bowling again

well, hi
certainly been a while since i've said, well, anything
[i think april was my last actual blog post]
so i think today i'll break that streak and actuall write something
and that something obviously isn't going to why i don't have a job yet,
it's gonna be football
it's goddamn bowl season, son,
let's get rolling with the picks.

a quick note, to those who remember from last year:
my bcs bowl boycott has come to an end ,
since they finally decided to institute something else
[whether the four-team playoff will be good is anyone's guess,
but it's sure as shit better than the system we have now]
which means i can watch and prognosticate them again
[hah, prognosticate, like i'm a fucking expert]

at any rate, here's my list in all its glory:
1] las vegas: boise state over washington
2] holiday: ucla over baylor
3] russell athletic: rutgers over virginia tech
4] meineke car care: minnesota over texas tech
5] pinstripe: west virginia over syracuse
6] fight hunger: navy over arizona state
7] alamo: oregon state over texas
8] buffalo wild wings: michigan state over texas christian
9] chick-fil-a: louisiana state over clemson
10] gator: northwestern over mississippi state
11] outback: michigan over south carolina
12] capital one: georgia over nebraska
13] rose: wisconsin over stanford
14] orange: florida state over northern illinois
15] fiesta: oregon over kansas state
16] cotton: texas a&m over oklahoma
17] ncg: notre dame over alabama

obviously i'm hoping for a lot of b1g/pac12 wins
as well as simply hoping instead of objectively picking a winner
so, let's get down to why

1] purely at simply, washington has been far too erratic this year for me to pick them
they lost to unranked arizona by 35 and unranked wazzu 3 in overtime
they beat ranked stanford and oregon state by 4 and 3 respectively
boise, at least, has been playing consistently
and their pair of losses [at msu and at sdsu] is much more understandable

2] ucla/baylor is a complete crapshoot
ucla won their division outright for the first time since '98,
and followed it promptly with back-to-back losses to a ranked stanford team
baylor barely beat louisiana-monroe by 3,
but also upset then-#1 k-state by 28 points
i just think ucla has a better chance of pulling this out

3] rutgers won their first big east championship this year [albeit shared with 3 other teams]
va tech's 3 conference wins came against teams that are combined 12–24
simple as that

4] this one is more wishful thinking, i suppose
texas tech's beaten two ranked teams this year, but also lost 3 straight to ranked teams
minnesota's got an intact coaching staff, but also only beat illinois and purdue this year
course, last time texas tech had a coaching team, they beat msu by 10, so who knows

5] i guess i just have faith in wvu's ability to run up the score yet again
they were uncompetive in just two of their games against better competition
whereas syracuse was co-big east champion at 7–5 [at least rutgers was 9–3]

6] this one's also mostly just wishful thinking,
mostly cuz i've always cheered for navy, and todd graham is an ass

7] oregon state has played better football all year long,
and i think they're less susceptible to a season-ending disappointment
this game is in texas, though, so it might go down to the wire

8] just have to have faith that msu will pull this out
msu and tcu have been equally terrible this year, so it's really anyone's game

9] this one is simple: lsu is just the better team that's played better all year

10] again, wishful thinking, but one of the more realistic ones i think
northwestern's had its best season since 2008, played competitively in all 3 losses
and came damn close to winning its division
mississippi state, on the other hand, only beat the four worst teams in the sec
and lost their other four conference games by at least 17 points

11] again wishful thinking, but i think michigan does have a shot
i don't really have much to say about this other than i hope michigan wins

12] i really, REALLY want to go with nebraska on this [mostly for the b1g's bowls' sake]
but there's just no way i can justify it
georgia came within five yards of playing for a national title,
nebraska lost the b1g championship to the 3rd place leaders team by halftime

13] picking the upset in this one purely off gut instinct
i think the badgers will have enough emotion riding on this to finally get over the hump
remember, they've lost the past two rose bowls by 2 and 3 points, respectively
so it's not like they rolled over to their competition either time
besides, with their a/d back as one-time coach, it'll be a hell of a show

14] the only no-brainer of my group of picks
i'm not gonna berate niu for being chosen, because i do think they played well this year
and they've earned their spot in a quality bcs game
i just think they're insanely overmatched [like uconn and oklahoma two years ago]

15] k-state and oregon did give me pause for a while, but i had to go with the ducks
even though both teams ultimately failed to go undefeated and play for the ncg,
i think oregon has more of a chip on their shoulder
[they also lost their game at home by 3, instead of on the road by 28]

16] i love this matchup simply because last year it was a regular season game
though i think tamu takes it because they've played better competition
the sec is deeper than the big12, after all

17] purely because i want the sec's ncg streak to end asap,
and who better than the traditional independent power of notre dame?
[even though i think notre dame needs to get off their high horse,
i'm willing to let them have this moment if they stop alabama in their tracks]




ADDENDUM:
it seems boise beat washington by 2 as i was compiling this ridiculous thing
i'm off to a good start at least
let's see how badly i do this year