Best of the Bowls

Third quarter of a tight Orange Bowl between Kansas and Virginia Tech. At this point, I'm 17-11 on my previous picks. And I'm pissed while watching the halftime of the Orange Bowl. The musical act was ZZ Top. When I was there last year, we got Gladys Knight. She wasn't too bad (although I would much prefer ZZ Top), but the real problem was that American Idol nutsack, Taylor Hicks, also performed. Showing his staying power, he's dropped from doing Orange Bowls to a much lower tiered Liberty Bowl.

The SEC was doing well early, and still is I guess at 6-2. However, they took a couple of shots on the 1st. I figured Arkansas would lose to Missouri, but they were dominated so bad that they only scored one touchdown. Then Florida was smacked around by Michigan. They needed Michigan to fumble twice inside Florida's five yard line just to stay within a touchdown. This one hurt because this was the classic "SEC Speed" against "Big 10 Brawny But Slothy" that the SEC is supposed to dominate in. I thought it was a killer matchup for Michigan, but they pulled it out. Because of that, I don't really see a marquee win for the SEC. The best win was Auburn (who I didn't like) needing overtime to beat Clemson (who I didn't like either). Tennessee was the SEC East champion, but won a squeaker over Wisconsin (4th in Big 10). Miss. St. beat a CUSA team. Alabama beat Colorado, but neither deserved to be there. Kentucky looked real good barely beating a Florida State team missing half its players. Georgia over Hawaii? Told you it could be a laugher.

Yet, in the SEC's defense, no other looks too dominant either. The Big 12 had potential until Oklahoma lost to West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. Until then, they were looking pretty good with their only losses being pretty. Texas A&M lost to Penn State (losing to Penn State in a bowl is never bad), and Colorado lost to Bama (in a bowl that never should have happened). They had two of the better wins with Texas over Arizona State and Missou over Arkansas. Now, that Arizona State beatdown to Texas is why I can't really put the PAC-10 over anyone. Take that away and they look good at 4-2 (smaller conference, fewer bowl teams) with two big margin wins by Southern Cal over Illinois and Oregon over South Florida. Their other loss (UCLA to BYU) wasn't too bad, but Arizona State was hammered.

The fact that Southern Cal and Georgia both absolutely destroyed their opponents once again shows how stupid the Rose Bowl was. I hope they're happy with a snoozer of a game by putting Illinois against Southern Cal. This could have been one of the best games of the year, but we didn't get it.

I've been kind of curious who the Sugar Bowl would have picked if the Rose Bowl had taken Georgia. The BCS rules state that no more than two teams from one conference can play in the five BCS bowls. Plus, at large teams have to be in the top 14 of the BCS standings. With Kansas and Georgia taken as an at large, that means no more Big 12 (Missouri) or SEC (Florida) teams could go. I doubt they would have taken Illinois (not everyone is that stupid), but the only other choice was Arizona State or Boston College. The Sugar Bowl was probably lucky to get Georgia who would bring a good fanbase.

Not that the Sugar Bowl was a good game. I didn't think it would be. Hawaii just wasn't good enough to play in a BCS game. That's not looking at strength of schedule or statistics. That's from watching them play this season. Obviously Hawaii was better off monetarily by playing in the Sugar Bowl with the huge payouts. However, I think it was bad overall for them. Getting dominated that much isn't going to help small conference teams in voting in coming years which may or may not be fair (the Big 10 wasn't penalized for Ohio State's thumping last year nor will they be for Illinois' beatdown this year). It wasn't just the team. Colt Brennan's draft status has to be devastated by this performance. The knock on Brennan was his big numbers were the result of being a "system quarterback", and his performance reinforced that knock. In the Hawaii system, he usually makes a quick pass to an open receiver. That's a lot easier against a WAC defense than it is against a top BCS conference team. When his first option was shut down, he looked lost. He also struggled greatly to figure out where the pass rush was coming from. I think he drops in the draft based on this game.

Hawaii had the worst performance by a non-BCS team. The worst performance by a BCS team was Oklahoma. Sure, Illinois and Arkansas looked worse, but they didn't have as much to lose. And I didn't think either would show up anyway. Besides, Illinois won two games last year. The Rose Bowl was just a nice capper to the season. Oklahoma lost a lot. They were number three in the AP poll before the end of the season which means if they spanked West Virginia and LSU barely squeaked by Ohio State in an ugly game, AP voters may put Oklahoma number one (Point of Fact: I have always argued since the conferences have agreed on the BCS system, a conference member cannot claim a national title if they finish first in the AP poll but don't win the BCS Championship game). Yet, Oklahoma crapped on themselves. Coach Bob Stoops' rep also took a hit because he's lost he past four BCS bowl games. Which is silly because in that time he's also won the Holiday Bowl, and before the streak began he had won the Orange and Rose Bowls (including a national title).

The best performance by a BCS squad was the West Virginia beating Oklahoma. To begin with, Brokeback Mountaineer fans were in a state of depression. First, they lost to Pitt in their final game when a win would have put them in the title game. Then, their coach left and pissed off the entire fan base. Beating Oklahoma decisively has to be the best Christmas present that team could have given to their toothless, inbred fans. Not only did it give them a good finish to the year, but it gave them hope for the future. Interim coach Bill Stewart was given the permanent position the very next day. Talk about your crash audition. He wasn't even being talked about as a possible candidate before the game (although I wondered when they didn't hire anyone before the bowl whether they were waiting to see what he could do). Frankly, he deserved it. It wasn't the highest scoring game by the Mountainqueers this year, but it was highest against a good defense. And only giving up 28 points to a good offense like Oklahoma was pretty nice too.

God, I missed going to a bowl game this year. Not that it wasn't huge fun to watch the UK bowl game at Phil's and have the following:
1. Jon screaming at Micah Johnson to fall down after a late interception (something about those UK players fumbling game-sealing interceptions
2. Dickie telling about his past suicidal thoughts over peeing too much when all he needed was Flomax
3. Brett getting drunk before I did and making monkey noises. That's not a racist remark. It was about a Richard Pryor show. Brett, if you're reading, the DVD is simply Richard Pryor Live In Concert
4. Phil doing Phil things. Actually, I wasn't paying too much attention to Phil, but I'm sure he did something that I should be making fun of.

Kansas just won the Orange Bowl. That makes me 18-11 overall. I've still got two BS bowls (Rutgers in the International and Tulsa in the GMAC) and the BCS title game (pick coming this weekend). It also gives the Big 12 three good wins. Still, I'll have to crunch some numbers before deciding which conference did best.