2007 College Bowl Pick 'em

This year, I’m trying my hand at a college football bowl pick ‘em. I cannot believe that it’s taken me until age 23 to latch onto this idea. After all, I’ve been known to fill out dozens of NCAA brackets in March for college basketball.

My earliest memory dates back to first grade. Cootiful girls (this was many years before hormones detected any female as beautiful on my radar) wondered aloud why I was drawing rocket ships all over my notebook. Had any of the girls accurately identified the “rocket ships” as tourney brackets, I may have been the first to ever find a first grade soul mate. Instead, the cooties lingered for another four years or so.

Back to my point. A college FOOTBALL pick ‘em?! How had I missed this until now? I mean, let’s face it: matchups like TCU/Houston and Nevada/New Mexico are not the sexiest sells. Even for serious football fans like myself, it’s hard to get psyched for something known as the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. But ask me to predict the winner of this game, which I propose should be renamed the San Diego C-CUP Bowl for marketing purposes (I told you the cooties issue was a thing of the past), along with the other 31 bowl games, and suddenly, I’m personally invested. Add to that the power to rank my confidence in my picks in descending order from 32 (most confident) to 1 (least confident), and I’m hooked.

Throw in the option to compete against friends and/or complete strangers online at places like ESPN and Yahoo for free, and I find myself salivating at the mention of the Papajohns.com bowl. And if, hypothetically, I lived in a state where gambling were legal and I could win money based on the success of my picks in a bowl pick ‘em office pool, I might even go gaga over the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl.

Just like that, the BCS becomes Bowl Craziness Season. LSU/Ohio State may be for the national championship, but if I chose to give it a confidence of 1 (I didn’t), it would mean that game could mean less to me than Connecticut/Wake Forest. Take that, Buckeyes!

If you haven’t hopped aboard the bowl pick ‘em express, hurry up. Bowl season begins Dec. 20. And you’re going to need a reason to tune in when 6-6 Alabama battles 6-6 Colorado in the PetroSun Independence Bowl on Dec. 30.

My picks are in bold with my confidence in parentheses. (Remember, 32 is my most confident pick and 1 is my least confident pick. Each game is worth as many points as the confidence indicates. So, for example, my 14 confidence pick is worth 14 points.)

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, Thursday, Dec. 20
Utah (19) vs. Navy

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, Friday, Dec. 21
Florida Atlantic vs. Memphis (7)

Papajohns.com Bowl, Saturday, Dec. 22
Southern Miss vs. #22 Cincinnati (23)

New Mexico Bowl, Saturday, Dec. 22
Nevada (28) vs. New Mexico

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl, Saturday, Dec. 22
UCLA (12) vs. #17 BYU

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, Sunday, Dec. 23
#24 Boise State (30) vs. East Carolina

Motor City Bowl, Wednesday, Dec. 26
Purdue (27) vs. Central Michigan

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, Wednesday, Dec. 26
#11 Arizona State (11) vs. #19 Texas

Champs Sports Bowl, Friday, Dec. 28
#14 Boston College (20) vs. Michigan State

Texas Bowl, Friday, Dec. 28
TCU (3) vs. Houston

Emerald Bowl, Friday, Dec. 28
Maryland (15) vs. Oregon State

Meineke Car Care Bowl, Saturday, Dec. 29
#25 Connecticut vs. Wake Forest (10)

AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Saturday, Dec. 29
Mississippi State vs. UCF (5)

Valero Alamo Bowl, Saturday, Dec. 29
Texas A&M vs. Penn State (14)

Petrosun Independence Bowl, Sunday, Dec. 30
Colorado vs. Alabama (9)

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, Monday, Dec. 31
Air Force vs. California (8)

Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl, Monday, Dec. 31
Fresno State vs. Georgia Tech (13)

Sun Bowl, Monday, Dec. 31
#21 South Florida (22) vs. Oregon

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, Monday, Dec. 31
Florida State vs. Kentucky (21)

Insight Bowl, Monday, Dec. 31
Oklahoma State vs. Indiana (6)

Chick-Fil-A Bowl, Monday, Dec. 31
#15 Clemson (4) vs. #23 Auburn

Outback Bowl, Tuesday, Jan. 1
#16 Tennessee (17) vs. #18 Wisconsin

Cotton Bowl, Tuesday, Jan. 1
#6 Missouri (26) vs. Arkansas

Capital One Bowl, Tuesday, Jan. 1
#12 Florida vs. Michigan (1)

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl, Tuesday, Jan. 1
#20 Virginia vs. Texas Tech (25)

The Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi, Tuesday, Jan. 1
#7 USC (32) vs. #13 Illinois

Allstate Sugar Bowl, Tuesday, Jan. 1
#5 Georgia (29) vs. Hawaii

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Wednesday, Jan. 2
#4 Oklahoma (16) vs. #9 West Virginia

FedEx Orange Bowl, Thursday, Jan. 3
#3 Virginia Tech (18) vs. #8 Kansas

International Bowl, Saturday, Jan. 5
Ball State vs. Rutgers (24)

GMAC Bowl, Sunday, Jan. 6
Tulsa vs. Bowling Green (2)

Allstate BCS National Championship Game
#1 Ohio State vs. #2 LSU (31)

There it is for all to see. Check back throughout the bowl season to see how my picks are holding up, and feel free to comment about where you agree and disagree with my selections. Happy bowl season!