One-Line Bowl Breakdowns

EagleBank Bowl - Navy vs Wake Forest:
Triple option and the home field in DC? Advantage Middies.

New Mexico Bowl - Colorado St vs Fresno St:
Anytime, anywhere for FSU coach Pat Hill means Albuquerque this year.

magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl - Memphis vs South Florida:
Not exactly where USF wanted to be playing a 'home' game this bowl season.

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl - BYU vs Arizona:
Chance for the Cats to make a name for themselves by winning the first bowl with a ranked team.

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl - Southern Mississippi vs Troy:
Ten bucks if you can name one player on either of these teams without looking.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl - Boise St vs TCU:
After Ball State's loss, this is now the "not in a BCS bowl" national championship game.

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs Notre Dame:
This is what ND's reduced itself to - a bowl game off the mainland on Christmas Eve.

Motor City Bowl - Florida Atlantic vs Central Michigan:
CMU in Detroit for the 3rd year in a row in a real yawner of a matchup.

Meineke Car Care Bowl - West Virginia vs North Carolina:
I remember when bowl games at least used to have a real name after the sponsor's name.

Champs Sports Bowl - Wisconsin vs Florida St:
Wisconsin almost lost to a I-AA team - FSU was almost ranked at the end of the season.

Emerald Bowl - California vs Miami:
I thought this bowl was in Seattle (Emerald City) for a couple of years. Nope - it's Emerald Nuts.

Independence Bowl - Northern Illinois vs Louisiana Tech:
6-6 MAC teams should never, ever, ever get a bowl bid.

Papajohns.com Bowl - NC St vs Rutgers:
Rutgers started the year 1-5 and I'm impressed with their in-season turnaround.

Valero Alamo Bowl - Missouri vs Northwestern:
Both these teams should be in better bowls but got passed up for more name teams.

Roady's Humanitarian Bowl - Maryland vs Nevada:
I can't imagine any scenario in which a fan of either school would go to Boise for this.

Texas Bowl - Rice vs Western Michigan:
I'm guessing few new subscribers to the NFL Network earmark this one as the reason.

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl - Oklahoma St vs Oregon:
First bowl of the year with two ranked teams, and this should be a very good one.

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl - Houston vs Air Force:
Gotta think this bowl jumped at the chance to get an academy, given the name.

Brut Sun Bowl - Oregon St vs Pittsburgh:
It's a long way from Pasadena to El Paso for OSU. And from Miami to El Paso for Pitt.

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl - Boston College vs Vanderbilt:
There are many bowls with essentially a home team this season, and this one might be the oddest.

Insight Bowl - Kansas vs Minnesota:
Minnesota has no right to be in a bowl despite their 7-5 record. This should be a massacre.

Chick-fil-A Bowl - LSU vs Georgia Tech:
The Jackets might be the best team no one is talking about right now - they ended up BCS-eligible.

Outback Bowl - South Carolina vs Iowa:
Pretty good matchup of under-the-radar teams from the SEC and Big Ten.

Capital One Bowl - Georgia vs Michigan St:
The annual matchup of 'teams that look good until you realize that they beat no one who matters.'

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl - Clemson vs Nebraska:
Gotta give Dabo Swinney credit for getting the Tigers here.

AT&T Cotton Bowl - Ole Miss vs Texas Tech:
A tremendous job by Houston Nutt to get the Rebs here, but their prize is a beatdown loss, assumedly.

AutoZone Liberty Bowl - Kentucky vs East Carolina:
Why is this bowl on Jan. 2nd? Answer me that. The spate of post-New Year's crappy bowls annoys me.

International Bowl - Connecticut vs Buffalo:
See what I mean? This one's on Jan. 3rd. Toronto thrilled to get two nearby teams.

GMAC Bowl - Tulsa vs Ball St:
BSU might have ended up here regardless of their MAC title game defeat.

Rose Bowl - Penn St vs USC:
Is anyone going to take PSU in this game?

FedEx Orange Bowl - Virginia Tech vs Cincinnati:
The Orange locking itself into the ACC champ is why there's never a good Orange Bowl matchup.

Allstate Sugar Bowl - Alabama vs Utah:
This might be the best bowl matchup besides the national title game.

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl - Texas vs Ohio St:
A 3rd straight BCS humiliation for the Buckeyes as Texas takes out their Big 12 snub on them.

FedEx National Championship Game - Florida vs Oklahoma:
The last good matchup in the national title game was three years ago. This one might end that streak.