Football on the Fringe

A quiet week on the fringe, especially since a lot of the non-BCS bowls have given way to the bigger leagues this week.  We have had a few more surprises this week, which sets up a very interesting run through the rest of Bowl Season

Marshall 21, Ohio 17- this, to me, is a big surprise and [...]

Last night, BYU continued the process of boosting the MWC’s status by kicking Oregon State all over the Las Vegas Bowl.  In the face of howling winds, BYU led most of the way to a 44-20 victory.

Tonight, Utah will look to keep that going as they take on Cal in the Poinsettia Bowl.  This is Utah’s [...]

I haven’t really done the link-sharing post thus far in the short history of this site, mainly because I hadn’t come up with a way to sift through 54 teams worth of web writing.  But for now, I’ll be giving it a try here during bowl season since the games are pretty concentrated.

Tonight, we have the [...]

The St. Petersburg bowl was, from everybody’s perspective but UCF’s, a great success.  A sellout crowd of over 29,000 gave the game the atmosphere you might expect from a more prestigious bowl, and the game was fairly interesting for a couple reasons as it evolved.  The first half was fairly competitive until it wound down, with [...]

If all goes according to plan, then I’ll be live the St. Petersburg Bowl tonight when UCF squares off against Rutgers, and if it really goes according to plan, then I’ll be here live-blogging the event. Meanwhile, the NFL has some game going on too, so we’re joining up with the Phoenix Pub crew for [...]

After all this time, we’ve made it through to the college football postseason, and we’ve got 3 weeks of interesting matchups in bowl games big and small. They start today with two that ought to be pretty good. I’ve previewed them already, but here’s a couple more bits of tid:

Wyoming: 5-6 All time bowl [...]

Yup, I’ve posted my first batch of bowl previews over at The Phoenix Pub.  I had thought about generating more in-depth ones to post here, but between the matchup mentions going on in the season reviews and the Pub posts, they’re about covered.  Feel free to add other thoughts or insight into the first bowls of [...]

The season did not start out looking good for the MAC- in week 1, the league went 3-10 out of conference, including Temple’s loss to 1-AA Villanova and several beatings at the hands of mid-level BCS conference schools.  But things turned around for the league- Central Michigan beat Michigan State and Toledo beat Colorado in week 2, and the league race turned out to be very compelling down the stretch.

It wasn’t all glory, of course, the league’s bottom four teams had abysmal years, several of them with a chance to go winless, and ultimately one of them did.  Last year’s league finalist fell hard too, and new coaches found the going tough this season.

So here are, once again, the reversed power rankings with a look at the 2009 season.

Read Post

Just a quick note to mention that the rest of the week will remain pretty quiet out here.  Enjoy your week away, or check out Army-Navy on Saturday if you need a fix to get you through to Bowl Season.  Personal matters are pulling me away from the desk through the end of the week or [...]

Well, that was quite an afternoon and evening.  I got to spend the day tracking and hunting bowl matchups, and somewhere around 5 PM word got out that Boise State and TCU would be relegated to playing each other.  We also found out that for no reason whatsoever, Cincinnati had jumped TCU in the rankings, Florida stayed above Boise despite getting stomped, and that at least six voters in the two polls still think Texas is the best team in America.

The BCS is, of course, patting themselves on the back because they always think they’re doing great.  But they’ve missed out on chances to set up much more interesting and competitive bowls, but eschewed them in order to protect their big brands.

So, lets set the BCS games aside and look at what should be some of the best bowls this season that won’t get as much hype, and a couple I’m not so enthusiastic about.  This isn’t going to be an in-depth breakdown, just a first reaction…

Quality Matchups

Wyoming vs. Fresno State, New Mexico Bowl, December 19- Wyoming is only 6-6, but they’ve played tough against some really good teams, while Fresno wrapped up at 8-4.  Fresno should be a favorite, but I think the game could be pretty even.

Temple vs. UCLA, EagleBank Bowl, December 29- Temple could play Army if they beat Navy, but I think this is a great game for the Owls.  UCLA is not that great and they’re coming across the country to play in Temple’s back yard.  Looking forward to this one.

Bowling Green vs. Idaho, Humanitarian Bowl, December 30- This one could total in the 100s.  Bowling Green has an insane passing attack, and Idaho has shown the pass defense of a tire hanging from a tree.  A still one. But the flipside has been true- Idaho can move the ball, while BGSU’s D has been suspect too.

Read Post