Midweek Musings: Ranking the Bowls

1. BCS National Championship: #1 Notre Dame vs. #2 Alabama

Note: The Irish and the Tide are two teams people all across the country love to hate, and this promises to be a fantastic game. I’ll be pulling for the Irish personally, simply because I want the SEC’s reign of title dominance to come to an end

2. AT&T Cotton Bowl: #9 Texas A&M vs. #11 Oklahoma

Note: A good old former Big 12 matchup promises to be very, very high octane. This game also means that Oklahoma will have faced all three Heisman finalists this season. Can they finally get a win against one?

3. Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: #4 Oregon vs. #5 Kansas State

Note: Duck and EMAW nation alike were hoping this matchup would provide the nation with a national champion, but alas, that won’t be the case.

4. Chick-Fil-A Bowl: #8 LSU vs. #14 Clemson

Note: Really, really good, efficient offense from one Tiger team. One really, really good defense from the other Tiger team. Go…..Tigers.

5. The Rose Bowl Game Presented by Vizio: #6 Stanford vs. Wisconsin

Note: A lot of people are down on this game because Wisconsin is unranked, and now the’ve lost their coach. However, you can’t deny that they can turn it on, when they want. This is the ultimate run offense vs. run defense. Gonna be a battle.

6. Capital One Bowl: #7 Georgia vs. #16 Nebraska

Notes: Two teams that lost in their conference championship game, one on a last second blown play (why didn’t Georgia spike it? WHY?) and one that forgot to show up (I thought Taylor Martinez was going to die that night).

7. Allstate Sugar Bowl: #3 Florida vs. #21 Louisville

Notes: I think this game has the potential to be closer than most think, depending on which Louisville team shows up. They should play some inspired football too, after the news of Charlie Strong signing an extension.

8. Discover Orange Bowl: #12 Florida State vs. #15 Northern Illinois

Note: Everyone is ranting and raging on Northern Illinois when they should be thanking God that the system that caused this will be gone after next season. I fully expect the Huskies to make this a game, because FSU tends to play down to the competition.

9. Outback Bowl: #10 South Carolina vs. #18 Michigan

Note: JaDaveon Clowney vs. a fully healthy (hopefully) Denard Robinson. Oooh boy.

10. Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl: #17 UCLA vs. Baylor

Note: UCLA showed up against Stanford in the PAC 12 Championship game, falling just short. They'll need to figure out how to contain this explosive Baylor offense that seems to have gotten back on track.

11. Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl: #20 Northwestern vs. Mississippi State

12. Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl: N.C. State vs. Vanderbilt

13. Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl: TCU vs. Michigan State

14. Valero Alamo Bowl: #13 Oregon State vs. #23 Texas

15. GoDaddy.com Bowl: #25 Kent State vs. Arkansas State

16. New Era Pinstripe Bowl: West Virginia vs. Syracuse

17. Hyundai Sun bowl: USC vs. Georgia Tech

18. MAACO Bowl Las Vegas: #19 Boise State vs. Washington

19. Russell Athletic Bowl: Rutgers vs. Virginia Tech

20. Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Texas Tech vs. Minnesota

21. Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl: Arizona State vs. Navy

22. AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Tulsa vs. Iowa State

23. BBVA Compass Bowl: Pittsburgh vs. Ole Miss

24. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: #22 Utah State vs. Toledo

25. Gildan New Mexico Bowl: Arizona vs. Nevada

26. Heart of Dallas Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Purdue

27. Belk Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Duke

28. Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl: Ball "So Hard" State vs. Central Florida

29. R + L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Louisiana Lafayette vs. East Carolina

30. San Diego county Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl: San Diego State vs. BYU

31. Military Bowl: San Jose State vs. Bowling Green

32. Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl: Rice vs. Air Force

33. AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl: Ohio vs. Louisiana Monroe

34. Sheraton Hawaii Bowl: SMU vs. Fresno State

35. Little Caesars Bowl: Western Kentucky vs. Central Michigan