09/10 Bowls: Dec 19-20

Wyoming vs Fresno State, New Mexico Bowl (Dec 19, Albuquerque, NM)
Mike: I don’t understand the bowl process. UCLA was on the fence to even get a bowl, yet Wyoming, the #5 team in the Mountain West gets a bid. The BCS mess hides what a terrible idea the whole bowl tie-in system is. As for the game, it’s going to take a little while to get to games that I have a clue about. I’m going to start with just schedules. Before, I didn’t mean that the Mountain West was bad, but in most cases a 6-6 Pac-10 team will be better than a 6-6 Mountain West team. However, with TCU, BYU, and Utah at the top of the Mountain West they aren’t losses you can fault Wyoming for. However, they were shut out three times this year and scored 10 or less in all of their losses. Frenso lost to their conference superiors (Boise St and Nevada). However, their non-conference losses to Wisconsin and Cincy were both by only a possession. Pick: Fresno State
Evan: I like how Janke is going to take the reigns and do all the research for these lesser bowls that I know nothing about. Everything he said sounds good. Pick: Fresno St
Ahad: I don’t think anyone fully understands the bowl process. My method for picking games is going to be to go with my gut instinct. Pick: Fresno St
Matt: How does a state get a bowl game named after it? Does this game even have a sponsor? Both teams played a New Mexico team during the regular season and won. However, Fresno State was the only one to do it IN New Mexico. Either way, they are the better team. Pick: Fresno State

Rutgers vs UCF, St. Petersburg Bowl (Dec 19, St. Petersburg, FL)
Mike: I’m not sure how Rutgers season happened. I thought they were terrible but they only lost to the Big East heavyweights and Syracuse. That Syracuse loss was later in the year and I already had a terrible opinion of Rutgers. This is the only way I know to make it up to them. Pick: Rutgers
Evan: Here is the other side of the story – UCF is awful. They finally got a signature win for the program – a W against Houston, which wouldn’t even be a signature win if it weren’t for Houston playing over their head at the beginning of the year. Pick: Rutgers
Ahad: I don’t like Rutgers and I don’t think I ever will. Pick: UCF
Matt: UCF will have the home field advantage playing in Florida. How will Rutgers respond to the crowd? I think this may actually be a decent game. I like Rutgers in a close one. Pick: Rutgers

Middle Tennessee State vs Southern Miss, R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (Dec 20, New Orleans, LA)
Mike: I’m split on the worst directional school designation, at least in terms of perception. Would it be two directions (SE, SW, etc.) or middle? So right off the bat MTSU is starting off behind. I had to look up that they play in the Sun Belt. They only had 1 loss in conference. They had 2 non-conference wins against Memphis and Maryland, both of witch had 2 win seasons. Southern Miss doesn’t have a much better resume. Wins against UCF and Virginia don’t overly excite me. At least UCF is a bowl team. Pick: Southern Miss
Evan: Southern Miss is also the alma mater of Brett Favre and Todd Pinkston. Pick: Golden Eagles (that’s southern miss)
Ahad: I have to say that middle is a terrible designation. Did they not want to use central or are they just trying to be different? Pick: Southern Miss
Matt: Is MTSU even in the middle of Tennessee? The state is hardly symmetric so I think it would be difficult to determine the middle. Southern Miss played more quality competition this year and it will show in this game. Pick: Southern Miss