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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.
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I’m just going to be updating this at the bottom as solid sources and official announcements start letting us know who’s going where, with in the realm of non-BCS teams and their bowls.
What we know so far: Navy to Texas, UCF to St. Pete, and SMU to Hawaii.
First in we get confirmation that ECU is to the Liberty to play Arkansas (the Arkansas part not officially official yet).
Rutgers coming to St. Pete to play UCF.
Unconfirmed rumors of Boise State and Iowa being picked for Fiesta Bowl.
USF going to International Bowl to play a MAC team, not announced who yet.
Had a few quiet minutes there, now reading that Navy will get Missouri in the Texas Bowl.
Now Cal is being reported to the Poinsettia (I’m still thinking BYU, could still be Utah).
New report from Pete Thamel at NYTimes is Boise vs. TCU. Entire world hoping that’s not true. Way to put them at the kids table, BCS.
Also, now seeing Oregon State vs. BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl, which I thought wasn’t going to happen.
Things seemed to have slowed down again, only about an hour to the BCS Selection show, and most of the remaining bowls seem to hinge on the finally making Boise and TCU official.
Still quiet. And twitter is down, so that’s not helping.
New: Air Force & Houston will meet in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Wyoming is off to the New Mexico Bowl. This means that the Humanitarian will go out at-large as expected. Still nothing from the WAC or MAC.
Boise must have gotten confirmation of a BCS bid, since the WAC bowls are finally breaking- Fresno State to face Wyoming in New Mexico, and Nevada to Hawaii to meet SMU.
This may have broken earlier, but it is Utah to the Poinsettia to play Cal.
Just getting word that Troy will head to the GMAC Bowl instead of the New Orleans and face MAC Champ Central Michigan there, while Middle Tennessee is off to New Orleans to play Southern Miss. Thus, looks like it is Marshall to the Eaglebank, but that one is still blurry thanks to the Army game.
Looks like things have really been cranking behind the scenes today, considering that Troy is not going to the primary Sun Belt bowl, and now this: Ohio vs. Marshall in the Little Caesar’s bowl, Northern Illinois vs. USF in Toronto, Bowling Green to Humanitarian as expected, and Temple will face UCLA or Army in the EagleBank. This completes the non-BCS bowl list, so check the page above to see the whole thing, with 30 minutes until the BCS announcements start.
Sadly, the rumors are true. It’s Boise vs. TCU in the Kids Table Bowl/Separate But Equal Bowl/We’re Tired of Losing to You Guys Bowl/Fiesta Bowl.
Other great bowl titles coming across twitter include You Had A Great Season Bowl, Separate But Equal Bowl, and more…
Assuming that voters don’t revolt and put TCU ahead of Texas, here’s how the BCS picks are going to be played out, along with my predictions. I’ve also thrown in a couple of C-USA predictions too, since they’re the only league who’s champion has changed from my last batch.
First pick: Sugar, replacing Alabama: Florida.
Second: Fiesta, replacing Texas: Iowa. There’s talk of them setting up Boise vs. TCU here, but I think they’ll want at least one predictable fanbase.
Third: Orange. I think they take #3 TCU. The buzz and controversy will make a great story for the OB. I’d rather see TCU get a shot at a zero or one-loss team, but this makes sense to me.
Fourth: Orange. Georgia Tech, by contract with ACC.
Fifth: Fiesta. Here I do think they’ll take Boise State.
Sixth: Sugar, Cincinnati. They’ll have to take them since Cincy is guaranteed a place.
Over in C-USA, East Carolina should be bound for the Liberty Bowl to face Arkansas. It hasn’t been officially announced, but ECU had the Liberty Bowl trophy on display at their basketball game last night, alongside the CUSA trophy.
Houston will almost certainly head to the Armed Forces bowl up in Fort Worth against Air Force or maybe Wyoming.
I now think Marshall heads down to the New Orleans Bowl, against Troy unless Troy gets moved to set up a game with Central Michigan, then it would be Middle Tennessee.
And then I think Southern Mississippi gets called up to the EagleBank Bowl in DC. They’ve been down to New Orleans a bunch in recent years and I think the bowl and the school are ready for something different.
That was quite a night of football. The refs gifted Texas the Big 12 victory, with what I think was in inaccurate ruling of a horse-collar tackle (last I knew, you had to drag the guy down by the horse collar, not just touch it and let go), and a pair of bogus pass interference calls on the previous scoring drive. So TCU is shut out of a chance at the BCS Championship, although Boise stays alive for their likely BCS bowl bid.
Meanwhile, ECU surprised Houston and claimed their second consecutive C-USA championship, and should advance to the Liberty Bowl. Like I said they would have to, but did not think they could, ECU did put up more points (38) than they had against any other quality opponent all year.
Late last night, Wisconsin but all upset doubts to rest and obliterated Hawaii 51-10. So much for emotion and a lot to play for and all that. We’ll see if and how that boosts the Badgers bowl draw, but Hawaii’s season is now over.
Fresno State also went east and beat Illinois 53-52 earlier in the day.
Posting will be a little light this week, but as bowl news comes in today we’ll have it here and on twitter, starting probably around 2 or 3 pm when things really get going. 2009 regular season reviews by conference will start soon thereafter, and bowl previews will pick up once we get a little closer to kickoff. Army/Navy is Saturday, so there’s that too.
It wasn’t quite the shootout I expected, but Central Michigan won a defensive battle over Ohio to claim the 2009 MAC Championship last night. An early turnover from Dan LeFevour in the red zone kept the game scoreless for much of the first quarter, but their offense got on track and eventually led into halftime 17-7. LeFevour surpassed the NCAA record for total career touchdowns in the process.
After the half, both teams exchanged field goals, and that would be all- the defenses turned it up a notch, and Ohio couldn’t get a good drive going, and the game ended at 20-10.
Central Michigan ends the year having beaten all 9 MAC opponents they faced, 11-2 overall. They now await their bowl placement- the GMAC Bowl has the first selection (and my vote, since I’m planning to be in attendance and want to see LeFevour’s final game), while the Little Caesar’s and International are still possibilities.
Meanwhile, Ohio rides into bowl season at 9-4, 7-2 in the league, and is guaranteed to go to one of the MAC affiliated bowls that doesn’t select Central Michigan.
In other news, ESPN is reporting that Notre Dame will not accept a bowl invitation this year. This is understandable, as they clearly did not want to take the risk of losing to a Central Michigan or other mid-major team.
Today at noon we have the Conference USA championship game, and then the BCS Conference games play out in the later afternoon and evening. I won’t be able to live-tweet the CUSA game, but I’ll get a recap post up in the evening if I can, and then tomorrow is all about the bowl bids. If you’re wondering about the implications of the other title games and the Big East showdown, I recapped that here earlier this week. Also, my C-USA preview went up yesterday.
Have a great day of college football, and we’ll be back tonight and tomorrow as the postseason picture takes shape.
The MAC Championship game is just hours away, set to kick off at 8 PM tonight on ESPN2. The conference has been flying under the radar this year for the most part, but suddenly they have a 10 win team and another 9 win team squaring off for the title, in what should be a very watchable matchup. The MAC game is again held at Ford Field, the indoor stadium home to the Detroit Lions. Central Michigan (10-2/8-0) is back in the title game for the third time in four years, after missing out a year ago. CMU won the game in 2006 and 2007. This is the first appearance for Ohio (9-3/7-1) since 2006, their only other title game to date.
Storylines
For Central Michigan, you’ll be hearing a lot about Senior QB Dan LeFevour. He currently sits 2nd on the active career passing yardage list, behind some guy named Colt from Texas, but is also ranked 18th on the active career rushing yardage list too- the highest ranked QB of only two on that list. In total, he is in first place in the individual total offense active list, well ahead of McCoy overall. This is his last conference game, and his biggest spotlight of the season, at least since they beat Michigan State in the early going. If the game does get out of hand and the commentators are forced to talk about other things, they’ll probably discuss his draft chances before moving quickly on to the SEC or Big 12 games.
Ohio’s story will focus on coach Frank Solich, last remembered by the general public as getting fired by Nebraska after an 8-3 season. Since then, he’s worked toward making Ohio a consistent contender in the MAC, and while they did win the East back in ‘06, it’s been a bit up and down. Still, the team has bounced back from a 4-8 season last year, and this is the second 9 win season under Solich, something they hadn’t had otherwise since 1968. Read Post
We’ve made it through 12 games in 13 weeks and now it’s time to put a bow on the 2009 season in C-USA and the MAC. The MAC preview is coming this afternoon, to get you ready for tonight’s game. The Conference USA Championship Game kicks off at noon Saturday on ESPN2. The Houston Cougars (10-2/6-2) come to Greenville, NC to take on the East Carolina Pirates (8-4/7-1). The Pirates host the game on account of a better record in league play, despite Houston’s better record overall. The teams did not meet in the regular season.
Storylines
Houston’s story has been pretty well documented- wins over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech vaulted them into the top 25, only to lose to UTEP, perhaps the most inconsistent team in the league. They got back on track by beating Mississippi State and only lost once more, on the road at UCF. They come into the weekend ranked 21st and are hoping to see QB Case Keenum get a trip to New York for the Heisman ceremony.
East Carolina has had a lower profile this year than they usually do. Rarely does a year go by without a signature win for the Pirates over one of their regional rivals, but this year they lost to West Virginia, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech. Their only conference loss was on the road at Southern Methodist, a 28-21 affair. Their coach, Skip Holtz, is a rising start and his name has even come across in at least one rumor tied to Notre Dame. Expect to hear the name in conjunction with several jobs as they start to break open at the more mid-level BCS schools. Read Post
While most of the drama has subsided in the WAC, there’s still that chance of an upset of Boise State is spending too much time worrying about bowl selections, and one game that nobody is going to watch will have huge ramifications on many teams nationwide.
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Well, it looked like Western Kentucky might finally win their first game as a full-fledged 1-A program, but it was not to be. With a chance to send their embattled coach on his way with a W, the Hilltoppers led the Red Wolves 17-3 at halftime, but Arkansas State came back and won the thing at 24-20.
Elsewhere, Oregon edged Oregon State 37-33. This is good news for our Boise State, since there could have been some chance of Oregon snatching an at-large bid had they lost. Oregon State will not be eligible for one, finishing their season at 8-4.
Coming up today on the fringe will be longer versions of my championship game previews, as well as a nod toward the WAC’s busy weekend. I’ll be out of pocket tomorrow, but will do my best to recap the bowl assignments as they come in on Sunday and on into next week. I don’t have any more official or unofficial-but-confirmed info on the bowls we’re interested in, but I’ll get them out on Twitter and on the Bowl Bids page here as I hear them.
A quick look at coaching statuses around the non-BCS Universe. At the moment, we’re at six openings, with Marshall’s coach resigning yesterday and Akron sneaking one past me over the holiday weekend. Perhaps more importantly, though, is that the axes are falling fast and furious at the big schools, which usually sets off a chain reaction all the way into the smallest of conferences, either through direct hiring, or filling from mid-level BCS schools, which then come hunting through the non-BCS leagues.
Out/Vacant
Marshall/Mark Snyder- no winning seasons to date, although Marshall is in line for a bowl bid this year and could finish 7-6.
Akron/JD Brookhart- four straight losing records in the MAC were the end.
San Jose State/Dick Tomey- retiring at age 71, with 29 years of head coaching behind him.
UNLV/Mike Sanford- a 5-7 turnaround was not enough to recover from three straight 2 win seasons.
Out/Replacement Hired
Memphis/Tommy West/Larry Porter, LSU Associate Head Coach & Running Backs coach, Memphis Alumnus
Western Kentucky/David Elson/Willie Taggart, Stanford Running Backs coach, WKU Alumnus
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