Ranking the Bowls #1-#32
-Grant, Town W.Va
(the disgraced home of RichRodriguez)

Here is the list of most intriguing matchups taking into account the game, the sponsor, the possible announcers, the location and other possible alternatives on at the time.

Art Shell and Mike Gundy help guide us through the rankings.

#32
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
December 21
Florida Atlantic vs Memphis

Atleast this dud wont kick off the bowl season as it normally does but it will kickoff our countdown. Howard Schellenberger is involved so you never know might might happen, but kissing the porceline may be the lesser of the evils.

#31
New Mexico bowl
December 22
New Mexico (who else) vs Nevada

Aslong as New Mexico can keep winning six games a season, this bowl game will remain in existance.

#30
Motor City Bowl
December 26
Purdue vs Central Michigan

Rematch of that regular season instant classic that Purdue squeeked out by 23 points over the Chippewas. Art Shell is looking back on the regular season meeting.



#29
Emerald Bowl
December 28
Oregon St. vs Maryland

The Fridge is a fat load of a coach, getting him across the country will be no easy feat.

#28
GMAC Bowl
January 6
Bowling Green vs Tulsa

The college football season is winding down, but this shootout (vegas has set the over/under as the highest of the bowl season) could elong the season a few more hours.


#27
Insight Bowl
December 31
Oklahoma St. vs Indiana

On one hand you have the emotional story of former Indiana coach Terry Hoeppner dying from a brain tumor and on the other hand you have the story of the press conference tirade when Mike Gundy melted down in front of the Stillwater media and anybody with access to Youtube.

#26
International Bowl
January 5
Rutgers vs Balls Tate

Not a bad lead up to the two NFL Divisional games on tap for the night. Toronto in January can't be pretty and attendance should be hovering right around the temperature.
These schools have claims to famous alumni David Letterman (Balls Tate) and Tony Soprano (Rutgers) although I can assure you neither will be on hand.

#25
Papajohns.com Bowl
December 22
Southern Miss vs Cincinatti

There will be no sideline shots of Jeff Bowers smokeshow of a daughter because well Bower got canned before the bowl game. This could very well be the biggest blowout of the bowl season but that ever present possilibity of free breadsticks at halftime will keep viewers tuned in.

#24
Hawaii Bowl
December 23
Boysee State vs ECU

How can you be a Hawaii native and be upset of the success Hawaii has had this year?
Easy
Be in charge of the Hawaii bowl. For the first time since Hawaii emerged from the Pacific Ocean as a volcano the Warriors will not be playing in this game as they're going to a BCS game. Expect points galore which leads me to believe maybe its not the potency of the Hawaii offense that is accounting for all the points but rather the turf in Aloha Stadium.
This might be the most exciting Hawaii Bowl since the post-game skirmish against Houston that still ranks as my favorite bowl time memory of all time.


#23
Champs Sports Bowl
December 28
Boston College vs Michigan St.

Matty Ryan and Boston College figured to be playing for the right to be called Champs, instead they're just in the Champs sports bowl. Late season meltdown and BC finds itself in another medicore bowl but they can stretch the win streak to 8 with a win, that would be longest in college football currently.

#22
Texas Bowl
December 28
Houston vs TCU

Apparently both these teams play in Texas and since the game is on THE NFL NETWORK!!! there should be more people in the stands watching than at home.

#21
Meinekie Car Oil Filter Change Continental Four Wheel Drive Bowl
December 29
Wake Forest vs UCONN

The ACC has owned this bowl with five wins in a row including the UVA barefoot band game back in 2002 that still has the natives fuming and Art Shell down in the dumps.


#20
Petrosun Independence Bowl
December 30
Colorado vs Alabama

The sponsors start to get a little obscure from here on out. One of these 6-6 teams is going to have a losing season for the second straight year. The highest paid coach in College Football coaching in the Independence Bowl, lovely.

#19
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
December 20
Utah vs Navy

The GrandyMaMa of them all to through down the gauntlet and force me away from a Stiller telecast and feature the longest bowl sponsor name and a matchup of the team of December Utah (6 straight bowl wins second only to BC) and Poinsettia's own Navy Midshipmen (they actually have a contract with just this bowl).

Navy has a new coach in this game after Paul Johnson jumped ship, pun intended, and that always makes for more interesting things.

#18
AUTOZONE Liberty Bowl
December 29
Mississippi State vs UCF

SEC Should be Coach of the Year Sly Croom and NCAA Potential All-time single season yardage record holden Kevin Smith square off. Barry Sanders will surely tune into this one and we might get Barry Sanders cam (ala Eric Dickerson cam when Jaymal Lewis nearly broke his single season record against the Stillers on MNF). Smith needs 181 to break Sanders record.

And Jaymal never got the record, so the cam might be a moosh.

#17
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
December 31
Air Force vs California

A game like this has people like Ken Dunkerly screaming conspiracy theory. How does Air Force get to play in the Armed Forces Bowl and an even better question that I'm sure nobody has the answer for is how are they supposed to lose that.
They won't.
But Art Shell did just swallow a fly.

#16
Brut Sun bowl
December 31
Oregon vs USF

When is the last time two teams that were ranked No. 2 at one point in the season squared off in a December bowl game? I could make up a year cause you probably don't know but I won't. Oregon is 0-fer without Dennis Dixon.

#15
Konica Minolta Gator Bowl
January 1
Virginia vs Texas Tech

A what and a what is sponsoring this bowl? I don't know but the people in Jacksonville put on a first rate show (trust me I know WVU has been there three out of the last four years) and Mike Leech is a psycho who knows how to coach scoring.
This is the first of the January bowl games which officially makes it the worst of the news year day crop.

#14
Outback Bowl
January 1
Tennessee vs Wisconsin

If its New Year's Day and Florida, someone is playing football. Big Ten-SEC will be the talk of this bowl game and insomniac gamblers will watch this game for the sole purpose of getting insight on another Big Ten- SEC matchup and I'm not talking about Michigan and Florida.

#13
FedEx Orange Bowl
January 3
Virginia Tech vs Kansas

How can a BCS Bowl game be ranked so low?
The Orange bowl officials passed up a potential VTech/WVU blockbuster and passed up other worthy BCS opponents such as Missouri (who beat Kansas on a neutral field quite decidingly), Texas, Arizona St, the third Reich, I mean anybody but Kansas.

Unless Mangino eats an official this game could be one of the worst BCS games in recent memory.

#12
Pioneer Plasma Pure Vision Las Vegas Bowl
December 22
UCLA vs BYU

This game is always a treat for a number of reasons.
Its in Vegas and that means it is Brent Musberger's duty to call it. The Pioneer Plasma Pure Vision commercials are always fun to watch. Its fun to say Pioneer Plasma Pure Vision especially when this is the third bowl game of the day and you are already half in thet bag.
UCLA treats bowl games like I treat presidential elections, indifferent. BYU treats them as life or death situations and they play them as such.

#11
Roady's Humanitarian Bowl
December 31
Georgia Tech vs Fresno St.

Where do we begin with the reasons to watch, lets make a list.

Its Boysee, Idaho in December
BlueTurf
One team is from Georgia (mild climate) the other from California (hot)
Its Boysee and its cold
ACC teams absolutely hate playing in this bowl game, this bowl affiliation is more of an incentive to not suck in ACC play
We're going to find if Roady's is what we really think it is

#10
Capital One Bowl
January 1
Michigan vs Florida

Michigan took WVU's coach and WVU might be taking Florida's coach. Albeit the fifth assistant on the totem poll in Gainseville. Another SEC-Big Ten showdown, could be another lopsided defeat for a Michigan team that has not won a bowl game in ages.

#9
Gaylords Hotel Music City Bowl
December 31
Kentucky vs A group of guys found on a Tallahassee street corner

After suspending 25 players, Bobby Bowden probably started gearing his recruiting to guys that can LITERALLY play right now. This game jumped from no. 16 on my list all the way to the top ten just to see a bunch of no namers strap on some jerseys and try to stop Andre Woodson.

The Florida St. coaching staff reminds me of the Redskins coaching staff. They have high paid assistants with head coaching experience (Rick Trickett, Chuck Amato) an assistant with a higher buyout than nearly all the coaches in football (Jimbo Fisher) and the all-time winningest coach in college football history (Bobby Bowden) although Terry is right on his heels.

#8
Valero Alamon Bowl
December 29
Penn State vs Texas A&M

I am just dying to know what Valero is and if we are lucky enough we're going to find out. JoePA is coaching in his 500th game and that is exactly 500 more than Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman has ever coached in.

#7
Culligan Sea World Pacific Life Holliday Bowl
December 27
Arizona St. vs Texas

The Holliday Bowl never, ever fails to provide a top matchup of should be BCS schools. It happens every year and this year is no different with both Texas and Arizona ST. more deserving of playing in a BCS Bowl than Kansas.

#6
Chick-Fil A Bowl
December 31
Auburn vs Clemson

They go out and lose the Peach Bowl name to this name but totally redeem themself in putting together this matchup. Look for alot of Orange in the Georgia Dome and alot of points.


#5
AllState BCS National Championship Game
January 7
Ohio State vs LSU

Two teams back dooring their way into the game and Ohio St. hasnt played in nearly two months. Should be a defensive battle and if the BCS title wasnt on the line, this game would be alot lower than No. 5. Never the less Art Shell appears pleased with this game.

#4
AT&T Cotton Bowl
January 1
Missouri vs Arkansas

This game starts at 10:30 am local time, I will never understand that, but besides that not much you can complain about here.
I think this calls for another list.

*Fox's first forray into the bowl season
*One Heisman Candidate in Chase Daniels
*Arkansas fresh off canning its coach
*Missouris coach Pinkle one of the hottest coaching commodities out there
*A second Heisman Candidate in Darren McFadden
*Two running backs leaving early for the NFL Draft in McFadden and Felix Jones
*Missouri playing mad as hell as they went from No. 1 in the country to BCS snub

#3
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
January 2
West Virginia vs Oklahoma

A shootout in the desert is in the works with playmakers all over the field. WVU is in serious turmoil as they will have to overcome the RICHROD debacle and rally around Bill Stewart and Markell Harrsion, ha.

All these fake mythical national championship polls on ESPN and ESPNU and all the websites seem to have a consensus that Oklahoma would win any playoff. They opened as 6.5 point favorites and its climbing, people are calling for a blowout.

#2
Rose Bowl
January 1
USC vs Illinois

Its the rose bowl and its USC so nothing new there but the Zooker and Juice and Mendenhall will add something to the mix. They are nearly two touchdown underdogs but they have a fun offense to watch.

#1
Sugar Bowl
January 1
Georgia vs Hawaii

Is Hawaii for real?
Has June Jones trash talking against the SEC valid?
Will this be a blowout or another Non BCS team in a BCS bowl game giving us a game of the century? It's a Heisman candidate that only insomniac, gamblers and insomniac gamblers have been staying up to watch but now the whole country will have the chance.
If Hawaii beats one of the hottest teams in the country, do they garner any first place votes in the AP poll espcially if Ohio State loses, leaving no 1 loss teams as contenders?
They shoved around Houston a few years ago it reads here they won't do it again.



-n