The College Football Czar: 2015-16 Bowl Game Picks

Week fourteen in review: Things held true to form as far as the national championship picture is concerned, leaving no serious debate about which four teams belong in the semifinals. Nevertheless, ESPN devoted a significant portion of its bowl preview show to a discussion about whether the playoff should immediately be expanded to eight teams. The Czar won't bore you by explaining again why this would be a disaster. Suffice it to point out that Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, Mark Cuban and President Obama are all for it. If that doesn't convince you it's a bad idea, then you're the reason the shoe companies have to print "Do Not Eat" on those little moisture packets.

A strong second half of the season came to a whimpering conclusion for the College Football Czar, who needed Navy to stave off an upset bid from Army in order to finish 8-6. The Czar correctly picked six of eight conference championship winners, but only went 1-4 in regular season Big XII and Sun Belt Conference games. His regular season record finishes at 164-93, for a .638 winning percentage.

The Lobos may live in the Land of Enchantment, but they're still enamored with it as they return home for their first bowl game since 2007. On that occasion, they blanked Nevada 23-0 in this same stadium. As recently as a year ago, it would have been unthinkable for UNM to score November victories against both Boise State and Air Force, but they've turned things around after being fortunate to escape a home upset against Hawaii.

Last time the Wildcats played in this game, they got the adobe scared out of them by Nevada in 2012, trailing by 13 with under two minutes to play before pulling out a 49-48 thriller. Things haven't changed much since then. This season, the U of A is outscoring its opponents by an average final score of 37-36.

The Cats' QB situation is still up in the air, so why not keep the ball on the ground instead? This team may not have a 1,000-yard rusher, but they've got a remarkably productive trio in Nick Wilson (725 yards), Jerrard Randall (702), and Jared Baker (691). Wilson has played sparingly late in the season due to a series of injuries, but will be entering this game on three weeks' rest.

These teams used to be rivals in a league called the Border Conference, which no longer exists, for the obvious reason that the word "border" is hostile and abusive.

For the first time in 90 meetings, these old and somewhat bitter rivals play in the postseason. The Utes lead the all-time series 54-31-4, even after BYU dominated throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s.

In 2011, the Cougars left the Mountain West Conference to go Independent, ambitiously nicknaming their school the Notre Dame of the West. Five years later, it hasn't worked out, and there aren't a lot of good options unless the Big XII decides to expand. In the meantime, the program is bound to atrophy. In case you're wondering why Bronco Mendenhall would leave the Cougs for a lower-echelon major conference school like Virginia, that should give you a hint.

The Utes snapped a two-game losing streak, which doesn't necessarily mean they ended their slump, with a 20-14 win over lowly Colorado in the blowing snow. One trend that is moving their way is the production of their new starting tailback. Joe Williams may not be as flashy as the injured Devontae Booker, but he has just plain carried the ball for a total of 308 yards in his last two games.

Having the Mormons take over the city for a weekend might not be the best thing for the casinos, but just think what a booming business they'll do at the quickie wedding chapels.

71-year-old coach Frank Solich is a veteran of 12 bowl games, six of those during his six years as head coach of Nebraska, and the other six in his ten years and counting with the Bobcats.

The Mountaineers' only losses have been to #1 Clemson and eventual Sun Belt Conference champion Arkansas State. They won't be distracted by the bright lights of the big city of Montgomery, Alabama. Not when they're coming from the Big Appal, up there in Boone, NC.

This game is not the Chameleon Bowl, and that's probably a good thing. Chameleons couldn't very well thwart their predators if they sat in a bowl. They'd probably just end up looking like shredded wheat with eyes.

One might think the travel won't be a problem for the Spartans, who actually play in the East fairly often. The trouble is, they donâ€™t win. Part of the reason is that they're being paid to play on the road by major programs like Auburn. Still, one upset victory at Navy is all they have to show for their last eleven trips east of the Mississippi.

Unlike their foes from SJSU, the Panthers played their way into this game by pulverizing Georgia Southern in the second half of a budding rivalry game. Nick Arbuckle threw for 346 yards and three TDs to blow open a 7-7 halftime score for a final of 34-7.

Most fans don't realize that every bowl committee is a nonprofit organization that donates its net profits to charity (after paying out some upper-six figure executive salaries, that is). It is only when the main beneficiary is named in the title of the game that this is generally recognized. The Cure Bowl, as you've probably guessed, benefits breast cancer research. It has a chance to be successful, just as long as its organizers keep in mind that they are selling a product, and don't get too caught up in the cult of awareness.

It's not reasonable to demand that people remain aware of a terrible disease while they're trying to enjoy a football game. If the broadcast isnâ€™t more about the game than it is about the cause, viewers will tune out. Festooning the stadium in pink might make some people feel good about themselves, but it won't raise any money. The main concern should be to put on a good game, and let it translate into greater advertising revenues for next season.

Toward that end, it would help if the participants didn't have a combined record of 11-13, but alas, when you're bowl game #40, you're going to have to make chicken salad out of chickenade, or however that goes.

The last four New Orleans Bowls have been won by a team from the home state. They've also been won by the representative of the Sun Belt Conference. This year, those are two different teams, as ASU and LTU meet for the right to succeed the Louisiana-Lafayette dynasty.

Until a disappointing season finale against Southern Miss, the Bulldogs had only lost on the road this year, to Western Kentucky, Kansas State and Mississippi State. Arky State has only lost to quality competition also, but their defeats to USC and Toledo weren't nearly so competitive.

If Tech head coach Skip Holtz saw the potential for plodding Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel to become a 3,575-yard passer, he must have been the only one. As happy as the fans at South Florida are with the way things are going now, they've got to be asking themselves, where was this Skip Holtz when they had him?

Just as this game had been won by ULL four times in a row, the Red Wolves had played in four consecutive GoDaddy Bowls, going 2-2. Then, one day, the internet arrived in Arkansas, and they discovered that they don't have to travel to Mobile to see Danica Patrick anymore.

Last year, the Czar joked about the irony of the Miami Beach Bowl being played in the gloomiest retractable dome in America. On game day, that field actually saw more sunshine than you've probably ever seen at any Marlins home game. That postcard day was marred by an ugly brawl, however, at the end of the Memphis-BYU game.

This game should be somewhat friendlier, as USF coach Willie Taggart faces his alma mater, where he had coached for three seasons before getting hired away. The WKU fans can hardly be bitter, knowing that any successful coach of theirs is soon headed someplace else. Moreover, they havenâ€™t particularly missed him, as they've gone 23-11 in three years since.

The only times Bull tailback Marlon Mack has been held under 100 yards have been when his team has gotten away from its running game and not given him enough carries. The Hilltoppers will try to force them to do just that, with an offense that scores touchdowns in bunches. Taggart's team will have to be disciplined enough not to abandon the ground game unless itâ€™s totally necessary.

If you're watching this game, you'll notice a hideous, cartoonish structure in the stadium that features two jumping, badly drawn marlins, along with palm trees, flamingos and such. This is what is known in Marlins Park as the home run sculpture. That's because when you show up at the ballpark and see it, you run home.

In a regular season-ending 20-0 win over Kent State, the Zips held a Division I-A opponent to zip for the first time since 1992, although they have blanked two lower-division teams in recent years. That shutout capped a four-game winning streak to end the season, but to be fair, it came against the bottom four teams in the MAC East.

USU's oft-injured eleventeenth-year senior QB Chuckie Keeton is nothing if not gutsy. Out of loyalty, the Aggies are going to play him if he says he feels well enough, but a 51.7 completion percentage and 2-to-1 interception-to-touchdown ratio make him an obvious liability. When he has started this season, his team is 1-3, having only beaten I-AA Southern Utah 12-9, thanks to a late TD on a punt return.

Sure, Idaho potatoes may be famous among the rubes out there in flyover country, but have they ever won a Tony Award? Well, then.

In keeping with its rodent motif, the Rat Mouth bowl is now sponsored by Marmot, an outdoor apparel company. The Czar once proposed that they adopt the slogan, "Wrap a rodent around yourself," but they foolishly rejected the idea. Just jealous they didn't think of it themselves.

Rarely do you see one team having played two more games than its bowl opponent, but the Rockets' opener against Division I-AA Stony Brook was canceled by lightning. Then, they had a chance to join the Owls in becoming a division winner and playing in a conference title game, but they blew their last game against Western Michigan, and thus handed first place to Northern Illinois.

The most memorable meeting between these teams occurred in 1984, at the Atlantic City Convention Hall, where squares of sod were hastily laid down prior to the unconventional indoor game. Owl alumnus Bill Cosby was on the sideline, so naturally he decided to become more directly involved. Cosby playfully hid an official's flag under the sod, and then seemed to forget which square he'd put it under, causing a delay in the game.

Today, it is Cosby himself who could easily be lost in Atlantic City. Trying to find him in a mob of elderly creeps would be like playing Where's Waldo.

This is the Huskies' third trip to this bowl game, having lost there to TCU 37-7 in 2006, and to Utah State 21-14 in 2013. To prevent a third consecutive defeat, they might have to rely on third-string QB Tommy Fiedler, who stepped in after both Drew Hare and Ryan Graham were injured. In a MAC championship loss to Bowling Green, Fiedler completed just 12 of 28 with three interceptions.

The Broncos stopped the blue bleeding with a 40-23 win in their final regular season game at San Jose State. Sophomore stomper Jeremy McNichols ran for a season-high 192 yards, in his seventh consecutive 100-yard effort of the season.

Boise is not pronounced like a lot of people would expect it to be, but neither is NIU's home in DeKalb. The name of that Chicago exurb is actually pronounced with a short "a" and a silent "l". So what is DeKalb? It's what they take to DeBears games.

The Eagles are undoubtedly excited to play in their first bowl game, although they'd have been more excited a year ago, when they ran the table in the Sun Belt Conference. They were barred from the postseason, though, just because it was their first year in Division I-A. But now the NCAA is letting in teams with records of 5-7, just because they're allegedly smart? Whoever makes up these rules must be doing it by consulting a mood ring.

In the past, this game has often been a matchup between the champions from the MAC and the Sun Belt. The Falcons, who dispatched Northern Illinois in the MAC championship game 34-14, have got to keep their intensity up against a third place Eagle team that was blown out by Georgia State to end the season. Any lack of focus, if it exists, could be exacerbated by the departure of head coach Dino Babers to Syracuse.

How do you lose your coach on your way to a bowl game? Easy. The BGSU team bus took a wrong turn through upstate New York, when an SU campus policeman pulled them over and said, "Your Babers, please."

This is an even matchup on paper, but since the "eye test" is all the rage, let's go with that instead. MTSU's horse flies majestically through the air while hurling thunderbolts from its nostrils. Meanwhile, the WMU Bronco is trying to row some stupid boat, despite the fact that it doesnâ€™t even have any hands.

One thing in the Broncs' favor is that the Blue Raiders are not likely candidates to take advantage of their porous run defense. For the season, the MT-heads have taken to the air for more than twice as much yardage as they've gained on the ground. P.J. Fleck's pass defense is hardly a strength either, however, ranking right in the middle nationally, at #63 out of 128.

These teams jumped at their bowl invitations days before the rest of the matchups would be announced. Thatâ€™s because they thought they were going to Nassau Coliseum, the abandoned home of the New York Islanders. Instead, they're only going to the Bahamas. What a gyp.

Senior Aztec QB Maxwell Smith insists he will play with a torn ACL. His coaches are likely to disagree, after a very efficient outing by freshman Christian Chapman in a 27-24 Mountain West victory over Air Force.

The Bearcats are tied for fourth-worst in the nation in turnover margin, at minus-16. The next worst among all teams with non-losing records is Colorado State, at minus-11.

The playing surface at Aloha Stadium became a focus of controversy after the U.S. women's soccer team canceled its game there against Trinidad & Tobago, complaining that the conditions were hazardous. How convenient, that the players had whined that the Women's World Cup was played on artificial turf, whereas the real World Cup had been played on grass, and this was somehow akin to a civil rights violation. Now, the turf in Honolulu is not good enough for them, even though the University of Hawaii football team just played on it all season, UC and SDSU have no concerns about playing there, and the NFLâ€™s Pro Bowl plans remain undisturbed.

The Czar expects the last of these to change, once the NFL realizes that the women's cancelation was due not to genuine safety concerns, but to liberal political grandstanding. Once Roger Goodell figures this out, don't be surprised if he suddenly finds the facility inadequate. At least this would present a long-awaited excuse to cancel the Pro Bowl. That game is about as interesting as a womenâ€™s exhibition soccer match against Trinidad & Tobago.

The Devil stuck around St. Petersburg when he saw it was a time for a change. Too bad he didn't turn Tropicana Field into a real stadium instead of the sensory deprivation chamber that it is. But of course, he is evil, you know.

The Huskies return to the Sunshine State for the first time since winning their colossal rivalry game against Central Florida in the Civil Conflict, legend of song and story. No, really, coach Bob Diaco has written a song about it. Well, no, not really. But did you doubt it?

Thundering Herd TE Ryan Yuracheck has scored in each of his last four games, and is now his team's runaway leader in touchdown receptions with eight. So what does it matter that he's a Czech? The College Football Czar thought we were beyond that sort of thing.

Well, the Hurricanes have fired Al Golden, but now they must win a bowl game with an interim coaching staff against a Pac 12 contender. Having some boob in an airplane fly a banner that says "Beat Washington State" just isn't going to do it.

Wazzu was without starting quarterback Luke Falk for a gruesome 45-10 loss to rival Washington, but Falk, who had suffered a concussion a week earlier, is expected to play against the Canes. The sophomore slinger has passed for 4,266 yards this year, with 36 TDs and only eight picks. He's averaging 53.7 attempts per game, however, which means he's not throwing the ball very deep downfield, which he may need to do in order to use up The U.

Not only is El Paso the location of this game, but those are coincidentally the two words that Cougar coach Mike Leach uses to call in every play. He used to just yell "throw the ball," but then he became concerned about opposing coaches stealing signals, and decided to exercise a bit of subtlety.

Decades ago, the Golden Eagles were known as the giant killers of college football, but a win over UW would be their biggest nonconference victory since knocking off Nebraska in their 2004 season opener.

The Huskies beat up on a Division I-AA opponent like practically everyone else these days, but other than that, their schedule was among the best in the nation. All of their losses have been to teams playing in bowl games, while they've upset USC, and romped over Arizona and Washington State.

A Dallas football game that's not played in Arlington is about as rare these days as a pork product that is not made with poultry. In each case the genuine article is far superior, too. If only the game known as the Cotton Bowl were still played in the stadium by that name, instead of Jerry Jones' House of Inadequacy.

The Hoosiers were 0-6 in Big Ten play until finally winning their last two games. The fact that their opponents were Maryland and Purdue had more than a little to do with that. IU picked up a big victory against Western Kentucky early in the season, but they've been unable to defeat any other competent team.

Duke defeated a woeful Wake Forest team 27-21 to end a four-game losing streak. The six Division I-A teams the Devils defeated have got a combined record of 20-51.

The Blue Devils won't be intimidated by the house that Ruth built, because they've got a big-time ballpark back home in Durham. If you hit the famous Durham Bull cutout with a home run, you win a steak, but if you hit the grassy area the bull is standing on, all you get is a salad. That kind of pressure might have been too much for the Bambino to withstand.

Frank Beamer usually has his team ready for big games, and the final game of his career should be no different. Last season, his Gobblers slobberknocked Cincinnati 33-17 in the Military Bowl, to salvage a winning record from a season, like this one, that has had its low points.

As weenie as it is for losing teams to be in bowl games, it's really no better if all you have to do is break even by beating the Too Lame Green Wave on Thanksgiving weekend. The Golden Hurricane actually trailed that game by ten at halftime, before dusting of their AAC West foes by a final of 45-34.

Some of the younger fans might wonder just what is meant by "Beamer ball." That was actually the original title of the sport, before it was renamed football several years later. It's a little-known fact that Coach Beamer has been around longer than feet.

This is not the mismatch it may look like at first glance. The Cornhuskers had won back-to-back games, including an upset of Michigan State, prior to a 28-20 loss to Iowa to end the regular season. Moreover, they were excruciatingly close to pulling out each of their four early losses, which were decided by a combined total of eleven points.

Whereas the Pac 12 North has got two of the nation's top four running backs, the Bruins' Paul Perkins has quietly led the way in the South, with 1,275 yards and 13 touchdowns. Perkins barely got any carries against the N-men as a freshman two years ago, but his ten-yard touchdown run started the blue bears' comeback, as they scored 38 consecutive points to secure a 41-21 victory.

The people at Foster Farms are good and smug about their cage-free eggs, but wait until one of the chicks hatches and goes on a criminal rampage. Just such a thing happens in Willie Horton Hatches the Egg, which can be seen almost nightly on the Encore Deranged Sequels Channel.

The Panthers have actually landed in a bigger game than if they hadn't been passed over by the Sun and Pinstripe Bowls. Fans wanted to see them matched against Penn State in the Bronx, but since the Nittany Lions surprisingly got a better bid, a Pitt-Indiana matchup in that same bowl would have been a tremendous letdown.

Tennessee graduate transfer Nate Peterman turned in his only poor performance as Pitt's QB in his most recent game, a 29-24 home loss to Miami. Though he hasn't come anywhere near 300 yards in any single game, he has shown the ability to stretch the field vertically, which is something that had become a rare sight for Panther fans in recent years.

This may sound heretical, but the Midshipmen appeared to have looked past Army. When they didn't just go out and start tearing off big gains on simple dive plays, there didn't seem to be any backup plan ready. Surely, weâ€™ll see a more versatile offense in this postseason game against another of their old rivals. The Middies trail the series 22-14-3, but they prevailed by three points at home in 2013, in a typically gritty performance by QB Keenan Reynolds.

The reason thereâ€™s a bowl game in Annapolis but not in Indianapolis is that the NCAA hasn't yet found anything hostile and abusive about "An." But rest assured, they're working on it.

The Chipps were down in last year's Bahamas Bowl by a score of 49-14 after three quarters against Western Kentucky. Their furious comeback was foiled on an unsuccessful last-second two-point conversion attempt, in a 49-48 defeat.

CMU finished among a four-way tie for first place in the MAC West Division, knotted up at 6-2 with Northern Illinois, Toledo and Western Michigan. Outside their conference, they're 0-3 against Division I-A opponents. They competed well against Oklahoma State and Michigan State, however, and they statistically dominated a three-point overtime loss at Syracuse.

The Golden Gophers resigned themselves to a losing season with a 31-21 defeat against Wisconsin, but they're one of the three teams that were allowed into bowl games with losing records on the basis of their academic status. The Czar figures all those smart people must get jobs out of state when they graduate. How else to explain the remaining Minnesotans electing people like Jesse Ventura and Al Franken?

A Quick Lane is one in which you must have 12 items or fewer. The one that says "12 items or less" is not so quick, because itâ€™s full of confused, illiterate people.

The bad news for the Golden Bears is that QB Jared Goff is almost surely gone to the NFL a year early. On the bright side, he'll be motivated to make a good impression in his final college game.

The lightning eleven have lost their biggest games this year, when playing for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy and the Mountain West championship. Then there was that disastrous loss at Metzger's Field, after Penny gave away Beaver's secret play, Old 98.

The AFA ground game has improved by a full yard per carry over last year, but those gains have been nullified by the erratic arm of Karson Roberts, who has thrown five fewer touchdowns and seven more picks than Nate Romine did in 2014.

The Bears would have liked to have their own athletic Russell available, as in quarterback Seth, but injuries have forced them to turn to WR Lynx Hawthorne as their fourth-string slinger. In a 23-17 loss to Texas, Hawthorne completed 10 of 22 for just 64 yards, with two interceptions.

Even if the Tarheels hadn't been robbed of their onside kick, they still would have been a long way from winning the ACC title game against Clemson. Still, that doesn't diminish the motivating factor of having been deprived of the chance. The BU defense, which has allowed 212 points in its past five bowl games, canâ€™t be looking forward to meeting them.

Russell Athletic was not named after alleged comedian Russell Brand. Actually, the Czar didn't bother to research that, but he's pretty confident in his guess.

They ought to wear throwback uniforms for this game, since you might need the old rabbit ear antenna to watch it. That's because it is carried by the American Sports Network, many of whose affiliates are local digital and UHF stations.

The Mountain West Conference is angry that two of its teams are matched against each other in a bowl game, but the league should be happy to take what it can get. Thanks to San Jose State's lucky loser status, the MWC has gotten eight of its seven bowl eligible teams into bowl games, despite having only five reserved berths. Needless to say, that shouldn't even be possible.

The Rams have actually had an excellent season, considering the loss of coach Jim McElwain and a large senior class from 2014. Of course, they're not as good as last year's 10-3 team, but they did beat arch rival Air Force this time, and they have a great chance to improve dramatically on last year's bowl performance.

It's a good thing they named this game after the state instead of the city. If all those college students were going to something called the Tucson Bowl, they'd expect it to be filled with Froot Loops. And Froot doesnâ€™t grow on trees.

Strangely, the Texan team will not feel at home for this one, because Tech is the entire diagonal distance of an enormous state away, whereas the Tigers only have to travel half that distance from Baton Rouge. Just goes to show that coach Fewer Miles, who is known for keeping his road trips to a minimum, has not lost his touch.

Red Raider coach Kliff Kingsbury needs a win to stay over .500 for his career, currently having a record of 19-18. His predecessor, Tommy Tuberville, left for Cincinnati when he sensed his welcome had worn out. His three-year mark in Lubbock was 20-17.

It was great to see the Tiger players carry Miles off the field after his job-saving 19-7 victory over Texas A&M. For too many years the players have been exalting themselves all game long, only to dump stuff over the coach's head when they win. Not only is that insubordinate, but it could also get kind of expensive for a fashion plate like Koach Kliff.

If Louisiana State had gone ahead and fired Coach Miles, would that have made him Les Miserables?

The biggest question for this game might be whether rickety Legion Field can withstand the size of the crowd. With two nearby teams invited, there could be more fans than that stadium has held since Alabama's 2003 season opener.

These young AU players never stood a chance at living up to the unrealistic expectations that were heaped on them during the offseason. The assumption that they would contend nationally was based largely on confidence in head coach Gus Malzahn, and the addition of defensive coordinator Will Muschamp to his staff. Muschamp will move on after one forgettable season, to take the head job at South Carolina.

The Czar's not sure, but it's got to be some kind of record that Memphis QB Paxton Lynch had just nine completions against SMU, and seven of them went for touchdowns. What's more, he did it all in the first half of the 63-0 rout. That was his team's only win in November, though, following consecutive setbacks against Navy, Houston and Temple.

Legion Field is the former home of the USFL's Birmingham Stallions, the Birmingham Barracudas from the CFL's ill-fated foray into the States, and the temporarily defunct UAB Blazers. They could have named the stadium Foreign Legion Field and attracted fewer dead-enders than that.

The school in Raleigh demands that its team be called the Wolfpack instead of the Wolf Pack, but that's not the only fast one they've pulled. NCSU's embarrassing nonconference schedule has allowed them to clinch a winning season despite having beaten nobody any better than Syracuse.

Whatever belk is, the Bulldogs will prefer the Belk Bowl to their final regular season game, the Egg Bowl. They had quite enough egg to last them awhile, mainly on their faces, after laying one in the first half against Ole Miss. Despite that, they have a chance to pull within a game of matching last season's record. In a way, that makes this year more of an accomplishment, considering the turnover on their roster during the offseason.

What the Czar doesn't understand is how they managed to get an egg by turning over their roster. You would normally do that by turning over a hen.

Aggie starting QB Kyle Allen unexpectedly announced that he is transferring out of the program, leaving freshman Kyler Murray to face the music against the Cardinals. Just as A&M fans had comforted themselves with the fact that Murray is the more Kyle of the two, he announced his intention to transfer also.

Usually, when a Division I-A quarterback transfers, it's because he can't win the starting position. The ampersanders are being abandoned by players who are being offered the uncontested starting job for an SEC team. Coach Kevin Sumlin must be doing something that's driving people away. Perhaps he says "irregardless" a lot.

The Cards are 1-1 against SEC opponents this year. They lost their opener to Auburn 31-24, but ended the season by clobbering Kentucky 38-24, after spotting the Cats a 21-0 lead. Scrambling freshman QB Lamar Jackson tightened his grip on the starting job with a season-high 186 rushing yards in that cross-state rivalry.

What a gross injustice it is that Nashville is given the title of Music City. Billy Idol isn't even from there.

In spite of their league's longtime affiliation with this postseason classic, the Trojans had never played there until a year ago, when they held off Nebraska for a 45-42 victory. Prior to the Pete Carroll era, there was no need for them to go to the Holiday Bowl, because SC was infamous for going on holiday in many of their bowl games.

Badger QB Joel "Rico" Stave has thrown 10 TDs and 11 interceptions, but those numbers have gotten far worse as the season has progressed. Starting with a Week 5 loss to Iowa, he's been picked off nine times, while throwing for only three scores.

Last time Stave faced a Pac 12 team, he mistakenly let the clock run out in a 32-30 loss to Arizona State in 2013, by abandoning the ball in the middle of the field instead of handing it to an official. If Gary Andersen, who coached the Badgers at the time, had held his player accountable instead of blaming the officials, Stave might have become a better quarterback by now.

It will be a long offseason for the fans from Madison, not just because they've got a tough matchup in this bowl game, but because it will take them months to get themselves cleaned up from this trip to San Diego. It turns out that nacho cheeseheads are a really, really bad idea.

The Seminoles better beware that this is not like the last time they faced a small conference opponent in a major bowl game, when they sleepwalked over Northern Illinois 31-10 in the 2012 Orange Bowl. If they don't prepare for UH the same way they would a Big Ten or SEC opponent, they could be looking at a first half that is reminiscent of the second half of last yearâ€™s Rose Bowl loss to Oregon.

Buoyed by the news of coach Tom Herman's new contract, the Cougars coasted to a 24-13 triumph over Temple in the inaugural American Athletic Conference championship game. The only thing that kept Hermanâ€™s team from going undefeated this year was an ankle injury to quarterback Greg Ward, whose absence resulted in a 20-17 mid-November loss at Connecticut. Mind you, their nonconference schedule consisted of Louisville, Vanderbilt, Texas State and Division I-AA Tennessee Tech, so they probably wouldn't have made it into the final four even if their record had remained unblemished.

Shame on the AAC. Don't they realize that our undocumented friends spell "American" with an accent mark? And yet, the title of their league has none. The College Football Czar vows to go on a hunger strike until either the league office addresses this microaggression, or until he gets a hankering for a grilled cheese sandwich. Whichever comes first.

The most mortifying thing about the Sooners' 40-6 loss in last year's Russell Athletic Bowl was that Tiger QB Deshaun Watson wasn't even available to play that day. Neither did OU have Baker Mayfield, however, which means their offensively inept five-turnover performance has no bearing on this rematch.

Before the top four teams in the Big XII finally started playing each other, Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State were all undefeated. This Sooner team has since defeated the three of them in succession. Clemson's record may be unblemished, but they haven't played two games that tough in a row this season, let alone three.

This is the Tigers' sixth appearance in this bowl game, with a current record of 3-2. Last time they went undefeated, they played in the Orange Bowl also. At the end of the 1981 season, they defeated Nebraska there 22-15 to win the national championship. Before that, their last unbeaten season was in 1950 when they went 9-0-1, finishing with a 15-14 victory over Miami, also in the Orange Bowl. On the other hand, the Orange Bowl was the site of their infamous 70-33 loss to West Virginia in 2011.

OU is 12-7 all-time in this game, which used to be the annual destination for the champions of the Big 8. Their second most recent appearance there, like Clemson's, lives in infamy. The 55-19 pummeling from USC decided the BCS championship for the 2004 season, and popularized the derisive nickname "Big Game Bob" for Coach Stoops.

The Tigers have a reputation for failing to come through in the big games also, a tendency toward underachievement that has come to be known as "Clemsoning." Coach Dabo Swinney reacted angrily to the use of that term this year, not because it demeans his team, but because it contains a superfluous suffix. Anyone can see that "Clemson" is already the present participle of the infinitive "to Clemse."

If MSU's offensive line hadn't protected QB Connor Cook so well, he would never have finished his team's 16-13 Big Ten championship victory over Iowa. That was almost four weeks before this semifinal game, but how much good will the rest do him if he starts to take a pounding from the pachyderms' defense?

Florida is a tough team to look good against, so it's no surprise that the Crimson Tide didn't in a laborious 29-15 win in the SEC championship game. Had the CFP committee members applied their "eye test" to that game, they would have all gone off and gotten fitted for bifocals.

The eye test is really a misnomer. It's actually the iTest, in which committee members determine which teams to put in the playoff by playing Angry Birds. That may sound silly, but it's not unprecedented. It's a little-known fact that in 1984, the Associated Press awarded Brigham Young the championship over Washington after too sportswriters settled the dispute with a game of Yar's Revenge.

The Volunteers' four losses have been for a combined total of 17 points. In fact, they held fourth quarter leads against CFP semifinalists Oklahoma and Alabama, as well as against division winner Florida.

In 2012, the Wildcats beat Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl, after having lost their previous nine postseason appearances. Of course none of those games, including a 48-28 loss to the Vols in the 1996 Citrus Bowl, should have any bearing on this one, other than that the players no longer have to hear about their school's steak of futility.

NU had a couple of bad midseason losses to Michigan and Iowa, but they showed that their opening 16-6 upset of Stanford was no fluke, by winning a bruising 13-7 battle with Wisconsin in November.

Whereas most bowl sponsorships last only three to five years, Outback has been affiliated with the former Hall of Fame Bowl since 1995. That means this is one game in which we know there's something at steak. The tough part about watching it is tolerating the commercials, which feature the twelfth-worst Australian accent you've ever heard. "Good day, mite." The Czar is still waiting for him to explain what it is a good day might do.

The Wolverines' woeful ground game runs into the teeth of a Gator defense that yields only 3.4 yards per carry. DeVeon Smith is far and away the team's leading rusher with a modest total of 644 yards, and he hasn't gained more than 73 in any single game since returning from a foot injury in Week 6.

The Gators' O has woes of its own. Their average of 339 total yards per game ranks them #109 in the nation, just barely ahead of Army, Miami Ohio and Division I-A newcomer Charlotte.

This year's Citrus Bowl is the latest bowl game to be sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to go there to watch it. If it gets too boring, you can always start watching ultimate salami fighting on one of the other sets.

According to news reports, OSU defensive tackle Adolphus Washington has been arrested for solicitation. The College Football Czar wonders why it's such a bad thing for Washington to be practicing law. Okay, so he'll never become a non-attorney spokesperson, but it's not the end of the world.

Fighting Irish RB Josh Adams may seem obnoxious and disliked to his opponents, but only because he's got the temerity to repeatedly break big gainers on the counter play, leaving wrong-footed defenders flailing. The Buckeye ground game has the edge, however, at least since tailback Ezekiel Elliott successfully staged a coup within the coaching staff. In a 42-13 romp over rival Michigan, Elliott was given 30 carries, with which he gained 214 yards and two TDs.

This isn't just the Fiesta Bowl this year, it's the BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl. It seems like only yesterday the French decided to start fighting back against somebody, and already they've got their own version of G.I. Joe.

If you don't understand why Christian McCaffrey didn't win the Heisman, he only has eight rushing touchdowns this year to Derrick Henry's 23. Sure McCaffrey has also been a productive receiver and a great kick returner, but if the Heisman voters were going to select a running back, it was going to be somebody who scores touchdowns by running the ball.

The Hawkeyes had their full complement of running backs healthy for the Big Ten championship against Michigan State, but there was nothing complimentary to say about them after gaining only 52 yards in the 16-13 loss. If they don't sustain drives better than that against the Cardinal, they could be taken out of this game early, even if their defense manages to keep the score respectable.

Iowa let a QB with a bum shoulder engineer a nine-minute drive to beat them at the end of their last game. It remains to be seen how they hope to get past the powerful Stanford OL, and rattle ruthlessly methodical quarterback Kevin Hogan.

It's just as well for the Hawkeyes that bowl games are generally at neutral sites. They typically try to psyche out opponents with their pink visitors' locker room, which former coach and psychology scholar Hayden Fry thought would lull them into a passive state. That would backfire on a team from the Bay Area, who would simply think the room was thoughtfully decorated in order to welcome them. They might even send the Hawks a thank you Mylar balloon.

The Pokes burst their own bubble by losing their last two games of the regular season. The way they D-sintegrated in a 58-23 blowout loss to rival Oklahoma doesnâ€™t bode well for them against a Rebel team that led the SEC in total offense.

Mississippi has met OSU twice before, both of them postseason victories. At the end of the 2003 season, they beat the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, 31-28. Six years later, they met again at the Cotton Bowl, but this time in Arlington. The predictably more boring outcome was a 21-7 Reb win.

Rebel QB Chad Kelly has had a far better junior season than team legend Eli Manning did. Kelly has compiled more yardage, a higher completion percentage, and a far better TD-to-interception ration than Manning did in 2002.

The College Football Czar never knew why Cowboys would alternately be known as Pokes, until one day when he saw The Outlaws Is Coming, starring The Three Stooges. Chalk one up for educational television.

Nittany Lion fans probably didn't expect their team to face a 9-win SEC team in its bowl game, but with three Big Ten teams making it to CFP bowls, everyone else in that league has climbed two spots in the pecking order.

The Bulldogs have fired head coach Mark Richt after 15 years, during which time he compiled a record of 145-51, and never finished lower than third in the SEC East. That was probably not a smart thing to do, but hiring Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart to replace him probably was. The don't get Smart until next season, however, which means that the interim head coach for this game will be one of Richt's assistants, former UGA wide receiver Bryan McClendon.

It's a foregone conclusion that PSU quarterback Christian Hackenberg will declare for the NFL draft shortly after this game. One might be a bit puzzled as to why, other than that he looks like an NFL QB out of central casting. To his credit, the junior has taken much better care of the ball this year, but at the cost of scaling back his production.

Coach James Franklin's decision to remove the names from the Lions' jerseys has certainly backfired. Not only are the players less quickly identifiable, but now whenever they hear the Jim Croce song "I Got a Name," they get all weepy.

76-year-old Hall of Fame coach Bill Snyder says he will probably return to K-State for another season. If he were in the SEC, like his former defensive coordinator Bret Bielema, he'd have probably been fired for having never won a national championship.

Indeed, there were calls for Bielema's stubbly head midway through this season, until his team topped Ole Miss and LSU on consecutive Saturdays. If he loses to finish 7-6 for a second year in a row, he may be in trouble all the same.

There's not much of a history between these teams, with the Razorbacks winning their only recent meeting in the Cotton Bowl four years ago, and the Cats holding an overall 3-2 advantage. Nevertheless, any big game between Ar-Kansas and a team from Their-Kansas has got to get a little chippy.

Horned Frog WR Josh Doctson does not play one on TV, but he's giving himself a good diagnosis for a possible return from wrist surgery in time for this game. Doctson is still the nationâ€™s seventh leading receiver, even after missing almost three entire games due to injury.

The Fighting Ducks were 3-3 when quarterback Vernon Adams returned from a broken index finger. He has since pointed the way to six consecutive victories, including wins over both Pac 12 division winners, Stanford and USC. Texas Christian's injured QB Trevone Boykin came back for his regular season finale against Baylor, but was very tentative while throwing for 148 yards and running for just 16 more, in a 28-21 double-overtime triumph.

The horned frog has the ability to repel attackers by shooting streams of blood from its eyes. What really keeps the other critters away, though, is the fact that it won't stop talking about it.

Head coaches Todd Graham of ASU and Dana Holgorsen of WVU really dislike each other, and the Czar is confident that each of them has an extraordinarily good reason. At any rate, it ought to make for an intense game between teams that are otherwise unfamiliar with each other.

Graham's team gave ground after winning the Territorial Cup, by following their 52-37 win over rival Arizona with a second half collapse against California. The Sun Devil D got scorched for 680 yards, while watching a 24-3 lead evaporate into an eventual 48-46 defeat.

The Devils get this game on their home field, whereas it's yet another long, cross-country road trip for the Mountaineers. It's their own fault, though. If they hadn't blown a fourth-quarter lead against Kansas State in their last game, they'd probably have gone to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis instead.

Cactuses can't really bowl, you know. Sure, they may look like they have arms, but they don't use them for anything. It's almost as if they were playing defense for one of these coaches.

These teams last met in the Sugar Bowl two years ago, where OU ambushed the Crimson Tide, 45-31. The Bama offense turned the ball over five times that night, resulting in 28 points allowed.

The Tide defense has dominated its past ten games, but the only team they've faced that has an offense that can compare to the Sooners is Ole Miss, which handed Nick Saban's team its only defeat, 43-37. Every other O they've encountered has been either one-dimensional or just not very good.

The Okies have been better than OK on defense themselves. In a league that boasts three of the four most prolific offenses in the nation, they've yielded only 20.8 points per game. True, they haven't faced Heisman winner Derrick Henry yet, but neither has the team from Tuscaloosa taken on a balanced attack loaded with the likes of Baker Mayfield and Samaje Perine.

Sooner coach Bob Stoops has been vocal in his disdain for the perception of SEC supremacy. So far, he's backed it up, both in that Sugar Bowl and in this year's overtime victory at Tennessee. If these teams meet for the title and the Tide gets its revenge,expect to hear more than the usual number of lardheads cheering for their conference instead of their team.

Too bad those chants weren't in vogue when the WAC still existed in football, and had made the mistake of expanding to 16 teams, leading to the great Mountain West rebellion. The fans out there could have chanted something like, "Western Athletic Conference Pacific Division Quadrant 4!"

All right, so that's not very catchy, but it's still better than the Oklahoma fight song. Actual lyrics: "Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner" (repeat until stupid).

Your last Clemson call was wrong. Same with this one.

Watching 7-5 teams play 6-6 teams is not too exciting.

4 posted on 12/18/2015 10:10:32 PM PST by doug from upland (Some of you keep telling yourself -- Romney would have been as bad or worse.)

Just a bump for later review.

Thanks for the effort you put into these postings.

College football is becoming about as ridiculous as the ‘everyone gets a trophy’ mentality.

Literally dozens get bowl games. There are 41 bowl games this season.

Back in the day, there was the Orange, Sugar, Rose and Cotton. Then, the Sun Bowl was added. Now, the end-of-season is so saturated with bowl games that they lose significance.

BOOM!

Western Kentucky 45, South Florida 35

WKU 2015 Miami Beach Bowl champs!

7 posted on 12/21/2015 4:32:25 PM PST by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)

8 posted on 12/21/2015 4:35:06 PM PST by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)

Basketball school Duke gets it’s first bowl win since Jan 2 1961! Ike and Mamie were busy packing up the White House!

9 posted on 12/26/2015 7:14:19 PM PST by Impy (They pull a knife, you pull a gun. That's the CHICAGO WAY, and that's how you beat the rats!)

I hope the Miami players enjoyed the all that global warming in the Sun Must Be Up There Somewhere Bowl this past Saturday.. :<}

10 posted on 12/28/2015 12:34:39 PM PST by Rockpile (GOP legislators-----caviar eating surrender monkeys.)

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