Last night, this year’s BCS bowl matchups became official. Despite the near-universal hatred of the BCS system itself, it appears that this year, it just might give us a pretty good set of games. After taking a quick look at the matchups, here are our initial impressions of the games, ranked from best to (relatively) worst.
1) BCS National Championship (Auburn vs. Oregon)
The cream rose to the top. Auburn and Oregon took care of business, didn’t lose a game, and now they’re here. And that should be a good thing for us fans, because these are two outstanding teams. Auburn won games every which way, from stirring comebacks to complete blowouts. At least one team flat-out cheated in an attempt to beat Oregon – and still, no one could do it.
Also promising from a fan’s point of view: the fact that these are two offensive juggernauts squaring off. Oregon led the nation in points per game with nearly 50 a contest, while Auburn ranked sixth with 42.7 points per game. Therefore, we predict the final score of this game will be 2-0.
2) Orange Bowl (Stanford vs. Virginia Tech)
There are a lot of things to like here. One is that Stanford is a great team this year – they only lost to Oregon, after all. And the story of Virginia Tech’s in-season comeback – starting 0-2, one of those losses devastating and the other embarrassing, then winning 11 in a row – is one of the more remarkable team turnarounds in recent memory.
You’ve got Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, in what could well be his final college game, facing off against a Frank Beamer/Bud Foster defense that thrives on creating turnover havoc. You’ve got the speculation surrounding Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh and every coaching job that will open. But most importantly, you’ve got two outstanding teams playing well.
3) Rose Bowl (Wisconsin vs. TCU)
TCU finally gets its shot to prove itself against a non-Boise foe in a bowl game. And it won’t be easy, because Wisconsin is awfully good. They hung 70+ points on two different Big Ten teams (including bowl-bound Northwestern), and their only loss was to a fellow 11-1 squad in Michigan State.
TCU’s an outstanding team too, though, and they’ll be fired up to avenge their BCS bowl flop last year (a Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State), and in so doing, prove to the world they belong on the big stage – and maybe even that their undefeated record should have placed them on a bigger stage.
4) Sugar Bowl (Ohio State vs. Arkansas)
The Buckeyes get a chance for revenge on the SEC after those two national championship game defeats to Florida and LSU. Two outstanding quarterbacks (who play different styles, to boot) in Terrelle Pryor and Ryan Mallett. One school that doesn’t usually reach BCS-bowl-level heights (Arkansas) vs. a legendary powerhouse. One coach who likes to chuck the ball all over the field (Arkansas’ Bobby Petrino) vs. one who’d probably like to take a knee on every snap (OSU’s Jim Tressel).
About all that won’t be too different in this game are the schools’ colors, which are awfully similar and will lead to a pretty bland matchup uniform-wise. But the actual game is more important, and while we’re not quite as jazzed for it as some of these other tilts, it could still be a good one. Arkansas just has to hope Petrino’s career arc doesn’t repeat itself – the last time he appeared in a BCS Bowl (Louisville in the 2007 Orange Bowl), he left the job days later.
5) Fiesta Bowl (Connecticut vs. Oklahoma)
Eh. With as little disrespect as possible intended to UConn, they’re the weakest team in a good while to make their way into a BCS Bowl, because this was an extremely down year for the Big East. West Virginia probably wound up playing the best of anyone, but UConn deserves credit for winning the games they had to win. It pains me to see them get to a BCS bowl before Rutgers (especially after watching RU beat them earlier this year), but that’s how it goes.
Oklahoma has plenty of weapons on offense and will be fun to watch if they get everything clicking, but what would be really fun to watch would be an unexpectedly tight game. And it’s not like Oklahoma is any stranger to falling victim to a Cinderella opponent at the Fiesta Bowl. Still, though, this has the least juice of any matchup in the field…so watch it be the best game out of all of them.
Well, there you have it. Five games – and, hopefully, five good games. It’s not a playoff, but for as long as there’s no playoff, let’s enjoy what we have. And this year, we have a national title game it’s tough to dispute, and some of the other best teams in the country squaring off. It’s not quite what the people want, but this should be fun all the same.
Photo via
SportsGrid
