Happy New Year...Let's Talk Bowling

Today was a bit of a redemption day for me: Notre Dame showed us something, UCF pulled off a very predictable "upset," and Florida State continued to rub Spurrier the wrong way.

Now for the New Year's Day Bowl festivities!

It's definitely a day I find myself rooting and picking from the heart. For instance, I'm picking Penn State in the Outback Bowl with all seven points mostly because I want to see Urban Meyer leave on a sour note.

I also really want Michigan to get waxed. These early season hype clowns need a good smack in the mouth and I'm hoping that comes in the Progressive Gator Bowl at the hands of perhaps the nation's biggest surprise team, the Mississippi State Bulldogs. They cover the three and a half.

I like Texas Tech in the TicketCity Bowl, but I'm not sure why. It's probably because I've never been a huge Northwestern fan, even though they'd seem to be a good fit for my type of rooting interest. I'll take the 9.5 points and hope the Wildcats pull it off.

I know it's silly to pick against a ten point reigning national champion, but I hate them/need to pick one Big Ten team, right? Michigan State in an upset at the CapitalOne Bowl.

Which takes us to the big ones.

I'll start with the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma v. UCONN. I want this game to knock people's socks off almost as much as Okla-Boise a few years ago in this game. Do I think it will happen? No. But I am picking UCONN with their one million points.

I love the Rose Bowl. And where another Brandon would bitch and complain about how this game should be Stanford-Wisconsin -- and it should be -- I'll stick to predictions alone. The verdict: well, as much as I'm scared of the Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Mushroom Mushroom running attack, I am cheering for TCU to feel the frustration of all the fans of the small teams and rise up against the tyranny and bullshit that is the BCS, toppling its cruel dictatorship and dishonest favoritism.

Their consolation prize should they not? Well, the fact that they're moving to the Big East, a weak BCS conference. Sigh, I guess that means I won't pick them to cover, then.