The Times Dispatch Blogs

The bowl season starts tonight, so without further ado, here is part one of my fearless predictions.

Poinsettia Bowl – Utah vs. Navy. Navy will sink Utah.

New Orleans Bowl – Memphis vs. Florida Atlantic. Memphis ended the season on a roll, winning six of their last eight games. They’ll keep it going against FAU.

Papajohns.com Bowl – Southern Miss. vs. Cincinnati. Cincinnati was one of the surprise teams this season. Southern Miss fired their coach. Take Cincy.

New Mexico Bowl – Nevada vs. New Mexico. Is it a bad sign that the name of your bowl opponent is also the name of the bowl? Not for Nevada. The Wolfpack will win.

Las Vegas Bowl – UCLA vs. BYU. The Bruins fired coach Karl Dorrell after the regular season, and they still haven’t named a replacement. Even Arkansas found a coach quicker than this. BYU wins in a rout.

Hawaii Bowl – Boise State vs. East Carolina. I was going to try and make a potato joke, but all I could think of was ‘Boise will peel the Pirates’ so instead I’ll just say that Boise State will win.

Motor City Bowl – Purdue vs. Central Michigan. I’ll take Central Michigan.

Holiday Bowl – Arizona State vs. Texas. Arizona State.

Champs Sports Bowl – Boston College vs. Michigan State. Boston College.

Texas Bowl – TCU vs. Houston. It’s a good thing these teams are playing in the Texas Bowl, because no one outside of the state would care. TCU will win.

Emerald Bowl – Maryland vs. Oregon State. Oregon State and their “sports bra” jerseys will win.

Meineke Car Care Bowl – Connecticut vs. Wake Forest. Razorback fans everywhere should send WF coach Jim Grobe a Christmas card for turning down the head coaching job at the U of A. I’ll thank him by picking the Demon Deacons to beat UConn.

Liberty Bowl – Central Florida vs. Mississippi State. This could be one of the better “non-major” bowl games. UCF will slip past MSU.

Alamo Bowl – Penn State vs. Texas A&M. I’m glad these two mediocre-at-best teams are playing each other. That keeps one of them from stinking up another bowl. I’ll take Penn State, but it’s highly unlikely that I could care less.

Independence Bowl – Alabama vs. Colorado. Otherwise known as The Battle For a Winning Record. Alabama lost their last four games of the regular season, which included a loss to Louisiana-Monroe. That’s enough for me to pick Colorado.

I’ll pick the rest of the bowls next week in part two.

Here’s wishing everyone a very happy and safe Christmas and a thank you to everyone who’s bothered to read this stuff the past few months.

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