Many college football fans believe the world would be better if the current bowl system never existed.
I'll be your angel Clarence this holiday season.
Without bowl games, we'd have nothing to watch while digesting Christmas dinner, avoiding annoying relatives and ringing in the New Year. Without bowls, we wouldn't know that Beef 'O' Brady's, TicketCity and Bridgepoint Education exist, or that - some years - Poinsettias can smell just as sweet as Roses.
And, without bowls, we wouldn't have bowl contests.
So here's your assignment, George Baileys: Go to azstarnet.com/bowls before the start of today's games, make your picks and see if you can outsmart me. The grand-prize winners can bring home Fatheads and watches bearing your favorite team's logo.
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The 2010-11 bowl schedule is included below. I've listed my winners in bold, with a nod to some of the best holiday movies of all time.
• "Babes in Toyland." TCU took college football by storm this season, posting a 12-0 mark and finishing just shy of the BCS National Championship Game. The Horned Frogs will win the Rose Bowl, and a handful of other Mountain West Conference teams - Air Force, BYU and San Diego State - should bring home postseason victories of their own. And while I'm on a MWC kick, why not include Hawaii and Fresno State, two future conference members? They've been good all year.
• "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Place-kickers Kyle Brotzman and Alex Zendejas both torpedoed their team's chances by missing key kicks late in the season. Here's guessing Boise State and Arizona will have happier holidays.
• "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." OK, so Notre Dame tight end Kyle Rudolph doesn't have a red nose - just a golden dome. And he won't play in the Sun Bowl because of a hamstring injury. But the Fightin' Irish are my sentimental choice in the "Catholics-versus-convicts" rematch against Miami (Fla.).
Santa got it all wrong, by the way.
He should have said:
On Florida, and 'Bama, Baylor and LSU
And Ohio, and Pitt, Michigan, and even FIU
On Syracuse, and Clemson, Nevada and Mizzou
And Stanford, Oklahoma and Ohio State, too
• "Scrooged." The SMU football program's second consecutive winning season was spoiled by ESPN's "Pony Exce$$," a documentary chronicling the Mustangs' NCAA violations in the 1980s. SMU isn't the only star-crossed program that'll win big this winter; Washington will pull a shocker in its first bowl game since the Rick Neuheisel era.
• "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." A year ago, Lane Kiffin was sneaking off to USC and Mike Leach was accused of locking players in closets. Things will get better for both coaches' former schools this year; at the very least, Tennessee and Texas Tech should be sentimental favorites.
• "The Polar Express." Why head to the North Pole when there are some of the country's best "directional" teams on the tube? It'll be a good year for Southern Miss, Middle Tennessee, West Virginia, South Carolina, East Carolina and Central Florida.
• "It's a Wonderful Life" … or at least it will be for Oregon, my BCS national champion. Did you know that every time a bell rings, the Ducks get a new set of uniform wings?
On StarNet: Play Ryan Finley's Bowl Challenge contest - make your picks at azstarnet.com/bowls
