2008 Bowl-A-Mani 2, the Sequel

2008 Bowl-A-Mania 2, The Sequel

The 2008 Bowl season is off and running, and so far I’ve been surprised by how good some of the games have been while still thinking there are way too many stinking bowl games for anyone’s good.
Now for my first round recap.

• EagleBank Bowl: My house got cleaned and Wake won…since my house took precedence it’s a win. 1-0
• New Mexico Bowl: CSU came from behind and beat the Bulldogs…and I still hate Acadiana High School. 1-1
• St. Petersburg Bowl: This was a joke with USF winning their home game, good visit with my dad. 2-1
• Las Vegas Bowl: BYU lost by 10 when their kicker who only missed 2 field goals all season missed 3…another missed pick. 2-2
• R+L Carriers New Orleans: A surprisingly good game that had me switching between the Giants and Panthers. Golden Buzzards win and we had a great fellowship. 3-2
• San Diego Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl: I have no idea what happened here, and what happened to Boise???? 3-3
• Hawaii Bowl, Aloha Stadium: I hate Notre Dame. 3-4

OK, I pretty much stunk up the first set of picks…let’s hope the 2nd set is better.

• Motor City Bowl, Ford Field in Detroit, MI.
Nothing says “holiday get away” like a trip to Detroit in December! Yeah, right. Watch out for drive by shootings and protect your wallet like your life. And lucky for the Florida Atlantic Owls they get to leave the Sun Belt to face the Central Michigan Chippewas from the MAC playing in their 3rd straight Motor City Bowl game. Remember that too many bowl games thing? FAU was 3rd in the Sun Belt and CMU was 4th in the MAC with a 6-6 record.
MY PICK: FAU fans stay in the sunshine and everyone else go shopping for post Christmas specials.

• Meineke Car Care Bowl, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC
ACC could have been North Carolina brings their #1 ranking…oh wait, that is in basketball. This is the 8-4 football team taking on Big East should have been West Virginia with a matching record in the mother of all big corporate sponsored ball games.
MY PICK: I’m picking the should have been, Mountaineers win.

• Champs Sports Bowl, Citrus Bowl in Orlando
Bobby Bowden brings a less than stellar 8-4 team out of the ACC that at times showed signs of brilliance during this season to take on the 7-5 Wisconsin Badgers who finished 6th in a pretty pathetic Big 10. I’m a Bobby Bowden fan and if you took all of the Obama loving Socialists out of Madison…it would be a ghost town.
MY PICK: I’m going with FSU since it is a bit of a home game, but wouldn’t be surprised to see the Commies win.

• Emerald Bowl, AT&T Park in San Francisco
This year’s Fruit and Nut Bowl plays host to the Granola State’s own Berkley Bears out of the Pac 10 taking on the U from Miami coming cross country to one of the few places even more liberal than South Florida. The Canes are 7-5 and play in an overrated conference while Cal is 8-4 in a one team conference…where do I turn, where do I turn? Who do I despise the most?
MY PICK: It’s a home game for Berkley…but they are Berkley, that isn’t even part of America, is it? I can’t even say I pick…them; so I’ll say I pick Miami.

• Independence Bowl, Independence Stadium in Shreveport, LA
The game that is so good that they managed to lose their sponsorship! After seeing mediocre Big 12 and SEC teams for the last few years, they returned to a classic match up of a 4th place WAC team, Louisiana Tech taking on a .500 team finishing 5th in the MAC, Northern Illinois. Yeah…classic. What happened to the mediocre BCS schools?
MY PICK: I’ll probably watch this game just because of LA Tech, and I’ll pick them too.

• PapaJohns.com Bowl, Legion Field in Birmingham, AL
Isn’t this the bowl game Louisville has been trying to get since building Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium? In this year’s edition the State College of New Jersey, Rutgers comes out of the Big East finished tied for 4th in that conference to face the NC State Wolfpack who come to SEC territory out of the ACC with a last place finish in their division. Too many bowl games?
MY PICK: Honestly, I’m at a loss here. Probably the only thing worst than a mediocre mid major getting into a bowl game is a mediocre majors getting a free trip during the Christmas break. Darn, it will be Monday at 3:00 PM…I’ll be working. I win!

• Alamo Bowl, Alamo Dome in San Antonio
The 15th edition of the Alamo Bowl matches up Big 12 could have been Mizzou with the Big 10’s never quite was Northwestern. There were big hopes for the Tigers this year that crashed and burned against the big boys of the Big 12 south; and as for Northwestern…well, they are a school for drama majors, right?
MY PICK: I like that QB for Mizzou, Chase…and what is his last name again? Oh yeah, Daniel! I’m going with Missouri.

• Humanitarian Bowl, Bronco Stadium in Boise, ID
I still have yet to figure out how they managed to keep a bowl game going on the smurf turf for 11 years! This year Nevada heads north after finishing 3rd in the WAC to face off against the 7-5 Terps coming cross country from the University of Maryland. Did I mention the blue turf? And Idaho? Blue turf? Yeah, really…blue turf. Please do not adjust your TV’s color settings; that really is blue astro-turf you are seeing.
MY PICK: 2:30 on a Tuesday, you know…I’m going to have to be in the office…darn!

Since I need to get the kids ready for bed I’ll pause here and pick back up soon. If you have not been offended as of yet…my apologies, I’ll try harder next time!