Bowl Consensus by Internet Pundits

[Redmac83]

I looked at foxsports.com/CFN, ESPN, CNNSi, and CBS Sportsline to try and put together a list of where the "experts" generally think teams are going. It starts getting murky once you get into some of the smaller bowls, but here goes.

Orange Bowl: USC vs. Oklahoma

Sugar Bowl: Auburn vs. Miami

Fiesta Bowl: BC vs. Utah

Rose Bowl: Michigan vs. Cal

Capital One Bowl: Iowa vs. Tennessee

Gator Bowl: Florida State vs. West Virginia

Cotton Bowl: Texas vs. LSU

Outback Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Georgia

Peach Bowl: Florida vs. Virginia Tech

Liberty Bowl: Louisville vs. Boise State

Sun Bowl: Oregon State vs. Purdue

Music City Bowl: Alabama vs. Northwestern

Silicon Valley Football Classic: Fresno State vs. NIU

Holiday Bowl: Arizona State vs. Texas A&M

Emerald Bowl: Navy vs. Wyoming

Tire Bowl: UConn vs. North Carolina

Alamo Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oklahoma State

Houston Bowl: Texas Tech vs. Pittsburgh

Insight Bowl: UCLA vs. Notre Dame

Independence Bowl: Iowa State vs. Toledo

Motor City Bowl: Miami U. vs. Minnesota

MPC Computers Bowl: Troy State vs. Marshall? Southern Miss? (most pundits think TCU will go to Fort Worth, so all C-USA slots would be filled if Southern Miss became eligible, shipping them elsewhere. I don't know that Southern Miss will become eligible anyways...they won't beat California, and UAB is no gimme either. MAC teams are being spread all over, and Marshall is more appealing than Akron probably.)

Hawaii Bowl: UTEP vs. Cincinnati (people were kind of split between UAB and Cincinnati, but it would make more geographic sense for UAB to play North Texas in New Orleans and be somewhat close to a bowl. Cincinnati isn't really close to either bowl)

Las Vegas Bowl: New Mexico vs. Georgia Tech.

Fort Worth Bowl: TCU vs. Colorado

GMAC Bowl: Bowling Green vs. Memphis

Champs Sports Bowl: Virginia vs. Nebraska

New Orleans Bowl: North Texas vs. UAB

[79 Bull]

Would Cincinnati be invited back to Hawaii no matter who they played?  They weren't very nice visitors last time, right?

The best that could happen to the Bulls would be to play Virginia in Orlando.  We would send a ton of fans and it would be a big boost to play an ACC school nearby.

[Jim Johnson]

Thanks for posting the "consensus" ... it's interesting.  Some Bowls have already made their picks... The Outback has picked Wisconsin, for example.

Silicon Valley Football Classic: Fresno State vs. NIU

MPC Computers Bowl: Troy State vs. Marshall? Southern Miss? (most pundits think TCU will go to Fort Worth, so all C-USA slots would be filled if Southern Miss became eligible, shipping them elsewhere. I don't know that Southern Miss will become eligible anyways...they won't beat California, and UAB is no gimme either. MAC teams are being spread all over, and Marshall is more appealing than Akron probably.)

Hawaii Bowl: UTEP vs. Cincinnati (people were kind of split between UAB and Cincinnati, but it would make more geographic sense for UAB to play North Texas in New Orleans and be somewhat close to a bowl. Cincinnati isn't really close to either bowl)

The three bowls above are all WAC bowls.  I don't know if UTEP would rather play in Hawaii or Boise -- they both have the same payouts... but you have to think that travel to Boise is cheaper... and it could be a fun road trip for the students.  I would think MPC (which I thought gets the WAC #1 choice) would get either Fresno or UTEP... with Troy or Marshall going to Hawaii.

JMHO.

[Redmac83]

79 Bull: I don't think the Hawaii Bowl ought to hold a grudge on inviting Cincinnati back, especially if u believe that Hawaii won't be bowl eligible anyways (they're at home, yes, but their last two games are vs. Northwestern and Michigan State)

JimUSFSig: That could be. It just looked like the matchups for the MPC Comp. Bowl had 87 different possibilities.

In the 7 predictions I saw the matchups there were...

UTEP vs. Akron

Cincinnati vs. Troy

Pittsburgh vs. Troy

Cincinnati vs. Marshall

UTEP vs. Georgia Tech

UTEP vs. Georgia Tech

Toledo vs. Georgia Tech

with a roughly equal number slotting UTEP for Hawaii

so UTEP vs. GA Tech seems kinda popular as well

[The Sheriff]

Nice to see you back on the board Redmac... Did you goto the Cinci game the other day?

[BullOnly]

How many bowl eligible teams are there going to be?  Especially with Clemson and South Carolina bowing out.

There's like 5 or 6 MAC teams on that list - I don't see that many MAC schools making it to bowl games.  I think they've only got 1 tie in with the Motor City.

[bulls96go]

why did clemson and usc bow out of bowls?

[Bobcat99]

The MAC has two official tie-ins, and has the most eligible teams of any non-BCS conference. The fact that several conferences did not have enough teams eligible to meet their tie-ins and the Clemson/USC situation means the MAC will probably have  5 or 6...

[USFJDawg21]

why did clemson and usc bow out of bowls?

Punishment for their brawl on last saturdays game

[Redmac83]

The MAC is lucking out this year...odds are if you're eligible this year, you'll not be left out...you can count on one hand (or less) the number of 6-5 teams this year that won't go somewhere.