Going Bowling: New Years Day

Welcome to 2011! Happy New Year to you and congratulations on making it another year. If your a college football fan, today is the perfect day to sit back, eat, drink and be merry because some of the best football will be seen today. The Courtesy Wave has been providing you with what to tune in to and predicting along the way. Here's the New Year's Day Bowl lineup!

TICKET CITY BOWL - Northwestern (7-5) vs Texas Tech (7-5) 11a in Dallas
Tune in for: Because it's the 1st game of 2011!
Shortest Drive: Texas Tech. A 6 hour drive through the plains of Texas. Not bad when you consider the 17 hour drive from Evanston.
Local Connections: Northwestern - Luke Reppe LB, Fr. from Northfield; Bryce McNaul LB, Jr. out of Eden Prairie; Brian Arnfeldt DT, Soph. from Lake Elmo.
Courtesy Pick: Northwestern started the season 5-0, but a quick look at their schedule shows why. Beating Vanderbilt, Illinois State, Rice, Central Michigan and Minnesota is not exactly amazing. Finishing the season 2-5 with squeaker wins against Indiana & Iowa, the Wildcats are a bowl team, but not impressive. The Red Raiders had a much tougher schedule, but with mixed results. Beating #12 Missouri, but losing badly to Iowa State (5-7). Texas Tech has super QB Taylor Potts, his 3,357 yards and 31 TD's are good for 10th and 6th in the nation respectively.
TEXAS TECH 42-25

OUTBACK BOWL - Florida (7-5) vs Penn State (7-5) Noon in Tampa
Tune in for: Two storied programs with historic coaches. It's Urban Meyer's swan song at 46, while Joe Paterno keeps chugging along at the rightful age of 84.
Shortest Drive: Florida - A 2 hour drive down I-75 is all that it takes for Florida, who will own a sudo-home advantage against far away Penn State.
Local Connections: None
Courtesy Pick: Penn State was the model of mediocrity this year. They started out with high hopes, but could not rise up and win the big one, settling for wins against middle of the road competition. Their biggest wins come against Temple (8-4) and Michigan (7-5). Florida, on the other hand, faced tough competition all year long and is likely more deserving of their 7 wins. 10 of their 12 games were against teams that went to bowl games this year. The Gators also lack that signature win against a ranked opponent, but they do hold slightly better wins against tougher competition.
FLORIDA 29-25

CAPITAL ONE BOWL - #9 Michigan State (11-1) vs #16 Alabama (9-3)Noon Orlando
Tune in for: The Saban Bowl. Former Michigan State head coach Nick Saban returns to face his old team as captain of Alabama. There is a ton of bitterness on the Spartans side for how Saban left and the subsequent fall of the program. Well now the Spartans are back and better than ever, while Alabama is coming into the game on more of a disappointing season.
Shortest Drive: Alabama - Neither team is really close, but a 10 hour drive is somewhat doable for Crimson Tide fans.
Local Connections: None
Courtesy Pick: Playing on New Years day was definitely a goal for Michigan State, but they would have rather been in Pasadena playing in the Rose Bowl, where Wisconsin is today. But they'll settle for the Capital One Bowl, despite finishing 9th in the BCS standings. The Spartans will look back to October 30th at Iowa for the reason why their not smelling roses today. A 37-6 trouncing at the hands of Iowa is all that the Spartans can hang their head on. Alabama was 5-0 and #1 in all of college football when they went to South Carolina on October 9th and got steamrolled 35-21. Not out of it, the Tide came back with consecutive wins against Ole Miss & Tennessee, but heartbreaking losses to #10 LSU (24-21) and #2 Auburn (28-27), pushed Alabama out of the BCS and into today's Capital One Bowl. Which team will have the motivation to finish the season strong and avenge their upsetting losses?
MICHIGAN STATE 35-31

GATOR BOWL - #21 Mississippi State (8-4) vs Michigan (7-5) 12:30p in Jacksonville
Tune in for: The freak show that is Michigan's QB Denard Robinson, who's rushed for over 100 yards in 8 games this season, while passing for over 200 in 6. He's got almost as many rushing TD's as passing TD's 16 to 14. But he'll be facing a top 20 defense in Mississippi State, so we'll get to see how good Robinson really is.
Shortest Drive: Mississippi State. The drive from tiny Starkville to metropolis Jacksonville is about 10 hours, a shorter but still wearing trip that Michigan fans, who aren't getting any home field advantages. (see above game) But then again, who wants to stay in Michigan in January?
Local Connections: None
Courtesy Pick: Like their Big Ten counterpart Northwestern, Michigan started out 5-0 on the season too. But unlike Northwestern, the Wolverines faced decent competition, beating Connecticut and Notre Dame to start the season. In finishing the season 2-5, we all saw that Michigan was not as elite as their start would suggest. Losing every significant game there on out, and barely beating Illinois is triple OT. Their 4 losses to ranked teams this year were never closer than 10 points. Mississippi state also had 4 losses to ranked teams, however that was all of their losses. They won every game they were favored in and even tripped up #22 Florida in Gainesville on October 6th. A double OT loss to #13 Arkansas on November 20th was also a heartbreaker but a sign that the Bulldogs can hang with the best.
MISSISSIPPI STATE 34-27

ROSE BOWL - #3 Texas Christian (12-0) vs #5 Wisconsin (11-1) 3:30p in Pasadena
Tune in for: It's the Rose Bowl! There really shouldn't be much else to say, this is a game you watch regardless of who's in it. But if you need fodder, then you're in luck because the best team not in the championship game, TCU, is in this one. And likely the next best, Wisconsin. This could be a game not unlike the Fiesta Bowl a few years back where Boise State got their chance and cemented their legacy against power conference elite Oklahoma. This is TCU's golden opportunity to do the same and show everyone why they got burned for the championship because of conference status.
Shortest Drive: TCU. But let's be honest, you're flying to Pasadena from both locales, unless you're a die hard Horned Frogs fan and you want to take in the 22 hour trip through the dessert.
Local Connections: TCU - Justin Trejo G, Soph. Saint Paul. Wisconsin - Isaac Anderson WR, Sr. Minneapolis; Blake Sorensen LB, Sr. Eden Prairie; Nate Tice QB, Jr. Edina; James McGuire C, Fr. Saint Paul; Casey Dehn OL, Fr. Owatonna; David Gilreath WR, Sr. Minneapolis; Beau Allen DT, Fr. Minnetonka; Brendan Kelly DT, Soph. Eden Prairie; and you wonder why Minnesota has a tough time beating Wisconsin?!
Courtesy Pick: Despite the high rankings for each team, the reason why people will question the validity of either team's win against the winner of Auburn and Oregon will be their strength of schedule. At 71 (Wisconsin) and 80 (TCU), both teams have benefited from softer schedules. Whereas Auburn and Oregon have faced the 15th and 19th toughest schedules respectively. However, you can't always fault the team for that and in TCU's case, they have made it pretty clear who's the better team by utterly destroying their competition winning by a remarkable 31 points per game. Yes, I said winning, that's the margin of victory, again worth repeating, remarkable. They won't win by that much today if they do notch an undefeated season. Wisconsin on the other hand has to feel pretty lucky that their in Pasadena and not in Michigan State's shoes in the Capital Bowl. The Badgers and Spartans each only have 1 loss and the Wisconsin's loss comes at the hands of Michigan State in East Lansing on Oct. 2nd. Albeit not fair to many, that loss looks a lot better than the Spartans loss at Iowa (37-6). Like TCU, Wisconsin too scores at will, in fact, each team is tied for 4th in the country with 43.3 points per game. But the difference may come in the defense where TCU is just as good if not better. The Horned Frogs are #1 in points allowed at a measley 11.4, about half of what Wisconsin gives up (20.5). They'll have to slow down an offense that moves the ball on the ground an average of 247 yards/game. If they do that, the Badgers don't have the aerial weapons to overcome.
TCU 41-21

FIESTA BOWL - #7 Oklahoma (11-2) vs Connecticut (8-4) 7:30p in Glendale, AZ
Tune in for: The only unranked BCS team ever. Are you kidding me? You think fans at Michigan State or Boise State are fans of the BCS? It's an utter joke that UCONN is in this game, and that's not a stab at the Huskies, its a knife into the heart of the BCS. Controversy aside, this game features some highly talented individuals. Connecticut's Jordan Todman is 6th in the nation in rushing at 1,574 yards, while Oklahoma has DeMarco Murray and his 1,121 yards (33rd). This game will also feature one of the best QB/WR combos in the country in Landry Jones, 4,289 yards passing, 2nd best in nation, and Ryan Broyles 1,452 yards receiving, good for 4th.
Shortest Drive: Oklahoma - A 16 hour drive awaits the flight fearful Sooner fans. Anyone driving from Connecticut needs to stop in at the doctor's office and check their sanity.
Local Connections: None
Courtesy Pick: The contrast in styles on offense for these 2 teams is as far apart as the distance between Storrs, CT and Norman, OK. The Huskies will look to run and rely on Todman all day, because they are near last in passing at only 145 yards/game. Oklahoma will be airborn, but unlike Connecticut, they do have Murray as a weapon on the ground to keep Connecticut's defense puzzled. The Sooners had the 8th toughest schedule in the country, the Huskies had the 78th. There's never a good time to overlook a team, but the Sooners will need the motivation of avoiding an upset and looking bad, rather than winning against a good team. The Huskies will try to prove that they belong in this game by pulling off a monumental upset. It's hard to predict that though when Connecticut's only ranked opponent this season will be the Sooners today. However, they did win their last 5 against teams that all finished with winning records.
OKLAHOMA 36-27