Tuesday, December 30, 2008

BOWL PREDICTIONS: PART V

More baseless predictions for you. These are the New Year's Eve games:

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
Fort Worth, TX
Houston vs. Air Force

Both teams should have good fan support in this one. Houston isn't too far, and there are a lot of Air Force installations in Texas. I just love the Mountain West too much this season to pick against them, especially when they're facing a 7-5 C-USA team. Air Force flies away with this one.


Brut Sun Bowl
El Paso, TX
Oregon State vs. #20 Pittsburgh

There's a big difference between Pasadena and El Paso. Oregon State was rerouted from their potential Rose Bowl trip by rival Oregon and I think they'll be out to prove a point in west Texas. OSU also beat USC earlier this year. Pitt's biggest win was against West Virginia. They also lost to Bowling Green and Rutgers. They needed OT to beat Notre Dame. The Beavers win one for the Pac-10 44-30.


Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl
Nashville, TN
#24 Boston College vs. Vanderbilt

Speaking of teams one win away from a BCS Bowl...

Vanderbilt has the homefield advantage, and they'll need it. The Commodores are 6-6, and they've lost 6 of their last 7, including a 23-10 loss to Wake Forest, and a 10-7 embarrassment to Duke. BC should handle them with ease, but they'll probably find some way to make things difficult. Nevertheless, the Eagles extend their bowl winning streak with yet another triumph in a semi-relevant Bowl.

Insight Bowl
Tempe, AZ
Kansas vs. Minnesota

For some reason people expected Kansas to be really good at football this year. Maybe once more this century it'll happen, but that's gonna be it. Then again, Minnesota's no prize pig. They went 3-5 in the subpar Big Ten. And to be fair to the Jayhawks, even though they're in the Big XII North, they had to play Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. This was Minnesota's fluffy non-conference schedule:

Northern Illinois
@ Bowling Green
Montana State
Florida Atlantic

KU wins this one with ease. Rock. Chalk. Jayhawk.


Chick-fil-A (Peach) Bowl
Atlanta, GA
#14 Georgia Tech vs. LSU

As bad as the ACC was this season, they've gotten some pretty winnable bowl selections. The Yellow Jackets might have been the best team in the ACC, if not the second best. LSU, on the other hand, was a monumental disappointment, finishing 3-5 in the SEC. Tech also gets to play this one just a few miles from campus. They were 2-0 against SEC teams this season and will improve to 3-0 with a victory over the Tigers.

No comments:

Post a Comment