Editor’s Note:  Caple the college football blogger making his grand debut now that the season is over.  Search got way too frustrating so I ended up spending my Saturdays posting college shit myself but Caple just sent this over and it’s pretty good.  Maybe even locked down a spot for next year so I don’t have to wake up at 9 AM every Saturday to watch Gameday.   And no he couldn’t even get his blog author name set up correctly which is the college football writer search in a nutshell. 

 

Ranking the Bowls from 1-35:

1. Oregon v. Kansas State (Tostitos Fiesta Bowl)

This is the game everyone really wants to see.

Don’t give me that shit about how you are a real football fan and you love watching defensive battles in the trenches. Remember last year’s National Championship game? I didn’t think so.

Outside of Indiana and Alabama (and the millions of band-wagoners who have never attended college let alone Tuscaloosa or South Bend) this is the consensus most exciting game of the bowl season. Both theses teams lost their bid to the Natty on the same weekend in November and both teams have to live with the fact that they let the SEC slip back into the title picture.

The regret alone should fuel these two teams.

Oregon is liable to drop 50 in a half on anybody with its hurry up spread offense. It’s nearly impossible to plan defensively for the Ducks. They are going to score, and score a lot, UNLESS you can control the clock. In the Ducks only loss this season, Stanford controlled the pace of the game, slowed down Oregon’s attack and took the Ducks out of their rhythm.

Kansas State relied on its defense this season in wins against Oklahoma and West Virginia but was let down against the offensive juggernaut that is Baylor (who looks a lot like Oregon on O). The Wildcats know they can score on pace with the Ducks but only to a point; if the first team to 50 points wins then it’s going to be Oregon.

2. Notre Dame v. Alabama (National Championship Game)

If you’re a college football fan you’ll enjoy this game. Sure, it involves the two most insufferable fan bases and is a lock to go under the 43-point O/U but be honest; these two teams deserve it most.

Notre Dame took a schedule that was universally accepted as the toughest schedule and won every game, plain and simple. If that isn’t the way to play into a national championship than I don’t know what is.

Alabama needed help from Kansas State and Oregon after losing to Texas A&M but otherwise capitalized on every opportunity. Judging by its comeback performance against Georgia in the SEC Championship game, the Tide looks like the best team in the country.

That being said, I’ve got this game all figured out. Notre Dame is going to win. Barely, but they will. Notre Dame can game plan for Alabama better than the Tide can for the Irish. Brian Kelly has to plan for a pretty standard offensive scheme and he can use the tape from the Bama-Georgia game this week to exploit the defense.

Nick Saban is going to have a much tougher time. Everett Golson is going to look completely different on January 7th then he did all season. The Irish basically have a spring ball season before the NCG and Kelly is going to use that time to teach Golson how to read defenses (competently) and learn his proper check downs. Golson is going to come out in the championship looking like AJ McCarron did last year and ND should have similar results.

 

3. LSU v. Clemson (Chik-Fil-A Bowl)

The battle for Death Valley, the battle for the Tiger mascot, the battle for hottest coeds; really this game has got it all.

Both Tiger teams failed to live up to the preseason hype but had seasons that 90% of FBS schools would kill for. Both only lost to top 10 teams and three of the four teams that beat these Tiger teams are playing in BCS bowls (South Carolina is certainly talented enough). Both of these teams have colors that make me think of Easter.

This game is the epitome of the college bowl season; the game doesn’t really matter and except to the fan bases and for bragging rights. Still, this game is intriguing; the winner would likely finish in the top 7 while the loser will consider its season a failure. Gotta love southern football.

4. Texas A&M v. Oklahoma (AT&T Cotton Bowl)

Last year this would have been a conference game (it was, Oklahoma won 41-25) but this year we have the matchup of the SEC #4 vs. the Big 12 #2. Johnny Manziel is going to win the Heisman and based on recent history, Heisman winners crush shit in their bowl game. Oklahoma got fucked out of a BCS bid by Northern Illinois but has inadvertantley backed into a more exciting game than the Oklahoma-Florida State game would have been.

5. Texas v. Oregon State (Valero Alamo Bowl)

Is this the fifth best bowl of the 2012 bowl season, probably not but you tell me which game is better. After the top four games the bowl slate really falls off a cliff.

This game is at least interesting because we get to see a shit Texas team take on the surprise of the Pac 12. Texas was everyone’s dark horse this year, but then we quickly found out that they still don’t have a quarterback and the defense wasn’t quite at stout as advertised. That led to an 8-4 disappointment in Austin but a loss to a Pac 12 team might drive Longhorn fans to suicide. Fingers crossed.

6. Baylor v. UCLA (Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl)

7. Mississippi State v. Northwestern (Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl)

8. Georgia v. Nebraska (Capital One Bowl)

9. South Carolina v. Michigan (Outback Bowl)

10. Wisconsin v. Stanford (Rose Bowl)

11. Louisville v. Florida (Allstate Sugar Bowl)

12. USC v. Ga Tech (Hyundai Sun Bowl)

13. Washington v. Boise State (Maaco Las Vegas Bowl)

14. NC State v. Vanderbilt (Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl)

15. Nevada v. Arizona (New Mexico Bowl)

16. BYU v. San Diego State (S.D. County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl)

17. TCU v. Michigan State (Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl)

18. Kent State v. Arkansas State (GoDaddy.com bowl)

19. Navy v. ASU (Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl)

20. Rutgers v. Va Tech (Russell Athletic Bowl)

21. West Virginia v. Syracuse (New Era Pinstripe Bowl)

22. Toledo v. Utah State (Famous Idaho Potato Bowl)

23. Fresno State v SMU (Sheraton Hawaii Bowl)

24. Cincinnati v. Duke (Belk Bowl)

25. Iowa State v. Tulsa (Autozone Liberty Bowl)

26. Purdue v. Oklahoma State (Heart of Dallas Bowl)

27. ECU v. La. Lafayette (R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl)

28. UCF v. Ball State (Beef O Brady Bowl)

29. SJSU v. Bowling Green (Military Bowl)

30. Ohio v. UL Monroe (AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl)

31. NIU v. FSU (Discover Orange Bowl)

Fuck NIU for making it to a BCS game. This is what is wrong with college football. Oklahoma was bounced from BCS contention because of NIU but I guarantee the Sooners beat the shit out of the Huskies 100 times out of 100. NIU lost to Iowa, the worst team in the Big Ten. The only positive to this game is the ridiculous point spread, it’s as low as 7 points in some places. Too easy

32. Minnesota v. Texas Tech (Bowl of Texas)

The only reason to tune into this game is to see if the Minnesota coach has another seizure. That is must see TV.

33. WKU v. Central Mich. (Little Caesars Bowl)

Every year it seems like we have one game between directional schools from states no one cares about that just appears out of nowhere. Gun to your head you couldn’t name both of these mascots unless you or a sibling went there. This game is worse than bad, it’s irrelevant.

34. Pitt v. Ole Miss (BBVA Compass Bowl)

Whenever you can watch the no. 5 team from a shit Big East play the no. 9 team in the top heavy SEC you gotta do it.

Part of being a good college football fan is acting interested in the shitty early bowl games while patiently waiting for the real games to start on New Years day. This fucking game decided it was worthy of a January 5th play date! Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t watch this game in October let alone January.

35. Rice v. Air Force

Rice football makes me hate organized sports. I don’t even have a good reason for hating them, besides their terrible uniforms, terrible mascots, terrible stadium, terrible fans, terrible athletes and terrible name. Rice had to win its final four games to scrape out a 6-6 record and become bowl eligible. Really!! This team doesn’t deserve to play in the shitty Conference USA, let alone a bowl game.

I’ve got nothing bad to say about Chair Force in general but I’m thinking about starting a petition to make service academies stop playing football. It’s time…