College Bowl Picks.....

34 Bowl Games starting tonight, and wrapping up with the BCS Championship on January 7th. And, no, I did not make up some of these bowl game names. Here we go. Enjoy.

December 19
New Mexico Bowl --- Fresno State Bulldogs over Wyoming Cowboys
St. Petersburg Bowl --- University of Central Florida Knights over Rutgers Scarlet Knights

December 20
R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl --- Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles over Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

December 22
MAACO Las Vegas Bowl --- Brigham Young Cougars (#14) over Oregon State Beavers (#18)
*** First game with ranked teams. Tough match-up to call. Should be a close game and I would not be surprised if it goes the other way.

December 23
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl --- Utah Utes (#23) over California Golden Bears
*** It's not the Sugar Bowl like last year, but Utah caps their second consecutive good season with another bowl victory.

December 24
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl --- Southern Methodist Mustangs over Nevada Wolf Pack

December 26
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl --- Ohio Bobcats over Marshall Thundering Herd
Meineke Car Care Bowl --- Pittsburgh Panthers (#17) over North Carolina Tar Heels
*** North Carolina playing close to home, but Pittsburgh caps their nice season and gets their tenth win.

Emerald Bowl --- USC Trojans (#24) over Boston College Eagles
*** Emerald Bowl and USC? Who saw that coming? Although disappointed, Pete Carroll gets his team ready for the game, and they roll over Boston College.

December 27
Gaylord Hotel Music City Bowl --- Clemson Tigers over Kentucky Wildcats

December 28
AdvoCare V 1000 Independence Bowl --- Georgia Bulldogs over Texas A&M Aggies

December 29
Eagle Bank Bowl --- UCLA Bruins over Temple Owls
Champs Sports Bowl --- Miami Hurricanes (#15) over Wisconsin Badgers (#25)
*** Nice match-up of Miami's speed versus Wisconsin's power, with the Hurricanes speed being the difference.

December 30
Roady's Humanitarian Bowl --- Idaho Vandals over Bowling Green Falcons
Pacific Life Holiday Bowl --- Nebraska Cornhuskers (#22) over Arizona Wildcats (#20)
*** Nebraska's defense showed the nation they are good, actually very good in the Big 12 championship game, and I think they keep the momentum against a good Arizona team.

December 31
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl --- Houston Cougars over Air Force Falcons
Brut Sun Bowl --- Stanford Cardinal (#21) over Oklahoma Sooners
*** Stanford ends their surprise season with another victory over a known football school.

Texas Bowl --- Navy Midshipmen over Missouri Tigers
Insight Bowl --- Minnesota Golden Gophers over Iowa State Cyclones
Chick-fil-A Bowl --- Virginia Tech Hokies (#11) over Tennessee Volunteers
*** Lane Kiffin has done a nice job in his first year at Tennessee, but Virginia Tech is better in all aspects and will get their tenth win of the year.

New Years Day 2010
Outback Bowl --- Auburn Tigers over Northwestern Wildcats
Konica Minolta Gator Bowl --- Florida State Seminoles over West Virginia Mountaineers (#16)
*** This one is all with my heart. FSU pulls it out in the farewell game of Bobby Bowden's great career.

Capital One Bowl --- Penn State Nittany Lions (#13) over LSU Tigers (#12)
*** Now starts the games matching up higher ranked teams. Penn State beats a LSU team that never looked as well as their ranking claimed during the season.

Rose Bowl --- Oregon Ducks (#7) over Ohio State Buckeyes (#8)
***Oregon's speed will be too much for Ohio State to handle, as the Buckeyes will have no answer for the Ducks quarterback, Jeremiah Masoli and his run or pass threat.

Allstate Sugar Bowl --- Florida Gators (#5) over Cincinnati Bearcats(#3)
*** Could Florida suffer the same fate as last year's SEC Championship game loser, Alabama? I don't think Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow allow that to happen to the Gators. Cincinnati wants to finish undefeated and show they belong with the "big boys", but the loss of Coach Kelly may still be in the back of the team's minds.

January 2
International Bowl --- South Florida Bulls over Northern Illinois Huskies
Papajohns.com Bowl --- South Carolina Gamecocks over Connecticut Huskies
AT&T Cotton Bowl --- Oklahoma State Cowboys (#19) over Mississippi Rebels
*** Both teams thought their season would end better then this, especially Ole Miss which was ranked as high as #4 early in the season.

AutoZone Liberty Bowl --- East Carolina Pirates over Arkansas Razorbacks
Valero Alamo Bowl ---Texas Tech Red Raiders over Michigan State Spartans

January 4
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl --- Texas Christian Horned Frogs (#4) over Boise State Broncos (#6)
*** Seems like the bowl game at the kiddies' table. Both these teams wanted to play bigger conference opponents in their bowl game, but instead will face each other. TCU's offense has been very good all year, and that will be the difference in the "Little BCS" game.

January 5
FedEx Orange Bowl --- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (#9) over Iowa Hawkeyes (#10)
*** Georgia Tech's speed and option offense will be too much for a gritty Iowa team.

January 6
GMAC Bowl --- Central Michigan Chippewas over Troy Trojans

January 7
BCS National Championship --- Alabama Crimson Tide (#1) over Texas Longhorns (#2)
*** Alabama's offense was able to move the ball and score against a good Florida defense, while Texas' offense struggled against Nebraska's defense. While the Longhorn offense will play better then they did in the Big 12 championship game, Alabama will play even better. Mark Ingram helps put a BCS championship title on his resume by showing the country why he won the Heisman Trophy for this season.