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BCS bowl schedule

The Symphony That Is The College Bowl Schedule Is Set

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The college bowl schedule is now set. With the announcement of the BCS bowl matchups yesterday evening, the door was opened for the rest of the schedule to fall into place as the bowls made their selections in accord with their conference commitments.

Bowl season is like a great symphony, with its gradual buildup, alternating between a rapid pace and slower movement, and finally building to its championship crescendo. What we’re going to do here today is break down  the schedule by those movements. TheSportsNotebook’s bowl coverage will be structured around this schedule layout, with previews and wrap-ups as each movement begins and ends.

Here’s how the 2013 college bowl schedule sets up, with some editorial comments along the way.


THE OPENING ACT
Sat, Dec 21 (New Mexico ): Washington State-Colorado State (2 PM ET, ESPN)
Sat, Dec 21 (Las Vegas): Fresno State-USC (3:30 PM ET, ABC)
Sat, Dec 21 (Famous Idaho Potato): Buffalo-San Diego State (5:30 PM ET, ESPN)
Sat, Dec 21 (New Orleans): Tulane-UL-Lafayette (9 PM ET, ESPN)
Mon, Dec 23 (Beef O’Brady): East Carolina-Ohio (2 PM ET, ESPN)
Tue, Dec 24 (Hawaii): Boise State-Oregon State (8 PM ET, ESPN)
Thur, Dec 26 (Little Caesars Pizza): Bowling Green-Pitt (6 PM ET, ESPN)
Thur, Dec 26 (Poinsettia): Utah State-Northern Illinois (9:30 PM ET, ESPN)

Comments: The most interesting piece here was Northern Illinois going to the Poinsettia Bowl, something that’s good for college football. The Poinsettia has a spot reserved for Army, one we’ve known for some time would be an open berth. Normally those open spots go to teams at the very end of their conference pecking order.

The MAC has three bowl tie-ins, but apparently something worked out for NIU to go to San Diego, and this game with Utah State will feature two of the really good programs at the midmajor level. I expect both teams to come determined to win.

Commitment to winning isn’t always a part of the bowl game experience anymore, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve come to enjoy these opening act matchups as much as any. You can tell from looking at the schedule there’s a lot of midmajor teams involved and none of those kids, or their fan bases, take these opportunities for granted, or look down their noses at them.

FOUR-DAY FESTIVAL
Fri, Dec 27th (Military): Marshall-Maryland (2:30 PM ET, ESPN)
Fri, Dec 27th (Meineke Car Care of Texas): Syracuse-Minnesota (6 PM ET, ESPN)
Fri, Dec 27th (Fight Hunger): BYU-Washington (9:30 PM ET, ESPN)
Sat, Dec 28th (Pinstripe): Rutgers-Notre Dame (Noon ET, ESPN)
Sat, Dec 28th (Belk): Cincinnati-North Carolina (3:20 PM ET, ESPN)
Sat, Dec 28th (Russell Athletic): Miami-Louisville (6:45 PM ET, ESPN)
Sat, Dec 28th (Buffalo Wild Wings): Michigan-Kansas State (10:15 PM ET, ESPN)


Comment: After the first two days of this four-day run that will leave you bleary-eyed, there’s an intermission for NFL Sunday, which will be Week 17. TheSportsNotebook will also split its coverage of this part of the schedule in half, and take two days at a time, both in previews and recaps.

From a marketing standpoint, it’s hard to criticize Rutgers-Notre Dame playing in Yankee Stadium, but the disarray the Rutgers’ program is in takes some of the shine off. I would have much rather seen the Pinstripe Bowl choose Houston as its American Athletic team. A Notre Dame-Houston matchup would have awakened the echoes of 1978 and the Cotton Bowl, when Joe Montana began forging his comeback legend, as he rallied the Irish from 34-12 down and beat the Cougars on the final play.

I was surprised the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl chose Michigan as its Big Ten team over Nebraska. Given that the opponent would be from the Big 12, it seemed an ideal chance to stir up some bad blood between the Cornhuskers and their old rivals.

Mon, Dec 30th (Armed Forces): Middle Tennessee-Navy (11:45 PM ET, ESPN)
Mon, Dec 30th (Music City): Ole Miss-Georgia Tech (3:15 P ET, ESPN)
Mon, Dec 30th (Alamo): Oregon-Texas (6:45 PM ET, ESPN)
Mon, Dec 30th (Holiday): Arizona State-Texas Tech (10:15 PM ET, ESPN)
Tue, Dec 31st (Advocare V100): Arizona-Boston College (12:30 PM ET, ESPN)
Tue, Dec 31st (Sun): Virginia Tech-UCLA (2 PM ET, CBS)
Tue, Dec 31st (Liberty): Rice-Mississippi State (4 PM ET, ESPN)
Tue, Dec 31st (Chick-fil-A): Duke-Texas A&M (8 PM ET, ESPN)

Comment: The Liberty Bowl did fans a disservice when they voluntarily picked a .500 Mississippi State team as the SEC opponent for Conference USA champion Rice, when an 8-4 Vanderbilt squad was available. The Commodores would have provided a good challenge for the Owls, and beating an SEC team of that caliber would have been a signature achievement for the Rice program.

I was mildly surprised at the Chick-Fil-A matchup. I thought this committee might opt for Miami over Duke as its ACC team, but was glad to see the Dookies get this opportunity on New Year’s Eve night. They’ll have a much better chance of a good showing here than they did against Florida State in the ACC Championship Game.

A bigger surprise was this same bowl opting for A&M over Georgia. I’m sure Aaron Murray’s torn ACL had something to do with it, but this game is played in Atlanta. How well will the Aggies travel after a disappointing season? How motivated is Johnny Manziel going to be as he presumably prepares for the NFL? Let me clarify that I don’t consider this like Rice-Mississippi State, where I feel fans are getting a raw deal. Duke-Texas A&M is a fine matchup. I’m just surprised is all.

THE NEW YEAR’S BUILDUP
Wed, Jan 1st (Gator): Nebraska-Georgia (Noon ET, ESPN2)
Wed, Jan 1st (Heart of Dallas): UNLV-North Texas (Noon ET, ESPNU)
Wed, Jan 1st (Capital One): Wisconsin-South Carolina (1 PM ET, ABC)
Wed, Jan 1st (Outback): Iowa-LSU (1 PM ET, ESPN)


Comment: This is usually where the SEC cleans up on the Big Ten by something akin to a combined score of 94-36 in their three matchups that set the table for the major bowl games that start in mid-afternoon. Wisconsin-South Carolina is one of the spicier matchups of the entire non-BCS card, but the Nebraska-Georgia matchup is a disappointment.

We just watched a Nebraska-Georgia game a year ago in the Capital One Bowl. They’ll move the proceedings from Orlando to Jacksonville and just do it all over. This is why it would have been better if at least one of these teams had been chosen by other bowls, per discussion further above.

If you’re just looking for a good football game, don’t sleep on UNLV-North Texas. Both of these programs had breakthrough seasons and to be playing on January 1 is a great opportunity for both. You have to think the kids and coaching staff will want to make the most of it.

THE BCS BEGINS
Wed, Jan 1st (Rose): Stanford-Michigan State (5 PM ET, ESPN)
Wed, Jan 1st (Fiesta): Baylor-Central Florida (8:30 PM ET, ESPN)
Thur, Jan 2nd (Sugar): Oklahoma-Alabama (8:30 PM ET, ESPN)
Fri, Jan 3rd (Cotton): Oklahoma State-Missouri (7:30 PM ET, Fox)
Fri, Jan 3rd (Orange): Clemson-Ohio State (8:30 PM ET, ESPN)

college football bowl historyComment: The Cotton Bowl is not actually a BCS game of course, but the nature of the calendar left their game conflicting with the Orange Bowl. Oklahoma State-Missouri is frankly as good a game as any on the slate of the official major bowl games, so perhaps it works out just as well.

TheSportsNotebook will preview the four BCS games individually, while melding the Cotton Bowl preview into the Saturday-Sunday games below. As far as the matchups, it mostly went as expected. I was disappointed the Sugar opted for Oklahoma over Oregon. The Ducks would have been a better matchup for Alabama. But both Oklahoma and Oregon finished 10-2 and when you lose to Arizona by 26 points late in the year like Oregon did, you pretty well sign away complaining rights.

THE WEEKEND WRAPAROUND
Sat, Jan 4th (BBVA Compass): Vanderbilt-Houston (1 PM ET, ESPN)
Sun, Jan 5th (Godaddy.com): Arkansas State-Ball State (9 PM ET, ESPN)

Comment: These games wrap around the NFL playoff doubleheader that will go on both days, with the pros kicking off at 4:30 PM ET on Saturday, and then finishing in the early evening on Sunday. Vanderbilt and Houston should both be in better games, but their head-to-head matchup will be a good one.

THE GRAND FINALE
Mon, Jan 6th (BCS National Championship): Florida State-Auburn (8:30 PM ET, ESPN)

Comment: No controversy in the last year of the BCS. My only surprise is that Auburn is already getting as many as nine points in the early point spreads I’ve seen. We’ll talk about this game in much more detail when the time comes, and by that point we’ll be able to assess how both the ACC and SEC are faring in bowl competition, but (+9) for a hot team from the conference that’s won seven straight of these championship games seems like a lot.

The College Bowl Schedule & The Case For Northern Illinois

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This past Saturday night I was in Lucas Oil Stadium for the Big Ten Championship Game with a friend of mine. As Wisconsin’s 70-31 pounding of Nebraska got out of control, we started to look at the BCS rankings on his I-phone to see if there was any chance Northern Illinois could make it to the Orange Bowl.

We identified teams the Huskies they would have to pass in the rankings to achieve automatic qualifying status. The five battleground states, if you will, were identified as Kent, UCLA, Texas, Michigan and Nebraska. NIU had to win four of the five battles. This also assumed the Huskies—21st coming into the week—would nudge past #20 Boise to become the top midmajor on the board. With most of the experts, like CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm and ESPN’s Brad Edwards still saying NIU would come up short, and even non-expert locales like this site feeling this way on Friday, as we examined the data on Saturday night, Northern Illinois’ path suddenly looked open.

And so it was that on college football’s version of Election Day, NIU was sitting there feeling like the Obama re-election campaign watching the battleground states tip one by one in their direction until they had done a clean sweep, and not only qualified but did so at #15, with room to spare.

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, playing the role of Karl Rove, was apocalyptic last night on the selection show. I like Herbstreit a lot, but I firmly I disagree with him on this point. The quality of play at the mid-major level has risen to the point where I want to see the best of this group—a group, by the way that encompasses five conferences (MAC, Sun Belt, C-USA, WAC, Mountain West) play against other top teams. I didn’t always feel that way—I took the snob approach in 2006 when Boise State was invited to play Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl and wanted the Broncos to go away.

That game changed my mind, as it changed college football. I know there are cases where mid-majors get blown out, and maybe that will be the case in the NIU-Florida State Orange Bowl (though I’m not conceding that point). But last I checked, power teams get blown out in bowl games. Bob Stoops and Oklahoma fans might remember the 2004 Orange Bowl and their 55-19 loss to USC. Herbstreit’s alma mater at Ohio State has taken its share of beatings in big bowl games, as has everyone else in the Big Ten. As has Notre Dame. As has the ACC & Big East, both of whom are represented. Why can’t we watch the best of a group of nearly 50 midmajor programs play each year and see how they stack up? If they get pounded five years running, then let’s make a change. Right now that’s not happening and that’s why I want to see Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl.

Another reason for choosing NIU is, ironically, based on something Herbstreit said. The analyst rightly noted that we spend so much time talking about 1 vs. 2 (or 1 thru 4, as it will be in 2014) that we lose sight of the other bowl games, like the Oklahoma/NIU debate. We also lose sight of the minor bowls. And Oklahoma still has an opportunity to go play Texas A&M and Heisman favorite Johnny Manziel in the Cotton Bowl. Georgia can still play Nebraska in the Capital One. Do you know where Northern Illinois would have gone? The GoDaddy.com Bowl to play Arkansas State.

If we want to change the minor bowl structure to allow Northern Illinois to play a team like Nebraska or LSU or UCLA, then I’m fine with being stricter about midmajor entry into the BCS bowls, since we can still watch the midmajors play meaningful games that will give an adequate read on their strength. For now though, I’m less concerned about Oklahoma’s fate than I am with a team like Utah State, who went 10-2, won the WAC and is stuck playing Toledo. Or San Jose State, who won 10 games and plays Bowling Green. The fact the midmajors got one bone while the power leagues feasted is hardly the biggest problem.

One more point before we dig into the overall bowl schedule. Herbstreit was wrong factually when he offered thanks that when the new system goes into place we won’t see this anymore. In fact, when the four-team playoff system goes into effect the remaining major bowls are obligated to take the top mid-major team. Northern Illinois would still be in, only there would have been no debate. Sorry Herbie, the middle class is going to get its say in college football too.

With that, the time has come to stop complaining about the games we don’t have and figure out how to enjoy the ones we do. TheSportsNotebook will preview all of these games as they come up. For now, here’s a general outline of how the rhythm of the college bowl schedule will flow. Unless noted otherwise, games are on ESPN…

THE WARMUP

Sat, Dec 15: Nevada-Arizona (1 PM ET), Toledo-Utah State (4:30 PM ET)
Thur, Dec 20: BYU-San Diego State (8 PM ET)
Fri, Dec 21: Central Florida-Ball State (7:30 PM ET)
Sat, Dec 22: East Carolina-UL Lafayette (Noon ET), Washington-Boise State (3:30 PM ET)
Mon, Dec 24: Fresno State-SMU (8 PM ET)
Wed, Dec 26: Western Kentucky-Central Michigan (7:30 PM ET)

Comments: As you can see, it’s a heavy dose of the midmajors right out of the gate, and for a team that had a season like Utah State to be playing the third choice from the MAC exposes a flaw in the system. The Aggies’ only losses were by a field goal to Wisconsin and a field goal to BYU. This game doesn’t give Utah State a real chance to showcase themselves. I do like the Washington-Boise matchup. This isn’t a great Boise team and I’m interested to see how they fare against the mid-level of the Pac-12.

BUILDING STEAM

Thur, Dec 27: San Jose-Bowling Green (3 PM ET), Cincinnati-Duke (6:30 PM ET), Baylor-UCLA (9:45 PM)
Fri, Dec 28: Ohio-UL Monroe (2 PM ET), Rutgers-Virginia Tech (5:30 PM ET), Minnesota-Texas Tech (9 PM ET)
Sat, Dec 29: Rice-Air Force (11:45 PM ET), West Virginia-Syracuse (3:15 PM ET), Navy-Arizona State (4 PM ET, ESPN2), Texas-Oregon State (6:45 PM ET), TCU-Michigan State (10:15 PM ET)

Comments: Will UCLA bring the defensive focus necessary to slow down Baylor, the team who shook up the BCS with its four-touchdown smashing of Kansas State? The Ohio-Monroe game features two really good quarterbacks in Tyler Tettleton and Kolton Browning. West Virginia-Syracuse is in Yankee Stadium and in celebration of the old Big East, may it rest in peace. But the games really get good starting late Saturday afternoon, with Navy-Arizona State and then building to the evening conclusions with Texas-Oregon State and TCU-Michigan State. The latter two games are both very good tests of conference strength for the Big 12, Pac-12 and Big Ten.

NEW YEAR’S ACTION

Mon, Dec 31: N.C. State-Vanderbilt (Noon ET), USC-Georgia Tech (2 PM ET, CBS), Iowa State-Tulsa (3:30 PM ET), LSU-Clemson (7:30 PM ET)
Tue, Jan 1: Mississippi State-Northwestern (Noon ET, ESPN2), Purdue-Oklahoma State (Noon ET, ESPNU), Georgia-Nebraska (1 PM ET, ABC), South Carolina-Michigan (1 PM ET)

Comments: This takes up to late afternoon on New Year’s when the BCS kicks in. If the Big Ten wants to stop being a joke, it needs to find a way to split their four games on January 1—or at least win one and be competitive in two. The LSU-Clemson game in Atlanta on New Year’s Eve is a stupendous game and another example of why it’s okay to pass on power conference teams in the BCS—they can still get good matchups at this level, and that’s a game that would have been a reasonable national title game pick back in August.

BARRELLING DOWN THE BCS

Tue, Jan 1: ROSE BOWL—Wisconsin-Stanford (5 PM ET)
Tue, Jan 1: ORANGE BOWL—Northern Illinois-Florida State (8:30 PM ET)
Wed, Jan 2: SUGAR BOWL—Louisville-Florida (8:30 PM ET)
Thur, Jan 3: FIESTA BOWL—Oregon-Kansas State (8:30 PM ET)

Comments: As a Midwesterner, I’m completely juiced for New Year’s Night and to root for Wisconsin and NIU back-to-back. I understand if critics want to say one of them doesn’t belong, but frankly that team is the five-loss Badgers, not the Huskies. If Herbstreit wants to argue for excluding Wisconsin and making Northern Illinois the Midwest rep in Pasadena, I’m all for it. But it won’t stop me from donning Badger apparel from head-to-toe on New Year’s. And the Oregon-Kansas State game is true undercard fight, with teams that I think are the best two in the country (although they played themselves out of the title game fair and square).

WEEKEND BUILDUP

Fri, Jan 4: Texas A&M-Oklahoma (8 PM ET, Fox)
Sat, Jan 5: Pitt-Ole Miss (1 PM ET)
Sun, Jan 6: Kent-Arkansas State (9 PM ET)

Comments: Friday night’s Cotton Bowl joins LSU-Clemson is the two best games of the bowl undercard—and frankly better than a few of the BCS games. The Saturday-Sunday games aren’t bad, but those time slots wrap around the four NFL first-round playoff games, so fitting in time for college football will be tough.

THE HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHT

Mon, Jan 7: BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP—Notre Dame-Alabama (8:30 PM ET)

Comment: We’ll preview the game itself when it gets closer. I think based on the standards the voters used last year—when they voted in non-conference champ Alabama over Big 12 titlist Oklahoma State, you can make a very good argument for Oregon over Alabama in this game. My own personal standards require a conference championship, so I’d have picked the Tide this year. But is it too much to ask for a consistent strike zone from the umpires? Either a league championship matters or it doesn’t.