New Year's Eve Bowl Bonanza

In which Cooper returns with a steaming heap of bowl games, which you should not put in your mouth... unless you're Beyonce.


With the Sports As Life holiday break officially over I have decided to get down to submitting my picks for this week's upcoming bowl games. Due to the break and my lack of a computer with Internet access I was unable to give my predictions for the past few bowl games. The following are the bowl games I missed and what my predictions were. I am being honest with these, honestly.

I had correctly picked the following games:

Purdue to defeat Central Michigan in the Motor City Bowl.
Texas to defeat Arizona State in the Holiday Bowl.
Boston College to defeat Michigan St in the Champs Sports Bowl.
Mississippi St to defeat Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl.
Penn St to defeat Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl.

I was incorrect picking the following games:

Houston to defeat TCU in the Texas Bowl.
Maryland to defeat Oregon St in the Emerald Bowl
Uconn to defeat Wake Forest in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

There are six bowl games this Monday, however only one of them, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl offers up a decent match up. There rest can be considered slightly better than bottom-feeder games.

Unfortunately I am pressed for time today so my picks will not be in depth. I have to actually do work at work today so I am phoning it in as the kids say.

In the Armed Forces Bowl I predict the California Golden Bears to defeat the Air Force Falcons. Cal at one point was ranked #2 in the nation and could have been ranked #1 if it wouldn’t have been for an upset loss against Oregon St which led them to lose 6 of their last 7 games.

In the Humanitarian Bowl I have Georgia Tech winning a close game over the Fresno State Bulldogs. I believe the winner of this game receives a generous donation from the Human Fund.

In the Sun Bowl I look for the Bulls of South Florida to easily handle the injury-plagued Oregon Ducks. The last 2 games of the season Oregon was down to it’s 4th string QB, who just happens to be the younger brother of former Charger Ryan Leaf.

The Music City Bowl has Kentucky up against Florida State. The Seminoles of Florida State have 30 + players suspended for this game following an academic cheating ring that had gone on through the season. I think some players are being asked to play both sides of the ball for the Seminoles in this one due to the lack of bodies. Kentucky will easily handle Florida State.

In the Insight.com Bowl we have an interesting match up of coaches in a way. Oklahoma State of course has Mike Gundy who famously let us know that he is in fact “A Man” and that he is 40! And Indiana has, or should I say had, coach Terry Hoeppner who sadly passed away after a recent, short battle with brain cancer. I am going with the sentimental favourite in this one and taking the Hoosiers of Indiana.

And finally we have the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, which proudly reminds us to “Eat Mor Chikin”. This game features the 15th ranked Clemson Tigers against the 22nd ranked Auburn Tigers. There is a definite conundrum picking this game going by the mascot factor, Tiger vs Tiger. I believe this game is the nexus of the universe. Earlier this season I had mentioned in my picks about how “Aubie the Tiger” from Auburn was the 3 time mascot national champion. I am sticking with a winner in this one. Being a tiger vs tiger match up it will be close right to the very end with each team knowing exactly what the other is doing. A George Senior vs Oscar type fight if you will. However, Aubie the Tiger prevails with a late field goal and lifts Auburn to victory.