Let's Go Bowling!

As the first real snow of the season is hitting the area, I'm trapped inside with naught but a pot of coffee and a nice, warm fire. But I've still got my internet connection, and since I did such a good job predicting the Men's Basketball Tourney way back in March (at least for one weekend), I thought I'd try my hand at football's postseason. Since there are 32 games, it would be really silly of me to toss all of them into one entry. So I'll space them out nicely so you won't get bored out of your minds.

December 20
Poinsettia Bowl, San Diego, CA
US Naval Academy vs. University of Utah

This is a pretty simple one. Utah's signature win this season is over a terrible UCLA team. Granted, they won 42-0, but it's still not that impressive in the long run. Navy, on the other hand, has shown themselves to be full of that tough spirit that you might expect from a bunch of guys who are going to be defending military bases instead of end zones when they graduate. The running attack of Navy, mixed with the fact that it will amount to a Navy home game with all of the sailors stationed in San Diego, will give Navy the win.

December 21
New Orleans Bowl, New Orleans, LA
Florida Atlantic University vs. University of Memphis

These teams are matched fairly evenly, so picking a definite winner will be tough. If you look at the stats for these guys, the numbers are a lot closer than you might think. The New Orleans Bowl people managed to pick themselves out a heck of a matchup, and it should be quite the shootout. My pick? Florida Atlantic, because they have a little more momentum in this one, given the historic nature of their run this year.

December 22
PapaJohns.com Bowl, Birmingham, AL
University of Cincinnati vs. University of Southern Mississippi

A matchup of giant-killers -- Cincy has taken down so many great teams over the last couple of years, and Southern Miss put the beatdown on Nick Saban's Alabama squad this year. The key in this game will be the running game of Southern Miss. If they can put down some yards on the ground, this game will be close. Cincinnati has Southern Miss beat in pretty much every other offensive category. I'm going to go with the Big East team in this one -- Cincy has faced a lot more competition this year than Southern Miss has.

December 22
New Mexico Bowl, Albuquerque, NM
University of New Mexico vs. University of Nevada

This one seems pretty easy to me because it's a home game for New Mexico. They're 5-1 so far this year in University Stadium, and I fully expect them to go 6-1. In fact, I'm not even going to bother with the stats in this one because it just seems so painfully obvious to me.

December 22
Las Vegas Bowl, Las Vegas, NV
Brigham Young University vs. University of California - Los Angeles

This is another really poor matchup. BYU is the 17th-ranked team in the nation, and UCLA just fired its under-achieving coach. UCLA was one of only three teams to put up a losing effort against Notre Dame, and they managed to do it in their home stadium. BYU, because they're in the Mountain West Conference, was not invited to a better bowl and had to settle for this horrible matchup. BYU will be marching victoriously down The Strip after this one.

Well, there you go. Five down, 27 to go. I'll come back tomorrow or something with the next batch of bowls.