Bowl Game Bonanza: Tuesday, December 30th

Posted by Double M




This post is part of a series of posts entitled Bowl Game Bonanza Did you know that there are a bazillion bowl games? Well there are. And here at IR I am going to give you a quick breakdown of each game so that you know who is playing in the bowl, what channel and time the game is on (all times CST), and why you would or wouldn't want to watch the game.

Today features a bowl no one wants to attend, a bowl between teams no one cares about, and a really good bowl game featuring your first look at Erin Andrews during the bowl season. What will she be wearing? Is she hooking up with one of the players she is covering? What kind of underwear is she wearing? Maybe its a thong? Maybe its something cool I don't even know about yet... Will she get felt up by one of the coaches during the halftime interview?

What are we here for? Oh yeah...

On to the bonanza:

Humanitarian Bowl: Nevada (-2) vs. Maryland (ESPN, 3:30pm)
Location: Boise, ID, Bronco Stadium
Announcers: Bob Wischusen, Brock Huard
The word on the streets is that ticket sales for this game are abysmal. Like in the dozens (that post says Maryland has sold 16 and Nevada has sold 8). It should be said that the referenced post is a couple weeks old and is probably massively understating sales, but its not all that surprising considering bowl is in Boise, Idaho. Who wants to go to Boise? Not me.

Verdict: Maryland is 1-4 on the road. They were awful away from home. Plus they will be on the crazy blue turf (that most Nevada players have played on before because they play in the same conference as Boise). Nevada wins and covers.
Regretometer: It should tell you something if the teams' fans don't want to watch the teams play. The humor of watching an empty stadium on blue turf prevents this from getting the full 5. Instead, it's a 4.5 on the Regretometer.

Texas Bowl: Western Michigan (+2) vs. Rice (NFL Network, 7pm)
Location: Houston, TX, Reliant Stadium
Announcers: Fran Charles, Tom Waddle, Kara Henderson

I enjoy the fact that Texas gets its own bowl. I'm fairly certain that the city of Houston is the official sponsor for this bowl which makes me laugh. I don't know why. Probably because it seems ridiculous. Anyway, this game is on NFL Network opposite of a great bowl game, so about 0.00000001% of the nation will actually watch it.

Verdict: Really? Well, Nebraska beat Western Michigan earlier in the year, so I'll say they cover (and win outright!) to make Nebraska's win look better.
Regretometer: There's a better bowl game on at the same time. I promise. It's a full 5 on the regretometer.

Holiday Bowl: Oregon (+3) vs. Oklahoma State (ESPN, 7pm)
Location: San Diego, CA, Qualcomm Stadium
Announcers: Chris Fowler, Jesse Palmer, Craig James, Erin Andrews

ESPN is bringing out the all-looker crew with Chris Fowler, former Bachelor contestant Jesse Palmer, and Erin Andrews (see above) and also Craig James. This should be an interesting game to watch: is Oklahoma State a good team playing in a tough division of a tough conference or is this the first of many Big 12 teams getting exposed? Oregon is a tough team that played well in the second half of the season (excluding one game against Cal). Either way, both offenses should score a lot which is always a good time.

Verdict: I think Oklahoma State, while not an elite team, is still pretty good and should take care of business, covering the spread.
Regretometer: 2 decent teams, Erin Andrews, lost of scoring = a 1.5 on the regretometer.

Look for Bowl Game Bonanzas everyday there's a bowl game.

All announcer information brought to you courtesy of Awful Announcing.