New Mexico Bowl: New Mexico over Arizona. I don't want to root for Bob Davie, but he's going against Rich Rodriguez.
Las Vegas Bowl: BYU over Utah. I like Mormons and independent college football programs.
Camellia Bowl: Appalachian State over Ohio. I'll always appreciate Appalachian State for when they beat Michigan.
Cure Bowl: Georgia State over San Jose State. If I can avoid rooting for a team named the Spartans, I will.
New Orleans Bowl: Louisiana Tech over Arkansas State. Louisiana Tech is the Bulldogs, which was Orel Hershiser's nickname. And they wear red, white, and blue.
Miami Beach Bowl: Western Kentucky over USF because we once lost a miserable game to USF.
Boca Raton Bowl: Temple over Toledo since we played Temple.
Poinsettia Bowl: Boise State over Northern Illinois. I was in Boise this summer.
GoDaddy Bowl: Georgia Southern over Bowling Green. I don't really care, but Urban Meyer used to coach at Bowling Green.
Bahamas Bowl: Middle Tennessee over Western Michigan because Western Michigan has ugly colors.
Hawaii Bowl: San Diego State over Cincinnati for Kyle and Lauren.
St. Petersburg Bowl: UConn over Marshall. I can root for Bob Diaco.
Sun Bowl: Washington State over Miami. This one is obvious.
Heart of Dallas Bowl: Southern Miss over Washington. I'll usually go with a Group of 5 team over a Power 5 team.
Pinstripe Bowl: Duke over Indiana. ACC over Big 10.
Independence Bowl: Virginia Tech over Tulsa. I have nothing against Frank Beamer and it's his last game.
Foster Farms Bowl: UCLA over Nebraska. If I had to pick a Pac 12 team to root for, it's definitely UCLA.
Military Bowl: Navy over Pittsburgh. This one is easy.
Quick Lane Bowl: Minnesota over Central Michigan for Courtney and Dennis. And Lou Holtz coached at Minnesota.
Armed Forces Bowl: Air Force over Cal. The military over dirty smelly hippies. Easy. But I am considering going to Cal's opener next year.
Russell Athletic Bowl: Baylor over North Carolina. I don't like North Carolina.
Arizona Bowl: Colorado State over Nevada. One state has legalized marijuana. The other has legalized gambling and prostitution. I guess legalized marijuana is less bad.
Texas Bowl. Texas Tech over LSU. I can't root for Les Miles.
Birmingham Bowl: Memphis over Auburn. Group of 5 team against an SEC team.
Belk Bowl: NC State over Mississippi State. ACC over SEC. And Lou Holtz coached at NC State.
Music City Bowl: Notre Dame over LSU. Wait, that's what happened last year. Louisville over Texas A&M. Again, ACC over SEC.
Holiday Bowl: Wisconsin over USC. Barry Alvarez is a former Lou Holtz assistant and Wisconsin's current athletic director. And USC is USC.
Peach Bowl: Houston over Florida State. Even if Everett Golson was playing, it would still be hard to root for Florida State.
Orange Bowl: Clemson over Oklahoma. It would be nice if Clemson went undefeated and won the National Championship and we were the team that was closest to beating them.
Cotton Bowl: Michigan State over Alabama. Michigan State is nowhere near as evil as Michigan and I can't root for Alabama so this time I will root for the Spartans.
Outback Bowl: Tennessee over Northwestern. Tennessee is not as despicable as most SEC teams and I don't like the Big 10.
Fiesta Bowl: Notre Dame over Ohio State. Good over evil.
Citrus Bowl: Florida over Michigan. Not quite evil over very evil.
Rose Bowl: Iowa over Stanford. I really dislike Stanford.
Sugar Bowl: Ole Miss over Oklahoma State. I'm mad at Oklahoma State for not helping us and getting destroyed against Oklahoma (our defense didn't help us either, but still).
TaxSlayer Bowl: Georgia over Penn State. I have no interest in rooting for Penn State.
Liberty Bowl: Arkansas over Kansas State. Lou Holtz coached at Arkansas.
Alamo Bowl: TCU over Oregon. I'm assuming TCU's uniforms will be less offensive than Oregon's.
Cactus Bowl: Arizona State over West Virginia. Just because West Virginia is a school that has employed Rich Rodriguez and Bob Huggins.
So I'm going to be working on a running diary here starting around 2:00. New Dodgers' road game broadcaster Joe Davis is calling Auburn-Xavier on Fox Sports 1 right now. I was listening to an interview with him. He's 27 years old and he grew up in Michigan. When he was asked if he was a Michigan or Michigan State fan, he said he grew up a big Notre Dame fan. I like this guy. As much as I don't want Vin Scully to retire, I hope Joe Davis is good and takes over for Vin when that very unfortunate day comes. As for other basketball, Utah is up on Duke at Madison Square Garden right now. Virginia is beating Villanova.
Let's get the running diary going:
1:59- Utah and Duke are tied with less than a minute to play. And now Utah can get the last shot.
2:00- Timeout, Utah with 12.8 left.
2:01- Utah's uniforms have a little Houton Rockets thing going on.
2:02- Utah misses an NBA three at the buzzer. It was a good look, but you have to go to the basket there.
2:05- Notre Dame and Indiana tip off. This is a big game for us. If we can go in to conference play with three wins against Big 10 teams away from home, that would be pretty solid.
2:06- Indiana gets on the board first.
2:07- V.J. Beachem hits a three for Notre Dame's first points. 5-3 Indiana.
2:10- Bonzie Colson scores to give us our first lead, but Indiana quickly takes it back with a three.
2:12- Bonzie gives us the lead again and draws the foul as we head to our first TV timeout.
2:13- Utah is up six on Duke with less than a minute to go.
2:19- It's taking several minutes to play the last minute of this Utah-Duke game. Utah is making their free throws and they're going to win.
2:20- Duke has a chance for a four-point play to cut it to two with 6.7 left. How do you foul there?
2:21- The free throw is good and Utah had to call a timeout because they couldn't get the ball in. This isn't over yet. Meanwhile, Notre Dame is up 25-17 and Bonzie is off to a very nice start.
2:23- Utah turned it over. This is ridiculous. They're going to review it, but it's off Utah.
2:25- Duke has it with 6.4 left and they're down two.
2:26- Duke was having it trouble getting it in, but they get bailed out because the clock started running.
2:27- Duke misses a short shot off the back rim. It was a great opportunity after the defender fell down. They fouled with 0.6 left.
2:28- Utah misses both free throws, but survives 77-75. It took fifteen minutes to play the last minute of the game.
2:32- Beachem hits a three to put Notre Dame up 30-21.
2:33- Steve Vasturia completes a three-point play.
2:34- Now that Utah-Duke is over, ESPN goes to the New Mexico Bowl. Arizona is up 7-3 and Bob Davie is upset about something. I believe this game is being played across the street from where the Albuquerque Isotopes play.
2:41- We take a timeout up by eight. I'm going to take a break to get ready for mass after the game.
3:09- I'm back and we're up 14. Bonzie Colson already has a career high with 18 points.
3:10- New Mexico kicks an extra point to cut Arizona's lead to 14-10.
3:15- Bonzie just got called for a flagrant foul.
3:16- Indiana makes the two free throws and they have the ball. They're on an 8-0 run right now.
3:17- Beachem makes a three to stop the run and then he gets a dunk after a turnover. Beautiful. We're up 13.
3:25- Indiana's gone on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to six, but Bonzie scores again to put us back up eight.
3:30- We're up eight with 7:02 to play. Indiana is hanging in there.
3:33- Demetrius Jackson just had a pretty nice put back dunk.
3:37- We just had a shot clock violation. We're up five with five minutes to play. We need to get it together.
3:38- Indiana just tied it. This is ridiculous.
3:42- Bonzie gave us the lead again.
3:45- Bonzie is going to the line with the game tied and 1:15 to play.
3:46- He missed both.
3:47- Zach Auguste just fouled out with 57.5 seconds to play and Indiana just went up two.
3:48- We turn the ball over and commit a foul on the other end.
3:50- Steve Vasturia just missed a three. We foul down four with 26.9 left. It's not looking good.
3:51- Jackson just missed a three. We couldn't hit anything from the outside late in this game. This is a very disappointing loss. We were in control for most of the game and played terrible basketball at the end. Indiana finished on a 17-2 run. But it's a college basketball game in December. This would have been a nice one to win, but it's not going to keep us out of the NCAA Tournament. If we get the job done in ACC play, we'll be fine. This isn't like losing a football game.
3:54- Utah gets on the board first with a touchdown in the Las Vegas Bowl. Both teams are wearing dark jerseys. It's a good contrast with Utah's red and BYU's blue.
3:55- They're reviewing the touchdown. It definitely looks like the ball carrier was down short of the goal line.
3:56- The call stands. I definitely disagree. I'm going to a 4:30 mass. I'm taking a break until mass and I'm eating dinner after. So I'll probably be back around 6:00.
6:13- Well I'm back. Arizona beat New Mexico. BYU couldn't stop turning the ball over in the first half and they were down 35-0. Now they're down 35-14. This was one of the more interesting early bowl games, but it hasn't been too interesting so far.
6:16- Appalachian State is up 7-0 and Ohio just punted. I'm going to take it easy for now and pick up these games again on the diary if they get interesting. Scrooged comes on AMC at 7:00. That's Plan B until the Jet game starts.
7:00- BYU is staying in it. It's 35-21 with 9:30 to play. During my break I bought my 2016 Big East Tournament tickets. They are in the same section as last year and one row closer to the court. Each ticket was $50 cheaper than last year. I hope the Big East has a good year. Obviously Notre Dame is my favorite basketball team. But after us, I would love to see a Big East school win the National Championship. It's been 31 years since a team that didn't play major college football win the National Championship in basketball (Villanova in 1985).
7:05- Utah has fourth and 1 in BYU territory. It looks like they're going to go for it after a timeout. Huge play coming up.
7:09- BYU gets the stop. They have five minutes to make up the 14-point deficit.
7:11- BYU gets a first down on third and 10.
7:12- BYU completes a deep pass to the four yard line. First and goal.
7:13- BYU scores, but this is probably getting reviewed. The quarterback took off, extended the ball, and lost it. Did he score before he lost the ball? I think he did.
7:15- The ruling is confirmed. The extra point is good. 3:23 left to play and it's 35-28.
7:17- BYU's kick goes out of bounds just short of the goal line. Looking at the replay, I can't tell if that's the right call or not. It was close. It will cost BYU ten yards.
7:18- Utah gains six on first down. Timeout, BYU.
7:19- It's going to be third and about one and a half for Utah.
7:21- Utah picks up the first down on the option.
7:22- Utah gets another first down. That should do it. BYU played a really good second half, but when you turn the ball over five times in the first half, you're in big trouble.
7:23- Apparently Utah's coach went to BYU. I could never ever under any circumstances coach against Notre Dame. I just couldn't do it.
7:29- The Cure Bowl is underway. No score with about five minutes left in the first quarter. Ithink I'm going to take it easy until the Jet game starts.
So I kept my running diary going through the Jets' victory over the Cowboys, but apparently I didn't save that part. So it's gone. Here are some quick thoughts:
I was very happy with the Jets going into this game, but still not optimistic about them getting into the playoffs. Even if they went 3-0 to finish the season, they'd need either the Chiefs or Steelers to lose. The Chiefs have a really easy schedule and the Steelers have an easy schedule after they play the Broncos today. The Jets still have the Patriots and Bills left. They're the most likely team to miss the playoffs, but I'll be rooting for the Ravens and Broncos today. And Rex Ryan isn't the coach and Mark Sanchez isn't the quarterback anymore. So things are looking up for the Jets. It was kind of an ugly performance against the Cowboys, but I'll take the win.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was on last night. I quoted some good lines. If you're reading this on Sunday afternoon, it's on again tonight at 7:00 followed by Elf.
Brent Musburger apparently said something about feeling bad for BYU fans not being able to drink when they were down 35-0. I thought during the game as they were trying to pull off the comeback that it would be lame to celebrate the victory if they could pull it off without drinking.
Appalachian State, San Jose State, and Louisiana Tech won their bowls yesterday. I've got Temple-Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl on Tuesday night as the best pre-Christmas Bowl left.
And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go watch RedZone for the next six hours. I'm rooting for the Giants, Bills, Ravens, Browns, Titans, Broncos, and Cardinals today.
