One of the under reported stories every year in major college football is the amount of free crap football players get when they go to a bowl game. Some is useless. For instance, we got a free watch from the SEC and a free pin for covering the 2004 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament. Frankly, the catered Georgia Dome food, free bags of Golden Flake and Dr. Pepper out the wazzou was better than what the conference gave sportswriters.
The following is what SEC teams will be getting this year.
Music City Bowl
Kentucky: RCA high-def camcorder, Fossil watch, Majestic fleece pullover, New Era cap, Ogio Metro laptop pack
Independence Bowl
Georgia: Sony gift suite, Timely Watch Co. watch, New Era cap, football
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Tennessee: $250 Best Buy gift card, Fossil watch, Russell Athletic knit cap, Russell Athletic travel bag, football, Chick-fil-A gift card
Outback Bowl
Auburn: Best Buy gift card, Pro-Swiss watch, Jostens ring, hat, Outback Steakhouse gift card
Capital One Bowl
LSU: Party at Best Buy ($420 limit), Timely Watch Co. watch
Sugar Bowl
Florida: Sony, Apple, Trek, Garmin and Weber gift suite, Timely Watch Co. watch, New Era cap, Ogio Politan laptop pack, Lane recliner
Papajohns.com Bowl
South Carolina: RCA high-def mini-camcorder, Oakley Surf Pack backpack
Cotton Bowl
Ole Miss: Unknown
Liberty Bowl
Arkansas: Westinghouse 19-inch LCD HDTV/computer monitor, Fossil watch, Nike training shoes/sport sandals/sunglasses, football
BCS National Championship Game
Alabama: Sony gift suite with Trek and Garmin, Fossil watch, New Era 59Fifty cap, Ogio Politan laptop pack
Alabama won its first Southeastern Conference championship in a decade during the first week of December, and is the odds-on favorite to beat Texas (for the first time) and win the program’s 13th national championship. Like we did for the outset of the season, each week leading up to the game we’ll recap the best of the Crimson Tide, captured so ably by the University of Alabama athletics department’s creative media department.
An eye to the past, looking toward the future
Virginia Tech
Florida International
Arkansas
There are 34 bowl games this year, and we’re picking every damn one of them (probably with 60-70 percent success). You can follow the progress or join up and do battle with us through ESPN College Bowl Mania. We’re in “The League” and “The War Against Tebow.” TWAT (jokes!) is the brainchild of decamped S.C. blogger and good time Johnny, Micah Snead, so go there. But beware — Snead’s dad is a total ringer and will probably take the title by 20 points.
Dec. 19, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
Fresno State v. Wyoming
Dec. 19, 8 p.m., ESPN
Central Florida v. Rutgers
Dec. 20, 8:30 a.m., ESPN
Southern Miss v. Middle Tennessee State
Dec. 22, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 18 Oregon State v. No. 14 BYU
Dec. 23, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 23 Utah v. California
Dec. 24, 8 p.m., ESPN
Nevada v. Southern Methodist
Dec. 26, 1 p.m., ESPN
Marshall v. Ohio
Dec. 26, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
No. 17 Pitt v. North Carolina
Dec. 26, 8 p.m., ESPN
Boston College v. No. 24 Southern Cal
Dec. 27, 8:30 p.m., ESPN
Kentucky v. Clemson
Dec. 28, 5 p.m., ESPN2
Texas A&M v. Georgia
Dec. 29, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
UCLA v. Temple
Dec. 29, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 15 Miami v. No. 25 Wisconsin
Dec. 30, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
Bowling Green v. Idaho
Dec. 30, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 20 Arizona v. No. 22 Nebraska
Dec. 31, Noon, ESPN
Houston v. Air Force
Dec. 31, 2 p.m., CBS
Oklahoma v. No. 21 Stanford
Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m., ESPN
Navy v. Missouri
Dec. 31, 6 p.m., NFL Network
Minnesota v. Iowa State
Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
No. 11 Virginia Tech v. Tennessee
Jan. 1, 11 a.m., ESPN
Northwestern v. Auburn
Jan. 1, 1 p.m., CBS
No. 16 West Virginia v. Florida State
Jan. 1, 1 p.m., ESPN
No. 13 Penn State v. No. 12 LSU
Jan. 1, 4:30 p.m., ABC
No. 8 Ohio State v. No. 7 Oregon
Jan. 1, 8:30 p.m., Fox
No. 5 Florida v. No. 3 Cincinnati
Jan. 2, Noon, ESPN2
South Florida v. Northern Illinois
Jan. 2, 2 p.m., ESPN
South Carolina v. Connecticut
Jan. 2, 2 p.m., Fox
No. 19 Oklahoma State v. Ole Miss
Jan. 2, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Arkansas v. East Carolina
Jan. 2, 9 p.m., ESPN
Michigan State v. Texas Tech
Jan. 4, 8 p.m., Fox
No. 6 Boise State v. No. 4 TCU
Jan. 5, 8 p.m., Fox
No. 10 Iowa v. No. 9 Georgia Tech
Jan. 6, 7 p.m., Fox
No. 25 Central Michigan v. Troy
Jan. 7, 8 p.m., ABC
No. 2 Texas v. No. 1 Alabama
Here we go. With the conference championship games over, and only Army-Navy left on Dec. 12, bowl bids are going out hot and heavy. There are some things that were expected, some surprises and — oh man — Clemson totally got jobbed.
BCS National Championship Game
No. 1 Alabama v. No. 2 Texas
Sugar Bowl
No. 5 Florida v. No. 3 Cincinnati
Capital One Bowl
No. 12 LSU v. No. 13 Penn State
Cotton Bowl
Ole Miss v. No. 19 Oklahoma State
Outback Bowl
Auburn v. Northwestern
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Tennessee v. No. 11 Virginia Tech
Music City Bowl
Kentucky v. Clemson
Liberty Bowl
Arkansas v. East Carolina
Independence Bowl
Georgia v. Texas A&M
Papajohns.com Bowl
South Carolina v. Connecticut
Definitely some interesting matchups — Georgia and Texas A&M are a couple big name teams for a small bowl, so that should be good. In other bowls, the Gator Bowl gave a big, wet, sloppy kiss to Bobby Bowden by inviting Florida State and West Virginia. Travesty. Though it was technically OK, Miami and Boston College were higher up in the selection order in the ACC. Southern Cal, the over-hyped 8-4 team, is going to play the Eagles in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.
Ooh! There are other BCS games?
Fiesta Bowl
No. 6 Boise State v. No. 4 TCU
Rose Bowl
No. 7 Oregon v. No. 8 Ohio State
Orange Bowl
No. 9 Georgia Tech v. No. 10 Iowa
It won’t all become final until after the SEC Championship Game on Saturday, but with Florida and Alabama locking down the BCS National Championship Game and the Sugar Bowl, everything else is good to go. There’s a glut of teams choking the middle of the standings in the conference, so it was really a crapshoot as to who went where.
Carolina might have upset Clemson to post its seventh win, but that doesn’t appear to have changed much in the bowl perspective from two weeks ago. And why’s that? The upper-level bowls wanted to take another date to the dance.
Guess which team comes out smelling like a rose? That’s right, your favorite and mine, the cheap-trick, dirty-playing team from the worst place in the lower half of Alabama not named Montgomery. Auburn got the invite to the Outback Bowl, which means the Tigers get to have fun in the seedier areas of Ybor City while trying to figure out how to beat Wisconsin. Of course, the joke’s on the Aubies, with the godawful early start of 11 a.m.
LSU, with the third-best record, got its expected trip to Orlando for the Capital One Bowl. Depending on which team is picked for an at-large bid in a BCS bowl, LSU will play either Penn State or Iowa.
The first part of the dam to break was the news given to ESPN that Ole Miss is going to the Cotton Bowl for the second straight year. What’s different for the Rebels this time, and their batshit crazy head coach, is the game will be played at Cowboys Stadium instead of the aging monument to football at the Texas state fairgrounds. Just imagine Houston Nutt, on the biggest high-definition screen anywhere, looking over JerryWorld like a Southern-fried Big Brother. Word is that Ole Miss will be facing Oklahoma State.
Hm. Who do we dislike more? It all comes down to fan bases — mountain rednecks from East Tennessee versus the biggest group of bandwagon fans in college football. You know it — it’s Tennessee v. Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Imagine the weird thoughts going through Tech. It began the season in the Georgia Dome against an SEC team, and it will end the season that way. Of course, Tennessee isn’t Alabama, so we’d imagine the Hokies would be favored.
Carolina fans were crossing fingers and praying hard for the Gamecocks to get the invitation to the Music City Bowl (what a bunch of Gaylords). But — a-ha! — foiled again by Kentucky. The gentlemen who run the bowl want to bring the Wildcats to Nashville, so that’s how it goes. It’s expected that either North Carolina or Miami will be the ACC representative in the game.
Ooh, not looking good. Next up, the Liberty Bowl, which shocked no one by taking Arkansas. It takes, ah, only a walk over the bridge to get from the Natural State to Memphis, so Razorback fans will be filling the stadium. If Houston beats East Carolina in the Conference-USA Championship Game, the bowl will be a throwback to the old Southwest Conference days.
Shreveport goes to Georgia, a quite unfortunate end to the season for the Bulldogs. Let’s face it — no team wants to go to the Independence Bowl. The only reason we saw Carolina play Missouri there a few years ago was because it was on the way to Dallas, where Alabama was taking on Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl. Oh, Gamecocks. That means y’all are in…
…the Papajohns.com Bowl. Yessir, that’s my antiquated monument to Southern football! Welcome back to Birmingham, Carolina. We missed you. It’s been 30 years since you last played at Legion Field, losing to Missouri in the Hall of Fame Classic. If you recall, there used to be an upper deck over the west stands. Structural integrity can be a fickle mistress, and it was taken down several years ago. So, enjoy playing a mediocre Big East team in the cold, try not to get shot in one of the worst neighborhoods in town and for Heaven’s sake, make a trip to Milo’s. You’ll thanks us later for that last one.
This past week was considered a boring one at the outset, but a few games created new story lines and teams that will be slotted into the SEC bowl tie-ins got a little of a shake. With Tennessee’s win, the conference now has 10 bowl eligible teams, and barring a strange turn, will be sending each of them to a bowl. Sorry, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt — your sub-.500 status locks in your teams as teh suxx0rs.
BCS National Championship Game
Alabama or Florida v. Texas
Sugar Bowl
Alabama or Florida v. Cincinnati
Capital One Bowl
Ole Miss v. Penn State
Outback Bowl
Tennessee v. Wisconsin
Cotton Bowl
LSU v. Nebraska
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Georgia v. Virginia Tech
Music City Bowl
Kentucky v. Miami
Liberty Bowl
Arkansas v. Houston
Independence Bowl
Auburn v. At-large
Papajohns.com Bowl
South Carolina v. South Florida
There are some others who are thinking that Carolina won’t be slotted in the last spot, with Georgia or Tennessee taking that place. It really is just conjecture, though. To a degree, records and tiebreakers don’t matter past the top teams. Bowl committees have their rules as a mishmash of one guy gets first choice of a team from the SEC West, or East, and if then, &c. You need a flowchart to follow that, alone. Then there’s considerations as far as geographics, ticket sales and TV ratings.
Also, you may have noticed “Auburn v. At-large.” Unless Kansas can upset Missouri, The Big XII will not have enough teams to fill its entire bowl slate, and the Independence Bowl brings up the rear. Under any other circumstance, a team would be available, but Kansas State, which has closed out the season at 6-6, doesn’t have enough qualifying wins to make it. Last season, neither the Big XII nor the SEC had enough teams, and Louisiana Tech played Northern Illinois in Shreveport.
That means a team with enough wins from one of the non-BCS conferences that is eligible will be taken. Right now, the Sun Belt is the first available alternate conference. Here’s some fun for Tiger fans — the two teams most likely to go are UL-U-Pick’em, that is UL-Lafayette and UL-Monroe. Imagine that, going to play a bowl game against a team you usually schedule as an early-season patsy. Believe it, Auburn fans. It’s in the cards.
Believe it or not, South Carolina is the fourth-happiest state in the South. According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, the Palmetto State is the only trails Virginia, Texas and Georgia in being the happiest state in Dixie. Of all the states in America, Virginia rocks No. 15, Texas shows up at No. 21, Georgia ranks No. 23, while South Carolina comes in at No. 26.
Happiest States in the South
15. Virginia
21. Texas
23. Georgia
26. South Carolina
30. Florida
33. Alabama
34. North Carolina
40. Louisiana
42. Tennessee
46. Arkansas
48. Mississippi
49. Kentucky
50. West Virginia
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: the South Carolina football team will start off the season well, even jumping into the rankings. Gamecock fans, a group of which share delusion on par with Chicago Cubs supporters, will start contemplating challenging the Brahmans of the SEC East. Then, pfft. The bottom falls out.
This year, everything looked rosy for Carolina as it took its 6-2 record to the shithole known as Knoxville on Halloween. Oops. Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton played like he was actually competent and USC returned to Columbia with a loss. But, hey, Arkansas can’t play defense, right? This’ll go well. Eh, not so much. The Gamecock defense was last seen milling around in a parking lot off of Rosewood. Because it surely did not make it to Fayetteville.
Certainly, it looked good for awhile. The teams went into halftime tied at 10. Carolina came out in the second half and the spastically-inconsistent USC quarterback Stephen Garcia nailed receiver Alshon Jeffery for perhaps the best play the Gamecock offense has put together all season. After that, a missed PAT and the Hogs took over. Arkansas scored 23 unanswered points to send Carolina to 6-4 and an increasingly likely date in the Liberty Bowl.
Really, what happened to the Carolina pass defense? All year, it was obvious you could run on USC, but passing would be a little tougher. Somebody forgot to tell that to Razorback quarterback Ryan Mallett, who went 23-of-27 for 329 yards. That’s an 85 percent completion percentage. Why even put defensive backs out there? And it doesn’t get any easier for the Gamecocks, who welcome Florida to town, next. Then it’s Clemson, and we get to hear more about how Tiger running back C.J. Spiller should win the Heisman, because being the only offensive weapon on a shitty team means you’re TEH BESTS, obviously.
Regardless, USC has become quite acquainted with the late-season flameout, so this year’s version shouldn’t be all that surprising.
If there’s one thing to take away from Saturday, it’s that most of the Top 10 are frauds. Alabama is not. So many people said that the Arkansas offense would cause the Crimson Tide problems. Transfer quarterback Ryan Mallett would torch the Bama secondary. The +17.5 spread would be made silly by a close slugfest.
Well, the spread did look silly, because the Tide came away with a 28-point win. Mallett? Ineffective. Bama quarterback Greg McElroy completely outshined him.
McElroy: 17-of-24, 291 yards, 3 touchdowns
Mallett: 12-of-35, 160 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception
The Tide defense caused problems for Mallett all day, but he was helped by the cheap-shot artists that are his teammates. We’ve seen Arkansas play dirty before (coughcoughTonyBuacoughcough), but this was beyond the pale. There was a no-call on a late roughing the passer penalty, ripping Julio Jones’ helmet off, clipping and low-hit penalties, and they managed to — from what it seems — destroy Dont’a Hightower’s knee. We once thought that the Hogs played dirty because Houston Nutt was coaching them. Turns out, it looks to be institutional.
We began hating Arkansas when we lived in that shithole of a state 19 years ago — and we’ve lived all over the South, but “The Natural State” was by far the nastiest, most inbred festival of redneckery we’ve ever had to endure. Then we actually saw a razorback at the Fort Worth Zoo. It was the meanest, ugliest damn pig in creation. In 1995, Arkansas had 12 men on the field and the receiver caught a pass that bounced off the turf for a touchdown to beat Alabama. In 2002, the aforementioned Bua played so dirty against the Tide that it boggles the mind. Add in the overtime losses in ‘03 and ‘06, and, goddamn, we hate Arkansas.
Winning by 28 points was taking it easy. Those bastards should have been buried by 70. Regardless, even with Hightower out and the running game limited to under 200 yards, Bama is the most complete team in the country after four weeks of play. Put those guys at No. 1.
The rest of the…best?
As everyone saw, Ole Miss showed it wasn’t worth its hype when Carolina, with all of its red zone problems, stuck it to the Rebels on Thursday. OK, No. 4 goes down. Little did we know, it was like the first domino falling. Penn State, for all its bluster and “white out” bullshit, lost by 11 to Iowa. Cal and Heisman contender Jahvid Best got totally blown out by Oregon. LSU came within one yard of losing to Mississippi State. Miami believed the run it was getting from ESPN and promptly face-planted against Virginia Tech. Recapping: Nos. 4, 5, 6 and 9 lost this week.
Are Florida and Texas worth putting at No. 1? Eh, maybe. If the Gators blew out Tennessee like they should have, maybe so, but nailing Kentucky to the wall is not that big of a deal. Having a concussed Tim Tebow is kind of a big deal, however. Fortunately for them, Florida has its bye week coming up.
Texas dropped 64 on UTEP, but gave up a pick-six and the only quality win for the Horns comes from a 10-point win over an unranked Texas Tech squad. How good is Texas? Pfft. Who knows?
In other news, Clemson lost to TCU. Hahahaha.
There are few porcine creatures more ugly or mean than a razorback, the nom de guerre of Arkansas athletics. This fall, though, what Southeastern Conference teams are worried about is the swine flu, which won’t gore you with tusks or run over you like Darren McFadden, but could lay waste to some teams’ ability to compete.
In a new post from The Huntsville Times‘ Paul Gattis, coaches across the league are instructing their staffs to make sure nothing happens. Already, there have been outbreaks at Alabama and Auburn (though no reported cases among football players), and Ole Miss canceled its fan day because of concerns about H1N1. Tulane got a nasty hit, what the Orlando Sentinel called “a wicked flu bug.” Over two dozen players were affected, but since athletes are so closely watched for their health, the players were able to be treated and recover to continue practice a few days later.
According to the story, LSU head coach Les Miles said his trainers are “all over it,” and Georgia coach Mark Richt said they’re “keeping a close eye” on the Dawgs since swine flu cases have shown up on campus.
And, no, you can’t get swine flu from risky sex with an Arkansas fan. However, we still wouldn’t advise it.
