*Texas vs.*5*Georgia in New Orleans, LA @ 8:45pm ET - ESPN
Allstate Sugar Bowl
Monday, Jan 7, 2019
Semifinal Winners in Santa Clara, CA @ 8:00pm ET - ESPN
CFP National Championship
12-15-2018
, 12:42 PM
12-15-2018
, 02:30 PM
12-15-2018
, 03:41 PM
12-15-2018
, 03:42 PM
12-15-2018
, 04:11 PM
12-15-2018
, 04:25 PM
12-15-2018
, 04:43 PM
12-15-2018
, 05:18 PM
12-15-2018
, 05:26 PM
