College Football Bowl Season Recap

Bowl season came, and bowl season went. Pop quiz: who played in the PapaJohns.com Bowl? Didn't think you knew. Then again, with 32 bowls and silly corporate names that many writers consider signs of the apocalypse, sometimes it can be hard to keep up. Seriously, do you think Wake Forest's goal at the beginning of the year was to win the Meineke Car Care Bowl?

So to help orient ourselves in the myriad of bowls, I took the Liberty (Bowl) of renaming the bowl games. Which was a lot easier after the fact.

Holy Crap, The-Bowls-Started-Already Bowl

Utah beats Navy in a 35-32 thriller in what was formerly known as the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. (And you wondered why I felt the need to re-name them.) Good start, gonna be a nice season. Except that the first one usually catches most people with their pants down. Figuratively.

The Vegas Disadvantage Bowl

Okay, let's be honest here. A bunch of college players go to Sin City for a bowl after its coach was fired. And that team has to face BYU, a team of Mormons. Not to be stereotypical, but the temptations of Vegas are more likely to effect 18-21-year-old UCLA players than, well, even the most risque on the Cougars, most of whom are into well into their 20s and have already been on their Mormon missions to other countries. Face it, those kids aren't going to be on the tables at 7 AM when they realize it's already light outside. We have found an advantage that goes well beyond home field noise. By the way, how isn't UNLV good at football? Being used to it has to help. Final: BYU 17, UCLA 16.

The Early Bowl Pick'em Buster Bowl

In what was formerly known as the Hawaii Bowl, many thought Boise State would run over East Carolina. Thanks to last year, everyone knows who Boise State is. Most didn't know what colors East Carolina wears. And so in the latest fantasy craze, most people picked Boise State with a pretty high confidence rating. (You can always tell it's officially a craze when ESPN wastes time catering to it on "SportsCenter." For the uninitiated, you pick all 32 bowls and rank them according to confidence, which determines the points you get if the pick is correct.) But the Broncos were playing in a bowl of notably less prestigious this year and were presumably thrilled to just be in Hawaii rather than Boise in late December. And the Pirates had Chris Johnson. ECU had a built a 38-14 lead with Johnson on his way to 408 all-purpose yards, 223 on the ground.

Boise State, not ones to go quietly into the unbearably pleasant Hawaiian night, made a comeback and then created another magical bowl moment when Marty Tadman picked up a fumble off a miraculous bounce and returned it for a touchdown with 1:25 left to tie it while the Pirates tried to run out the clock. Unfortunately, the stunning twist came too fast this time, leaving enough time for ECU to drive for the winning field goal. Stupid Tadman, he should have known better. (Or Boise State shouldn't have run a mere cover-2 with East Carolina needing a big chunk of yards, allowing a 36-yard pass down the sideline to the Boise 23.)

The Petrino Bowl

When Purdue went to half up 34-13, you probably pulled a Petrino, i.e. gave up on it halfway through. And who would have blamed you? Bobby Petrino bailed on an entire franchise midseason in Atlanta. You simply walked away from a MAC team being stomped in the Motor City Bowl; not exactly a sports-fan felony. But after a furious Chippewa comeback and Purdue last-second field goal to win it, the dedicated (or really bored) few were rewarded with die-hard dividends in the form of a great game. By the way, Purdue quarterback Curtis Painter's 526 passing yards are still sinking in for me.

The Letdown Bowl

Arizona State was supposed to have turned a corner with Dennis Erickson. Texas didn't have as good a year as it had hoped, but was still a good Texas team. Plus, it was the first bowl between two BCS conference schools. Should have been a good Holiday Bowl. Instead, Arizona State didn't make the trip to San Diego in a Texas-sized, 52-34 beatdown. Fun.

The Awkward Social Contrast Bowl

Anti-edifice vs. anti-establishment. Attack helicopters vs. activist hippies. F-16s vs. F-authority. Missiles vs. munchies. Yes, Air Force vs. Cal. Explosive and delicious.

Yes, I'm just using stereotypes. But they're fun, and sports are all about the bad, overdrawn clichés, so just relax and roll with it. Ironically, it was Cal's air-strikes that decimated the Falcons, although it was sad to see Air Force quarterback Shaun Carney, who had been shredding Cal with the Academy's option attack, go down in a close game with a brutal knee injury, ending the senior's career and costing his team a potentially dramatic shootout finish. Once he was done, the Falcons had no answers on either side of the ball.

Related note: the funniest thing I saw this season was outside the stadium at Cal where Tennessee fans that had made the trip gawked up at the "tree people" outside stadium, a group of hippies literally hanging out in trees with posters talking about how good trees were. (Generally Berkley locals, not associated with the school: Cal people generally just roll their eyes.) The visitors from the South were unimpressed, but amused. "I feel like I am at the zoo," one said, and I couldn't disagree.

The Validation Bowl

Missouri ventured into the Cotton Bowl, disappointed that the FedEx Orange Bowl snubbed the Tigers in favor of a Kansas team that didn't beat a single high quality opponent. Rather than pack it in and sulk (See Cal, 2004 Holiday Bowl) the Tigers went out and fried a coach-less Arkansas team, 38-7.

The Carr Bowl

The Capital One Bowl proved a few things. One, Mike Hart is physically capable of fumbling. Twice inside the five. After not fumbling in 1,002 touches. It also proved the Big Ten isn't completely and utterly worthless, and that SEC does not directly translate into Better Than You. It proved that Tim Tebow was pretty much the only weapon Florida had (and what a good one he is), but it also showed this year's Gator team was in desperate need of a running back and, well, an entire defense.

But mostly it proved that the Wolverines respected the hell out of Lloyd Carr and played their butts off for their outbound coach. Whether fired or retired, whether Michigan was right of expecting more of the program than the 1997 National Title and a trio of Rose Bowl appearances in the last five years (like beating Ohio State once in a while), seeing Carr carried off during the dramatic 41-35 victory was one of the high points of bowl season.

The Why Didn't We Invite Georgia Bowl

Instead, Illinois received an invitation to the game formerly known as the Rose Bowl Presented by Citi. With Big Ten champion Ohio State backing into the BCS title game, the folks in Pasadena could have paired the two hottest teams in the country, USC and Georgia. Instead, it invited a three-loss team tied for second in the Big Ten. Tradition, meet my friend mediocrity; he'll be replacing you. And Illinois, meet USC; they will be beating you like a drum for four quarters to the beat of 49-17.

The Why Didn't the Rose Bowl Invite Georgia Bowl

Sure, the Nokia Sugar Bowl was glad to have an SEC team, but the game was a mismatch. The hottest team in the SEC (better than Oklahoma last year) steamrolled an undefeated WAC team with an underwhelming schedule (not as good as Boise State last year). Result: a statement win for the 'Dogs. The statement was that Hawaii had no more business playing Georgia than Illinois did of playing USC. And so neither USC nor Georgia got the chance to prove themselves against an elite team, negating the chances of a split national title via AP dissension.

The Déjà Vu Bowl

Oklahoma has to hate Glendale at this point. Two Tostitos Fiesta Bowls have been played at the new arena there. Twice an underdog has embarrassed the Sooners. This one was considerably less embarrassing than the collapse to Boise State, considering West Virginia was a flop against Pittsburgh from the BCS title game, and no team beat the Mountaineers in a game Pat White started and finished. But as the Sooners watched the track meet that is West Virginia, they had to wonder what they have to do to win in the new building. On the other side, West Virginia proved you can win a bowl game with an intern head coach, unlike UCLA, Arkansas, or Texas A&M. Guess when your coach bails on you it gives a little more motivation to show him up than when he's forced out.

And congrats on the win, Bill Stewart, and the removal of the interim tag from your title. You will need every ounce of good will with the numerous loose cannons in the fan base in that state. Just ask the family of outgoing Rich Rodriguez about the death threats it has been getting. Maybe his departure makes more sense than was first apparent.

The Should Have Seen That Coming Bowl

Kansas was in the FedEx Orange Bowl when most thought Missouri should have been. Virginia Tech was a perennial power in the ACC that thought it had a beef to play in the BCS title game despite the fact that LSU danced on them with glacier spikes to start the year. It was just too much for a basketball school that appeared to be in over its head in a bowl as though it were Notre Dame. You know, back when Notre Dame went to bowls.

But Kansas never trailed in the 24-21 win. And there were signs that this could happen. The ACC has now lost eight straight BCS bowls. The Hokies have lost four of them. Kansas last lost a bowl to Philip Rivers and North Carolina State in 2003. (Okay, so they've only played one since then...) More relevantly, Virginia Tech has a very stoppable offense, with a quarterback that threw for 200 yards just three times, and a starting running back that finished the year with a 3.7 yards per carry average. Kansas, meanwhile, was the type of well-coached team that would limit the Hokie defense/special teams' ability to win the game alone, and with an offense that racked up 44 points a game to lead the nation, you knew there wasn't going to be a 13-10 game coming. And with the clear cut third-best Big 12 team beating its champion among other results, the ACC may have taken a bigger hit this bowl season than the Big Ten.

Disclaimer: I still say Missouri should have been in this game. The media story line was that Kansas proved it belonged. No, Kansas would have proven that by beating the second-best team in the Big 12. Or one better than fourth-best. The Tigers would have kicked the Hokies in the gut even harder. But Kansas did prove it was on the level of a lower-tier BCS team this year, and with Mark Mangino doing a great job there, it should be a fun team to watch beyond this season.

The January Who Gives a Crap Bowl(s)

Rutgers pummels Ball State? Tulsa decimates Bowling Green? Wow, I'm so glad they invented these bowls to kill time before the title game. They do know there were NFL playoffs that weekend, right?

The We Had to Crown Someone Bowl

Okay, LSU showed that it was deserving to be among consideration for best team in the land after outclassing Ohio State. But West Virginia, Georgia or USC all would have given the Tigers a better game, and while LSU's resume may be better than all the others, they backed into a title that no one else seemed to want.

LSU at least won its conference (or even its division, Georgia), didn't have any horrible losses (looking at you, USC, I don't even care who was injured), didn't choke in their final game (ahem, West Virginia), and had a decent non-conference win against Virginia Tech to go with a tour of the SEC. They did dodge Georgia, but still, at least as good as any other two loss resume, save that they lost in their second to last game.

But we all know what we want. We wanted a playoff. Or at least The I Wish They Would Just Play One More Bowl ... Bowl. Give say USC or West Virginia or Georgia a crack at an LSU team that hasn't played a true top four team this year. (Missouri, despite an impressive Cotton Bowl throttling of Arkansas, had two cracks at the only conference champ it faced, and Oklahoma twice proved too strong.)

And yet, we deal with the stubborn commissioners of the Big Ten (afraid that their dogs would lose as big in a playoff fight as they have in four straight BCS Bowl losses) and of the Pac-10 (keeping top-dog USC, often the hottest team in the country come January, on a chain just to protect its precious Rose Bowl).

So maybe next year, we can have a bowl called The They Finally Removed Their Heads From Their ... Bowl. But I wouldn't count on it. Besides, Toys-R-Us would probably buy the rights anyways.