NCAA Football Report (Bowl Week 2)
Throughout the history of the BCS there have always been controversies and it becomes even more apparent in the Bowl Season. With the rankings set the bowls are created and there are a set of rules to determine these bowls. More specifically there are rules to creating what are known as the BCS Bowls. These bowls are The Rose Bowl, The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, The Allstate Sugar Bowl, The Discover Orange Bowl, and The BCS National Championship. The rules are pretty clear as to who gets bowl invites. The rules state that the Winner of the Pac-12 and Big Ten will earn an automatic berth in The Rose Bowl. This year that happened as the Wisconsin Badgers, Big Ten Champions, and Oregon, Pac-12 Champions, will face off. The two teams ranked #1 and #2 in the BCS rankings at the end of the season will also gain automatic berths into the National Championship game regardless of conference. This has happened as well, although this game has its own controversy, as the #1 LSU Tigers will take on the #2 Alabama Crimson Tide. From then on the other three BCS Bowls are made up of Automatic Qualifying Conference Champions, ACC, Big East, and Big 12 are the remaining conferences, unless something happens. If an At-Large, not in an AQ Conference, team is ranked higher in the BCS Rankings than one of these conference championships they will get a spot in one of the BCS Bowls. This is where it became interesting for this year as the At-Large spots in the BCS Bowls were taken by teams that could have been argued against. The Two At-Large teams this year were the Stanford Cardinal, the Michigan Wolverines, and the Virginia Tech Hokies as all did not win their conferences but earned spots in the BCS Bowls. Stanford is the team that is much harder to argue against as most people want to see Heisman runner-up and potential 1st overall NFL Draft pick, Andrew Luck, play in the BCS. What was even more interesting is that Michigan, after finishing second in the Big Ten Legends Conference, earned a spot even though there was a team much better than them in the wings. The Wolverines finished the season ranked #13 while the Boise State Broncos were ranked #7 in the final BCS Rankings. This should mean that Boise State gets a berth in the BCS Bowl, specifically the Sugar Bowl. Instead The Sugar Bowl committee decided that they would invite Michigan to face the Virginia Tech Hokies, who also do not belong in the BCS Bowl after losing the ACC Championship to Clemson, who are in the Orange Bowl. Virginia Tech finished the season ranked 11th, also below the #7 Boise State Broncos. It is pretty obvious to any fan that both teams in the Sugar Bowl should not be there and instead the Boise State Broncos should have taken their place. Yet again the BCS has failed the fans as instead of seeing Kellen Moore go for his 50th win in a BCS Bowl he was forced to play his last game in the Las Vegas Bowl again. Moore took over the game and dominated in a lack luster bowl that could have been prevented if the Sugar Bowl committee had picked a good team to play in their bowl. As the BCS continues to stick around it seems more and more like the system is not working and it has been mainly thanks to the bowl committees. There is nothing anyone can do now though, as the best course of action will be to just enjoy the bowls that the system has given with plenty more bowls to come.
Last Week:
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg:
Marshall Thundering Herd 20 – 10 Florida International Golden Panthers
– Marshall Freshman QB Rakeem Cato made an appearance in his home state and was able to dominate the Golden Panthers with a 226 yard, 2 TD game and led the Thundering Herd to a 10 point 4th quarter for the win
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl:
#18 TCU Horned Frogs 31 – 24 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs
– The TCU Horned Frogs were expected to walk over the Bulldogs but that wasn’t the case as Louisiana Tech gave the Horned Frogs a scare as TCU seemed to fall asleep until the fourth quarter where they scored 14 points to win their third Poinsettia Bowl
MAACO Bowl Las Vegas:
#7 Boise State Broncos 56 – 24 Arizona State Sun Devils
– The Broncos wanted to prove that they deserved a BCS Bowl by running over Arizona State from the opening kickoff where they got their first TD and with the win Kellen Moore improved to 50-3 in his NCAA career a record that may never be broken
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl:
#21 Southern Miss Golden Eagles 24 – 17 Nevada Wolf Pack
– Eagles’ QB Austin Davis continued had broken all of Brett Favre’s school records but that didn’t help him as Southern Miss had a shaky start against Nevada but he did put together one final drive in the fourth quarter to win the game
Next Week:
AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl:
Missouri Tigers vs. North Carolina Tarheels (December 26th; 5:00 pm)
– The Tigers are on their way to the SEC and will be leaning on dual threat QB James Franklin to frustrate the 14th ranked run defence of the Tarheels and prove they deserve a spot in the new conference while North Carolina will ride freshman sensation Giovani Bernard to spoil the party
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl:
Western Michigan Broncos vs. Purdue Boilermakers (December 27th; 4:30 pm)
– In a classic matchup of offence vs. defence the Purdue Boilmakers, led by Joe Holland, will look to shut down the MAC’s #1 passing attack led by Alex Carder as Purdue looks to make good on their first bowl appearance since 2007
Belk Bowl:
Louisville Cardinals vs. NC State Wolf Pack (December 27th; 8:00 pm)
– The Cardinals did not start their season very well but they finished on a hot streak although it might not match the hot streak of the Wolf Pack who finished their season by beating Clemson and Maryland, in the schools biggest comeback, and are hoping to continue the trend
Military Bowl:
Toledo Rockets vs. Air Force Falcons (December 28th; 4:30 pm)
– Both teams are not overly impressive on offence or defence but both are looking to their return men for sparks as the Rockets will look to Eric Page while the Falcons will look to Jonathan Warzeka in what could be a battle of special teams
Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl:
California Golden Bears vs. #24 Texas Longhorns (December 28th; 8:00 pm)
– After peaking in the National Championship Texas has started to fall and they will look to make their way back up starting in the Holiday bowl but will need RBs Joe Bergeron and Malcolm Brown to be healthy if they want to keep up with Zach Maynard of the Cal Bears
Champs Sports Bowl:
Florida State Seminoles vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (December 29th; 5:30 pm)
– A battle of disappointing teams the Noles and the Irish will look to build for next year with the Seminoles looking towards their strong defence led by Brandon Jenkins and the Irish looking to their QB of the future in Andrew Hendrix to build for next year
Valero Alamo Bowl:
Washington Huskies vs. #12 Baylor Bears (December 29th; 9:00 pm)
– In a treat for all fans the Heisman Trophy Winner Robert Griffin III will take on a Huskies defence that has already seen Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley and will try to stop the explosive Griffin to give their own offence a chance to keep up
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl:
BYU Cougars vs. Tulsa Hurricane (December 30th; 12:00 pm)
– The Hurricane will be looking to recover from a terrible performance against Case Keenum by shutting down BYU QB Riley Nelson and giving their own QB, G.J. Kinne, an opportunity to try for his 6th straight 300+ yard game
New Era Pinstripe Bowl:
Rutgers Scarlet Knights vs. Iowa State Cyclones (December 30th; 3:20 pm)
– Iowa State will seemingly have a break in this bowl as they will face their first unranked team since November 5th against Rutgers and will try to win the bowl by their defence led by linebacking duo Jake Knott and A.J. Klein
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl:
Mississippi State Bulldogs vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (December 30th; 6:40 pm)
– The Bulldogs will need RB Vick Ballard to perform if they hope to win against the Demon Deacons who themselves are looking to recover from losing 5 of their last 6 games of the season
Insight Bowl:
Iowa Hawkeyes vs. #14 Oklahoma Sooners (December 30th; 10:00 pm)
– From Preseason #1 to the Insight Bowl the Sooners will be hoping to recover from a disappointing season with a bowl win but will have it tough as a rash of injuries will see the Hawkeyes have the better team on paper
Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas:
Texas A&M Aggies vs. Northwestern Wildcats (December 31st; 12:00 pm)
– The Aggies will be the more athletic team on the field with Ryan Tannehill (QB), Jeff Fuller (WR), and Ryan Swope (WR) but they have also had trouble finishing off games and that could be an advantage for the Wildcats if they can keep it close
Hyundai Sun Bowl:
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs. Utah Utes (December 31st; 2:00 pm)
– The Yellow Jackets have one of the best Triple Option attacks in the NCAA that is led by QB Tevin Washington but they have trouble against good running defences which is exactly what the Utes have
Autozone Liberty Bowl:
Cincinnati Bearcats vs. Vanderbilt Commodores (December 31st; 3:30 pm)
– This matchup could be a shootout with QB Jordan Rodgers, brother of Aaron, and RB Zac Stacy leading the Commodores against Munchie Legaux and the Bearcat offence as both offences are very good and could give the defences a headache
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl:
Illinois Fighting Illini vs. UCLA Bruins (December 31st; 3:30 pm)
– The Illini and Bruins have both played bad enough to have their coaches fired with Illinois losing their last six and UCLA only getting into the Pac-12 championship game because USC was not eligible, even after a 50-0 beatdown at the hands of the Trojans
Chick-fil-A Bowl:
Virginia Cavaliers vs. Auburn Tigers (December 31st; 7:30 pm)
– The Cavaliers have not been to a bowl since 2007 while Auburn are the defending National Champions but both teams will be looking to take home the Chick-fil-A Bowl as Auburn will need to worry about the Cavaliers pass defence
The Sport Addiction 