Bowl games a great holiday tradition
image from Flickr
What could be better than watching bowl games on New Year’s Day? After the mayhem and festivities on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day can seem like a bit of a drag, what with everything being closed. Luckily, there are college bowl games galore, and parking your body on a couch — your own or a friend’s — and watching football all day could be just what the doctor ordered after a late night of celebrating.
What’s that, you say? Your favorite college football team didn’t make it to one of the bowl games on New Year’s Day? Well, that’s what I’m here for. There are five bowl games on New Year’s Day, and perhaps if you hear a little bit about them, one will strike your fancy. Once you pick your game, all you’ll need is a small loan from your buddies for pizza and hot wings.
Kicking things off: The Outback Bowl
The first game of the day begins at 11 a.m., ET. Naturally, if you live on the West Coast and don’t want to get up at 8 a.m. on New Year’s Day, this one is not a good choice. This year, the Outback Bowl pits Northwestern University against Auburn University. If you like to choose teams by mascot, this might be a tough one because they’re both big cats. You an choose between the Tigers (Auburn) and the Wildcats.
That’s probably not a great way to choose a team to root for, so maybe you can pick the one that is based closest to you. Northwestern is near Chicago, Ill., and Auburn is in Alabama. The teams are playing in Tampa, FL, so the Wildcats will be far from home. Also, if you like to root for the underdog, Auburn’s record is 7-5, and Northwestern’s is 8-4, but both teams are unranked. Fun fact: These two teams have never played each other.
Capital One Bowl
Another game in Florida, but this time in Orlando, the Capital One Bowl starts at 1 p.m. The Louisiana State University Tigers will play the Penn State Lions. Don’t worry, not all of the teams playing bowl games on New Year’s Day are big cats. Penn State outranks LSU in all the polls.
Gator Bowl
While the Lions and Tigers are kicking off in Orlando, The Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL, starts at the same time. The Seminoles from Florida State will square off against the West Virginia Mountaineers. West Virginia has a 9-3 record for the season and is ranked 16 in its conference. The unranked Seminoles went 6-6 this year.
The full name of this bowl game is the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl, named after its sponsor, which is a Japanese company that makes office equipment in the computer family.
Rose Bowl
Over on the West Coast, the Rose Bowl begins at 2 p.m. (5 p.m. ET) The University of Oregon Ducks will play the Ohio State Buckeyes in Pasadena, Calif. Ohio State is raked 8 in its conference as well as the BCS poll and AP poll. It’s ranked 7 in the Coaches poll. Oregon is ranked 7 across the board. The Rose Bowl is named after the stadium where it’s played, and the full name is Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi.
Fun fact: after the first game of the Ducks’ season, against Boise State, Oregon tailback LaGarett Blount was suspended for most of the season because he punched a Boise State player in the face.
Sugar Bowl
Finally, the Sugar Bowl takes place in Louisana at 8:30 p.m., ET. The University of Florida Gators will play the University of Cincinnati Bearcats (Bearcats?! Now there is a team I’d root for based on mascot) in New Orleans. Allstate is the Sugar Bowl sponsor. The Bearcats are ranked 3 and 4 in the polls, and the Gators are 5.
There is no better way to start off a new year than by watching some bowl games, so get to celebrating 2010 and America by drinking beer and watching football.
