Tuesday Bowls

[Smitty]

happy 2013 to all madjackers. may it be a profitable year. :toast:

is it just me, or is this a terrible collection of new years day bowl games?

lately i've been getting killed on new years day, so i'm changing things up this year. sadly, very sadly, that means i'm playing a lot of big 10 today. i'm fucked. :scared

the heart of dallas bowl

purdue (+17) 1 unit. first off, i'll say that ok st should absolutely blow this team out. in fact, they probably will. for 4 weeks, i've been planning on playing ok st. but, as i said, i'm changing things up.**

here's the only arguments i can come up with for purdue:

ok st was 1-4 away from home this year, with the only win over kansas.

purdue should be a lot happier about being in this game than ok st is.

purdue picked off 14 passes this season. ok st qbs combined to throw 16 INTs.


** yes, i know this guarantees ok st blows 'em out.

 

[Smitty]

Gator Bowl

Gator Bowl

mississippi st (-1) 2 units. i am putting my trust in dan mullen to get this team ready for this game after a tough finish to the season. the bulldogs are 2-0 under mullen in bowl games. on the other side, northwestern's bowl history is well known. they have gone to a bowl game the last 4 years, and come up short in every one. i expect mississippi st to look like an sec team and stop northwestern's running game.

i think there is a lot more pressure on northwestern in this game, as they really, really want to get a bowl win.

 

[Smitty]

Outback Bowl

Outback Bowl

michigan (+5) 2 units. i can't make one single argument for michigan competing with south carolina. we saw what happened when the wolverines faced an sec defense the first game of the year, and it wasn't pretty. but this line is crazy. it's BEGGING for south carolina money.

about the only things in michigan's favor is 1) under hoke, they actually play defense again and 2) robinson is playing a lot less qb. gardner isn't great, but he gives them a much better chance of hanging onto the ball and driving the field.

so while everything i know about football screams that south carolina should manhandle michigan, i gotta play the wolverines today.

 

[Smitty]

Capital One Bowl

Capital One Bowl

nebraska (+8.5) 1 unit. here we go again. how the hell do i play a team that turned in an absolutely gutless performance in the big 10 championship game? i am counting on two things:

1) georgia hasn't gotten over falling 5 yards short of playing for the national championship.

2) pelini 'rallies the troops' and has this team ready to play it's best game of the season.

it is easier for kids to bounce back from a blowout loss than it is to recover from a close loss in a huge game.

 

[Smitty]

Rose Bowl

Rose Bowl

wisconsin (+5) 2 units. this is the only big 10 team i actually like today. the switch to alvarez may help. the badgers are 3-0 in the rose bowl with alvarez and 0-2 under bielema. all of the badgers' losses this year were by 3 points and/or in OT.

 

[Smitty]

Orange Bowl

Orange Bowl

fsu (-13.5) 1 unit. i've gone back and forth on this game. on one hand, NI may not have a single player who would start at FSU. hell, a lot of their starters wouldn't even be second team at FSU. but FSU has been terrible ATS this year (3-9). and i don't know if there's any reason to believe they will take this game all that seriously. what it comes down to for me is the fact that florida state will physically dominate northern illinois. in the bcs games with teams from non-bcs conferences, the non-bcs teams that could match up physically (boise, tcu, utah) did very well. the one team i can think of that didn't match up physically (hawaii) was crushed.