COLLEGE BOWL PICKS/PREVIEWS: PART 1*

It's bowling season. Which means a few dozen games between teams none of us have even seen yet. It means unpredictability. It means surprises. It means tantalizing inter-regional matchups. All three of these bowl games are this Saturday.

2:00 PM - ESPN:
New Mexico Bowl - Albuquerque, NM
BYU Cougars vs. UTEP Miners
Bowl season begins with a pair of 6-6 teams, so you'll forgive me if I don't get too excited. BYU's had a down year, but did have a 5-3 conference record. UTEP lost 5 of 6 down the stretch. I'll go with BYU in this one, purely based on conference records.



5:30 PM - ESPN:
uDrove Humanitarian Bowl - Boise, ID
Northern Illinois Huskies vs. Fresno State Bulldogs
NIU won 10 games, and ran the table in the MAC until the conference title game. Fresno nearly beat Nevada, and none of their 4 losses came to embarassingly bad teams. I'll pick Fresno State simply due to reputation.



9:00 PM - ESPN:
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl - New Orleans, LA
Ohio Bobcats vs. Troy Trojans
An 8-4 MAC team against a 7-5 Sun Belt team. And who says we have too many bowl games? I'll pick Troy out of proximity. They're in Alabama, I think. But I'll still use an Ohio girl.



More picks on Tuesday.