Bowl Picks: Tis The Season For Believin'

It's always cool to look at video games and see how exact-on they are when simulated for a particular matchup. When EA Sports came out with NCAA Football 07, they simulated the whole 06-07 season. The funny thing to me, or maybe I just don't understand the college bowl system, is in EA's simulation they included simulating 29 bowl games but the actual number of bowls being played are 32. I guess the NCAA wanted to squeeze in six extra teams? I don't know. I don't know how it works, but I do know that I'm beginning to have a high dislike for the sponsors' names incorporated into the bowl name now. I mean why can't the Tostitos BCS Championship Game just be called the Championship Game. I remember when the Championship Game rotated between the Sugar Bowl, the Rose Bowl, and the Orange Bowl, and it was called just that. I mean it's even more ridiculous today than it was five years ago. I get it - Bowls = money. More Bowls = More Money. But anyways, I'm off subject.

Looking at EA's simulation, if I counted correctly, 21 teams that actually made it to a bowl didn't in EA's sim. And they didn't predict Rice vs Troy in the New Orleans Bowl did they? Neither of those two teams made it in EA's simulation (but I'm sure if EA added three more bowl games in their product that one of those teams would make it as would have Kentucky, hmm?). Ahh, but anyways, it's fun to look at.

They did get some thing's right though, or half right however you want to look at it. Forty-three teams that made it among the actual 32 bowls made it among EA's simulated 29 bowls.

· TCU in the Poinsetta Bow. Check.
· Clemson in the Music City Bowl. Check.
· Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A (Eat Mor Chik-N) Bowl (They have nice fruit bowls if they still have them, btw). Check.
· Florida in the BCS Championship Game. Check.

Not so right …
· Rice and Troy.
· Ohio St. in the Sugar Bowl. Not really.
· And facing Miami. Not exactly.
· Auburn facing Clemson in the Music City Bowl. Not exactly either. However, I guess if you're going to pick an SEC team to win the Music City Bowl, you'd simulate having the only SEC team to win that Bowl to beat Clemson.

Notice the Individual Awards they simulated also.
· Heisman went to Chris Leak. Far from reality.
· The Bednarik Award went to Kentucky's #55 which has to be freshman Brad Bardo. Huh?

So it's all fun and games when looking back at one of the world's best sports game to see how it simulated the season before it began which is the reason why I like to play if one of my favorite teams can't win it all, I'll do it myself, thank you. Ha.

On top of all this fun, aside from the building excitement of the Music City Bowl in a couple weeks, is ESPN's Master sports guru Howie Schwab, you know the expert potato-eating maniac who loves to tell us which games we should watch, is back to challenge whoever wants to take him on predicting the winner of every bowl game this season. So I'm up for the challenge and here are my picks vs the Schwab. Personally, I would have taken the challenge to rename every single bowl game so that the bowl games wouldn't even be identifiable any longer. But here are my picks, and yes, I'm already picking Kentucky, what else would you expect out of me, huh?

Kentucky in NCAA Football 07



Poinsettia Bowl
TCU vs Northern Illinois

My Pick: TCU
SCHWAB: TCU

Las Vegas Bowl
BYU vs Oregon

My Pick: Oregon
SCHWAB: BYU

New Orleans Bowl
Rice vs Troy

My Pick: Rice
SCHWAB: Troy

Papa John.com Bowl
South FL vs E.Carolina

My Pick: E. Carolina
SCHWAB: South Florida

New Mexico Bowl
New Mexico vs San Jose St.

My Pick: New Mexico
SCHWAB: New Mexico

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
Tulsa vs Utah

My Pick: Tulsa
SCHWAB: Utah

Hawaii Bowl
Arizona St. vs Hawaii

My Pick: Hawaii
SCHWAB: Hawaii

Motor City Bowl
Middle Tenn vs Central Mich

My Pick: Central Mich
SCHWAB: Central Mich

Emerald Bowl
FSU vs UCLA

My Pick: UCLA
SCHWAB: FSU

Independence Bowl
Oklahoma St. vs Alabama

My Pick: Alabama
SCHWAB: Oklahoma St

Holiday Bowl
California vs Texas A&M

My Pick: Texas A&M
SCHWAB: Cal

Texas Bowl
Rutgers vs Kansas St.

My Pick: Rutgers
SCHWAB: Rutgers

Music City Bowl
Clemson vs Kentucky

My Pick: Kentucky
SCHWAB: Kentucky

Sun Bowl
Oregon St. vs Missouri

My Pick: Missouri
SCHWAB: Oregon St.

Liberty Bowl
Houston vs South Carolina

My Pick: Houston
SCHWAB: South Carolina

Insight Bowl
Texas Tech vs Minnesota

My Pick: Minnesota
SCHWAB: Texas Tech

Champs Sports Bowl
Purdue vs Maryland

My Pick: Purdue
SCHWAB: Purdue

Meineke Car Care Bowl
Navy vs BC

My Pick: BC
SCHWAB: Navy

Alamo Bowl
Texas vs Iowa

My Pick: Iowa
SCHWAB: Texas

Chik-fil-A Bowl
Georgia vs Virginia Tech

My Pick: Georgia
SCHWAB: Virginia Tech

Computer Bowl
Miami vs Nevada

My Pick: Miami
SCHWAB: Miami

Outback Bowl
Tennessee vs Penn St.

My Pick: Penn St.
SCHWAB: Tennessee

Cotton Bowl
Auburn vs Nebraska

My Pick: Auburn
SCHWAB: Auburn

Gator Bowl
West Virginia vs Georgia Tech

My Pick: West Virginia
SCHWAB: West Virginia

Capital One Bowl
Arkansas vs Wisconsin

My Pick: Arkansas
SCHWAB: Wisconsin

Rose Bowl
USC vs Michigan

My Pick: Michigan
SCHWAB: USC

Fiesta Bowl
Boise St. vs Oklahoma

My Pick: Boise St.
SCHWAB: Oklahoma

Orange Bowl
L'ville vs Wake Forest

My Pick: L'ville
SCHWAB: Wake Forest

Sugar Bowl
Notre Dame vs LSU

My Pick: Notre Dame
SCHWAB: LSU

International Bowl
Cincinnati vs Western Michigan

My Pick: Western Michigan
SCHWAB: Cincinnati

GMAC Bowl
Ohio vs Southern Miss

My Pick: Southern Miss
SCHWAB: Southern Miss

BCS Championship Game
Florida vs Ohio St.

My Pick: Ohio St.
SCHWAB: Ohio St.

He and I only agree on 12 of the 32 games. This should be interesting.