Day 8 of the 2007 Bowl schedule gives us three interesting match-ups. Nothing special, but interesting enough to have some watchability (there is that word again); at least for two of the three games.
The Meineke Car Care Bowl features #25 Connecticut (9-3, 5-2 Big East) vs. Wake Forest (8-4, 5-3 ACC). If the ACC is down this year, and the Big East is improving, but inconsistent, who do you pick?
I am going to go with Wake Forest because three of their four loses were to ranked teams (at the time anyway) – Boston College, Nebraska, Virginia, and Clemson. Connecticut also lost to Virginia, but they looked really bad against Cincinnati and West Virginia blew their doors off.
The Autozone Liberty Bowl gives us UCF (10-3, 7-1 C-USA) vs. Mississippi St (7-5, 4-4 SEC). It would pain me to say UCF is the pick over an SEC team, but their three loses were to quality teams – Texas, East Carolina, and South Florida. Texas and South Florida were ranked #6 and #5 respectively at the time of the games, and UCF should have beaten Texas. Who cares about the Pirates, but they did win their Bowl game.
Against better judgment, I am going to pick the Bulldogs of the West. Sylvester Croom is going to have his team up for this one, and while UCF may be the better team, the tough as nails SEC will pave the way getting State ready for their first Bowl game since 2000.
The final game of the night is the Valero Alamo Bowl, but no one will notice because of that NFL game with a perfect record on the line. The Alamo Bowl features Penn St (8-4, 4-4 Big Ten) vs. Texas A&M (7-5, 4-4 Big 12). The pick here is A&M. I am sick of folks shoving how great the Big Ten is at me. The conference is not that good, and no one in the South cares about their football.
2007 Bowl predictions: 9 – 2.
