I’ll certainly have more thoughts (and predictions) on the games later, but here’s what comes to mind right off.
Rose Bowl
Ohio State vs. Oregon
January 1st, Pasadena, California
No surprise here. If the Rose Bowl has the option of taking the Pac 10 and Big 10 conference winners, they almost always will do so.
Sugar Bowl
Florida vs. Cincinnati
January 1st, New Orleans, Louisiana
We’ll certainly get to find out if Cincinnati is really any good. This should be Florida’s to lose, and they should be breathing a sigh of relief that they didn’t draw TCU.
Fiesta Bowl
TCU vs. Boise St.
January 4th, Glendale, Arizona
TCU has a legitimate gripe. They did enough to warrant drawing one of the BCS conference teams. I really would have liked to have seen them play Florida. Boise St. should be glad to be there, given the schedule they’ve played.
Orange Bowl
Iowa vs. Georgia Tech
January 5th, Miami, Florida
At least it’s not Cincinnati versus Georgia Tech, but this one is likely to be ratings-challenged.
BCS National Championship Game
Alabama vs. Texas
January 7th, Pasadena, California
Get ready for a month of talk about how Alabama is the perfect team, how they defeated the Chosen One, and how Texas doesn’t even belong in the game. Such talk sits well with me.
While the BCS probably got it right, and placed the two most deserving teams into the Championship Game, having five undefeated teams shows yet again why we need a playoff system in college football.
Make no mistake, Alabama is a very good team, and they finally found their offense against Florida. But all this talk about how bad Texas has been the last two games will only serve to fuel Texas’ anger, and an angry Texas is a scary thing to face.
Right there with you about TCU. I’d loved to have seen them play Florida, and I certainly think they deserved the shot.
Texas is the least tested BCS National Title contender maybe ever. They got in on brand name only — the body of their work is the same as TCU or Cincinnati and is barely better than Boise.
Strip the names and look at the details (strength of schedule), opponents sagarin ratings, etc.
Texas is going to get pantsed by Alabama.
It’s like you’re writing for ESPN, Chris! 🙂
We’ll see about the pantsing. There’s a reason they play the games.