Weekend Bowl Games

All bowl picks are in...and we're 2 hours from kicking off the post-season.

3 games this weekend...here's the preview:

WY-FRES (-10.5)
The infamous "New Mexico" Bowl is always a classic. Any bowl that is just simply named after a state really must be something. WY might be the worst bowl team in recent memory. They were outscored by 10 ppg this year, and frankly shouldn't be a bowl team. FRES is much better, hence the 10.5 line. They went 8-4, have the nation's leading rusher, and played at WIS and at CIN to one score losses. This is a solid team, but are they happy to be in the New Mexico bowl? Probably not. WY has to be totally stoked to be there, since bowling was likely their #1 goal this season. It's a lot fo points...but 7 of us went with FRESNO to cover the 10.5. GR and MC held out and took points and the fighting Cowboys of WYOMING.

UCF-RUT (-1.5)
More disparity on this one. 4 guys on the favored Scarlet Knights of RUTGERS and 5 on the dog UCF club of George O'Leary. Another great bowl game, the "St. Petersburg" bowl, is basically a home game for UCF. They have not been that impressive this season, but did finish at 8-4 with their 4 losses all coming to Bowl teams. They are at home and have to be fairly excited to play. RUTGERS really shouldn't be. They came in to the season a favorite in the Big East because of how their schedule lined up for them...well, that didn't go so well. At 8-4, including a loss to the mighty Orange, this has been a shakey unpredictable club most of the year. I think they will come out flat and UCF might capitalize on the chance to beat a BCS club. MK, AW, MH, MC are on RUTGERS.

MDTN-SOMISS (-3)
Another classic, the "New Orleans" Bowl will be on Sunday. Only 2 guys taking the dog in this one...MK and MH. I've been a SOMISS fan all year. At 7-5, I would say they were quite disappointing this season, but it's mainly been due to a ridiculous amount of injuries to their stars. They won this Bowl game last year, and that's kind of when I fell in love with this team. MDTN actually played quite well all season while only losing 3 games to CLEM, TROY, MISS ST. The problem, the best win they had all year was ocver MARYLAND 32-31...not real impressive. When matched up with an opponent of this quality (SOMISS is 6 pts better than MARY) they have not performed well. I have to believe this continues on Sunday.

There we go...you're all ready for the 1st bowl weekend of the post season.

Some other highlights for the upcoming games:

- SMU only drew interest from 2 of us at +14...might be a big game there, tons of Offense on both sides so 14 could be high

- UK also only got 2 people on their side...I love them at +7

- I'm also on the lonely side in the BC-USC game...guess whic way I went? Trojans. MK and SS agree with me.

- AW and GR are the only guys on A&M...might be sneaky, but I really hate bets against the SEC this time of year.

- It's tough to figure out who we cheer for...WIS-MIA = 0-9 in favor of MIA...GT-IOWA = 1-8 in favor of GT. Either the B10 sucks, or we hate Becky and Iowa...maybe both?

- MK and SS are the only two on IDAHO in a pick'em game...kind fo surprise considering the Vandals are going to be stoked to be playing a bowl game for the first time in forever

- JR and GR will be the only 2 TEMPLE fans this year...you can't tell me UCLA is coming to play after only getting in because ARMY lost to NAVY, motivation = 0.

- 8 on STAN, 1 on OK. It's me. I've been on OK all year to turn things around. Why do I think it happens in the bowl game? This is a theory I'll talk about much more as the bowl season rolls on, but I love teams who are looking to be big-time next season and use this as their starting point. OK is a prime example...new QB is now good to go, Defense has lost a billion people, but their replacements are now up to speed and ready for '10...STAN's stud starting QB is not going to play after surgery, which means it's going to run a lot and I think OK might figure that out. 10 is maybe a little high, but I LOVE OKLAHOMA!!

- 4:5 split on the Clones-Gophers. More on that one as we get closer.

- Steve apparently believes this is the B10's year to turn around their horrible bowl past of recent years...he is the only on on the Buckeyes and Iowa.

- JR, AW, GR all taking points for the coachless team against the fading Gators. Remember ALA last year...yep, that's what I'm banking on.

- GR has always been a big Holtz fan, so he's the only one taking Skip and ECU over ARK. ARK falls into that "ready to start a big 2010 run" category for me. Love them next season and this bowl season.

- Steve's B10 love shows up again as he's the only one taking them against TT. I think Sparty ended up suspending 12-15 guys for this game, so I don't think they have a chance.

- 2 guys on TROY on 1/6/10...JG and GR. Not a bad pick, this is a toss up.

- I thought I'd see more, but we only got 2 guys to jump on TEXAS in the title game. AW and MH...good luck.

I'll preview games in bunches as we go along over the next few weeks and keep everyone up to date on the standings and how each game could change things.

Happy Bowling!