Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls Classic: Las Vegas Bowl

Welcome to the Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls Classic! brought to you by Bertuccci's...Bertuccci's, What's not to Love!

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl

Location: Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada
Matchup: Brigham Young (No. 1 Mountain West) vs. UCLA (No. 4 Pac Ten)
Spread: Brigham Young -5

Smartass Comment about the Bowl Itself: Because college sports and gambling were meant for each other!

Thoughts: While this is a rematch of a 27-17 UCLA win in Week 2 few are just assuming a repeat result. For one, BYU got hot after that game winning 9 of their next 10. And two, UCLA fired Head Coach Karl Dorrell and is currently without a Head Coach for next year. Defensive Coordinator Dewayne Walker is heading the team in what may be an audition for a job some Bruin fans hope he doesn't get.

Pick: Brigham Young -5
Confidence: 9 out of 32

Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls Classic: New Mexico Bowl

Welcome to the Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls Classic! brought to you by Bertuccci's...Bertuccci's, What's not to Love!

New Mexico Bowl

Location: University Stadium, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Matchup: Nevada (No. 4 WAC) vs. New Mexico (No. 5 Mountain West)
Spread: New Mexico -3

Smartass Comment about the Bowl Itself: New Hampshire gets the first-in-the-nation primary, New Mexico gets the fourth-in-the-nation bowl. Sounds about right.

Thoughts: This is a glorified extra home game for New Mexico. Made even moreso by the fact that Nevada's bringing nobody to the game. Nevada Quarterback Colin Kaepernick could be getting Colt Brennan-like buzz in four years but I'm not sure how up for this "bowl" Nevada is going to be. New Mexico ranks 25th in scoring defense and is playing for their first "bowl win" in 46 years (the 1961 Aviation Bowl in Dayton, OH...yes there used to be a bowl in DAYTON, OHIO)

Pick: Nevada -3
Confidence: 7 out of 32

Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls: PapaJohns.com Bowl

Welcome to the Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls Classic! brought to you by Bertuccci's...Bertuccci's, What's not to Love!

PapaJohns.com Bowl

Location: Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama
Matchup: Southern Mississippi (Conference USA No. 3) vs. Cincinnati (Big East No. 4)
Spread: Cincinnati -11

Smartass Comment about the Bowl Itself: PapaJohns.com...when dialing a phone to have your pizza delivered just isn't convenient enough!

Thoughts: One of the more lopsided matchups. Damien Fletcher and Southern Miss had a disappointing season leading to Jeff Bower's dismissal, Bower will coach this game but his team is outmanned by a Cincinnati team which averages 36.8 points per game. The Golden Eagles will play hard but will have trouble playing catchup with the 90th ranked Passing Offense in the country.

Pick: Cincinnati -11
Confidence: 32 out of 32

Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls Classic: R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Welcome to the Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls Classic! brought to you by Bertuccci's...Bertuccci's, What's not to Love!

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Location: Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana
Matchup: Memphis(Conference USA No. 4) vs. Florida Atlantic (Sun Belt Champion)
Spread: Florida Atlantic -2

Smartass Comment about the Bowl Itself: Apparently Ray Nagin's plan for the reconstruction of "Chocolate City" is to host as many bowl games as possible.

Thoughts: This used to be the easiest money a gambler could ever win, betting against the Sun Belt in the New Orleans Bowl, but this regular season the tide might be changing. This year Sun Belt teams have wins against BCS schools like Minnesota (Florida Atlantic), Oklahoma State (Troy), and Alabama (Louisiana-Monroe). Memphis ranked 99th in my TPTPI, the lowest of any team still playing. For those two reasons Howard Schnellenberger and the Owls of FAU have more than a chance here.

Pick: Florida Atlantic -2
Confidence: 5 out of 32 (When measuring confidence 32 is approaching a drunk girl at 1:45am the night after she broke up with her boyfriend, 1 is approaching Elisa Cuthbert)

Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls Classic: San Diego Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl

Welcome to the Bertuccci's Bowling for Bowls Classic! First off thanks to my employer Bertuccci's for making a donation of DOUBLE what I make for writing this blog to sponsor my picks and pregame commentary for each bowl game (as long as I added an extra C so their association with me or this blog didn't turn up on any search engines)...Bertuccci's, What's not to Love!

San Diego Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl

Location: Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California
Matchup: Utah (Mountain West No. 2) vs. Navy (Agreement to play if Bowl Eligible)
Spread: Utah -9

Smartass Comment about the Bowl Itself: Shouldn't it be the "Poinsettia Pot"?

Thoughts: While the Midshipmen are in a better position than most teams whose coach left them before a bowl game. Paul Johnson's right hand man and OC Ken Niumatalolo takes over, so don't expect the Middies to start throwing. Tom Rinaldi probably knows who Utah Running Back Darrell Mack is, But can Utah stop Navy's option offense? They've had about a month to run nothing but the "Option Drill" in practice. Have to think they'll be ready.

Pick: Utah -9
Confidence: 16 out of 32

Killing Time...Killing the System: A 16-Team Playoff

How it Would Work: Automatic bids for the champions of EVERY conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, Big East, Pac Ten, SEC, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, WAC, Sun Belt) and five at-large teams would play in a 16 team tournament just like you see in Division I Football Championship Subdivision and Basketball. Games would be held at the venue of the higher seed until the Championship Game at a site of a former BCS bowl.

How it Would Play Out this Year:
16. Florida Atlantic at 1. Ohio State
15. Central Michigan at 2. LSU
14. UCF at 3. Virginia Tech
13. Brigham Young at 4. Oklahoma
12. Florida at 5. Georgia
11. Arizona State at. 6. Missouri
10. Hawai'i at 7. USC
9. West Virginia at 8. Kansas

Why it Would Work: It's December-January Madness Baby! The polls and computers would only provide a basis for at-large selection. Bowl Presidents would go homeless. Dream matchups would start in the Quarterfinals and we could all have fun speculating on that FAU-Ohio State spread. In seriousness the inclusion of the small conferences is something I really wish could be worked into any system as while it would provide for some laughers in the formative years, it could extend a parity in college football to all 119 teams and who knows we could get some REAL upsets. This is the exact formula Division I-AA has been using for years and by the way, the best team has won that tournament three years in a row (Appy State).

Why it Wouldn't Work: Some of the games, those taking place in the North could look like last Sunday in the NFL. It would be tough to fit four games in a time frame that doesn't interfere with either finals of the first semester or the beginning of the second. The players probably don't feel like playing four extra games to win a National Championship and yes, games between high seeds wouldn't be as important when you have FIVE at-large entries into the tournament. Its nice to hope the bowls could go away but they do provide a good revenue stream to the universities and to hope to see them dissolve is unrealistic where as the Plus-One and much further on down the road the 8-Team model from yesterday I could see happening in my lifetime.

With all that said, lets enjoy what we have now as it starts Thursday for if nothing else it is still college football in 32 ultimate stages with pride on the line and pageantry on display...

Killing Time...Killing the System: An 8 Team Playoff

How it Would Work: This is the playoff system desired by most fans of the sport and probably the only one that could ever happen at the Division I-A level. Six of the eight teams would be the champions of the six BCS conferences. Two at-large teams would be the two highest rated teams remaining from the BCS standings. Quarterfinals would take place on New Year's Day at the four BCS bowl sites. Semifinals would take place at two of the four BCS bowl sites and the National Championship would take place at a third BCS bowl site.

Why it Would Work: The conferences would be satisfied that they each have equal access to the National Championship. The bowl sites would be satisfied with added revenue and television coverage coming to their stadiums. The regular season would be ENHANCED because while yes rare regular season 1vs2 matchups may not have the same stakes, matchups between elite conference teams in the BCS conferences and especially the conference championships would have higher stakes. Everyone stands to benefit here except...

Why it Wouldn't Work: ...the travelling fan. The logistics of fans being able to travel to possibly two more bowl destinations is the only legitimate drawback to this plan. Schools could only do so much to get their fans to these games at an affordable price. It would be difficult even for large fanbases like Ohio State and Oklahoma, nonetheless any private school. It also seems unfair that an undefeated team would have to win three more games beyond the 12 it had already played but I hope this season has proven that college football seasons are like snowflakes, no two are comparable.

Killing Time... Killing the System: A Seeded "Plus One"

How it Would Work: To better ensure clarity in a Plus One format two of the bowls would feature the Number 1 and Number 4 teams in the BCS Standings and one of the bowls would feature the Number 2 and Number 3 teams in BCS Standings.

How it Would Play Out This Year:
Rose: Ohio State vs. Oklahoma
Orange: LSU vs. Virginia Tech
Fiesta: USC vs. West Virginia
Sugar: Georgia vs. Missouri

Why it Would Work: Its a playoff, in case you couldn't figure that out, disguised as the BCS. Only when media would call the four seeded teams the "Final Four" would anyone even figure out what is going on. The bowl season wouldn't have to be extended, each bowl would still be a big game, just two would determine the entries into the BCS National Championship.

Why it Wouldn't Work: Because its a playoff, therefore at least the Pac Ten and the Rose Bowl would be steadfast against it. A "Plus One" is much more realistic when you don't threaten the conference-bowl relationships, because even though fans don't care, the universities do. The Rose Bowl would much rather be a place for the Big Ten and Pac Ten champions to play than a national semifinal. Of course if the system were to truly blow up and six teams in six conferences ran the table, this format wouldn't help that very much at all.