Interesting Things To Watch For In the 2019 Bowl Season
The spirits of September have given way to the drama of December and while four teams are still reaching for the stars, others are either disappointed to be shoved off to places like Orlando or are happy just to have another game to play.
The bowl season is here. It’s college football’s version of the NFL Playoffs, in which teams with .500 records – or worse – get to keep living the dream.
The The Pigskin Prognosticator is making the unprecedented move of moving on from the College Football Playoff predictions to doing the seemingly impossible: evaluating the bowl games. This is answering the questions everyone asks while asking a few of my own.
So let’s get to it.
The Bowl Games
Liberty looks to cure its coach – who coached a game from a hospital bed – in the Cure Bowl.
Marshall and UCF hope to be the “last of the Buccaneers” in Tampa’s Gasparilla Bowl, home to the Gasparilla Pirate Festival on Jan. 25. Too bad they can’t hang around for the real party.
Pitt and Eastern Michigan look to take the quick lane out of Detroit – if there is one; have you ever driven on the city’s interstates with all those orange construction barrels!? – for the Quick Lane Bowl. I mean who wants to be in Detroit the day after Christmas?
Washington State and Air Force have put up pretty cheezy records to get into the Cheez-It Bowl in Phoenix and while San Diego is a holiday, USC fans are not exactly making vacation plans to go to the Holiday Bowl against Iowa.
Either Arizona State of Florida State will be feeling “greeeat!,” after the Tony The Tiger Bowl in El Paso. The Pigskin Prognosticator does not believe it will be the Spears.
Illinois and Cal play in the Redbox Bowl in the San Francisco 49ers stadium which is not really near San Francisco and if you think that’s confusing, this game has also been the San Francisco Bowl, the Emerald Bowl, the Fight Hunger Bowl and the Foster Farms Bowl.
The Lending Tree Bowl (Louisiana vs. Miami, Ohio on Jan. 6) is more like the Dollar Tree Bowl, lending college football time the night before the National Championship game.
Just get me to the Bahamas Bowl. I won’t go to the game (it’s Charlotte vs. Buffalo) but I’ll have a good time.
Bowl Game Questions Nobody Can Answer But Are Fun To Ask
Why do the armed forces teams not play in the Armed Forces Bowl? Or at least in the Military Bowl?
Why is the Outback Bowl in Tampa and not, well, in the Australian Outback?
Will UAB and Appalachian State treat the New Orleans Bowl as a “business trip?” Hopefully not; they are in New Orleans for cryin’ out loud!
Which directional team will be the first to respond in the First Responder Bowl, Western Michigan or Western Kentucky?
With Alabama against Michigan – and Nick Saban vs. Jim Harbaugh – the Citrus Bowl looks juicy but it’s at 1 p.m., which is 10 a.m, here on the West Coast. The day after New Year’s Eve! Will the Pigskin Prognostictaor care? Will Bama fans care, playing in a meaningless game after all those years of meaningful bowl games? More importantly, will the Alabama players care?
And finally, whatever happened to the Poulin Weedeater Bowl? Actually, The Pigskin Prognosticator has the answer to this one: it’s now the Independence Bowl, still in Shreveport, home of the Louisiana Hayride.
Happy Holidays everyone and good luck with your bowl pools.
Until next season.
— The Pigskin Prognosticator
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