Let me say from the start that what head coach Bo Pelini has done with Nebraska in his first year at the helm is impressive. He took a 5-7 Nebraska team and added three wins, including victories over Kansas and Kansas State.

I’ve got quite a bit of respect for the Nebraska football program. They’ve been in a down cycle for an awful long time, but the Big 12 Conference is better off having them be a national contender out of the North Division.

And their fans are truly the most knowledgeable, respectable fans I’ve seen. I really love when they come to Austin to play.

It doesn’t hurt that the Longhorns have, well, owned the Cornhuskers for the last dozen years or so.

I’ve got Time Warner, so I won’t be watching this one, unfortunately. I suppose I could go watch it at a bar, but given how mediocre the teams are, I don’t see that happening.

It does have the potential to be an entertaining, leave-the-defense-at-home type game. Not unlike last night’s Holiday Bowl. The wife is working (being ER means you miss holidays regularly), so maybe I’ll go watch it somewhere.

With Oklahoma State’s loss to Oregon 42-31 in the Holiday Bowl, the Big 12 Conference is 1-1 in bowl play. It was the shootout we expected it to be, with Oregon only pulling away late in the game.

So, some random thoughts, in no particular order [...]

Oklahoma State quarterback Zac Robinson and Stockard Channing? You tell me.

The Big 12 Conference attempts to go 2-0 in the bowl season as Okie Lite heads out to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl. This bowl has a history of high-scoring games with exciting finishes, and I don’t expect this year’s to be any different, with two rather evenly matched teams in Oklahoma State and Oregon. It could be the best bowl game of the season, so don’t miss it.

Unlike most of the NCAA, both teams tonight have strong running games. [...]

Northwestern head coach head coach Pat Fitzgerald had his boys ready to play. They were aggressive, disciplined and didn’t know how to quit. If they can convince more athletes to sign with them, the Mildcats may surprise some Big 10 teams in the next few years.

Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel, on the other hand, apparently took his team down to the River Walk for tequila slammers right before the game. They didn’t sober up until the second half. [...]

The Chase Daniel era comes to a close tonight in San Antonio, Texas at the Alamo Bowl. Missouri’s season is a mixed bag, having won the Big 12 North for the second year in a row, but failing to to win the conference championship game or make a BCS game. In fact, in rankings they’re lower than four teams from the Big 12 South.

In addition to the Big 12 Championship Game, they lost to Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma State. They’re best win of the season was against Nebraska.

For Northwestern, this season exceeded expectations, with head coach Pat Fitzgerald molding the Wildcats into a viable contender, albeit not a major football power by any stretch of the imagination. Northwestern has not won a bowl game in 59 years.

With the Oklahoma Sooners’ undeserved national championship game approaching, let’s look back at the history of rules breaking at this fine institution.

1889: The Land Run
Territories in Oklahoma were opened for settlement at high noon on April 22, 1889, with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres. It was called a land run as land was claimed on a first come, first served basis.

Those who broke the rules by crossing the border into the territory before it was allowed were said to have been crossing the border sooner, leading to the term “sooners”, which eventually became the state’s official nickname.

Thus, the state institutionalized the approval of cheating. [...]

In yet another example of how screwed up the bowl system is, eighth ranked and one-loss Texas Tech faces twentieth ranked and four-loss Ole Miss in the 2009 Cotton Bowl.

And don’t get me started on how immoral, unethical, and illegal it is to have the Cotton Bowl on January 2nd. The Cotton Bowl is, and always should be, a New Years Day game. How this didn’t come up during the presidential campaign, I’ll never know. Moving it proves that the terrorists have already won.

I generally root for Texas Tech in bowl games, because while strange, they’re still Texans. I’ve actually got a couple of reasons to pull for the Rebels, however. [...]

My Christmas wish of a playoff in Division 1A football did not come true this year, and the new year approaches, so it’s time to start thinking about the BCS games starting next week. [...]