2024-12-10 14:02

And we have new Conference Champions!

For details read the reviews. Hehe.

The BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 15

Sat. Dez 7
ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#17 Clemson vs #8 SMU
The 1st half was a disaster for SMU, starting with a fumble on the 1st drive, having later an INT thrown, and a field goal missed, while their defense was unable to keep Clemson from scoring.
The consequences were, Clemson did lead at the half, 24:7.
SMU came into the game during the 3rd quarter, scoring a TD, still allowed a TD by Clemson and then on a drive, which carried over into the 4th, SMU finally did wake up and scored again.
Down by 10 the team did feel they still have a chance.
They stopped Clemson, did still struggle on offense, but scored a field goal a bit later, mid of the 4th quarter.
Clemson now under pressure, forced to punt and SMU active, made a loooong drive over the field and with 16 ticks left, scored a game tying TD.
And then is all fell apart for the Mustangs with 3 plays!
The 1st was a great return on the kickoff. I don't know why they did not kick it different, but the deep kick was returned for 41 yards.
Then the 2nd play, a deep pass with a 17-yard gain.
And with 3 ticks left, the Tigers kicked on the 3rd play a 56 yarder (and it could have been even a 60-yarder) to win the game, the title and the ticket to the playoffs.
I'm not sure, whether Clemson had a great game, or SMU had one of the worst of the season.
As it looks like, SMU can only blame this on themselves.
#17 Clemson 34 vs #8 SMU 31 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 34-13

BIG10 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#3 Penn State vs #1 Oregon
This game started with an offense firework you do not see very often.
The Ducks were unstoppable, and the Lions were at first unable to counter this big time, still managed to keep in touch.
At the half, the Ducks did lead 31:24.
Penn State came out of the locker and missed a field goal on their 1st drive, while the Ducks did score again and forces Penn State again in catch-up mode.
The speed on drives and scoring did slow down in that 3rd quarter and gained again some speed in the 4th, but the key adjustment for the Lions to turn this game towards their favor, did never happen.
Whenever Penn State did come closer, Oregon did cover it and scored or they were so far ahead, they were able to just wait for their next chance.
With 2 minutes left to play and Oregon forced to punt, Penn State had their last chance, down by just 8.
But 2 plays later the ball was intercepted, and the Ducks did ride their 1st BIG10 title home as #1 team in the country.
This game was closer, than I did expect it, but it did turn out mostly as I expected to happen with Penn State forced to play a game they are not equipped to play.
Most surprising for me was, that they were able to score that much and to stay in the game so long.
#3 Penn State 37 vs #1 Oregon 45 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 35-13

BIG-12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#16 Iowa State vs #15 Arizona State
That game I did actually watch in 1st half, and it was brutal to see, how bad Iowa States lines did play.
In the 1st quarter it was all good and the game was equally set, but in the 2nd quarter it became visible, that ASU was able to adjust small stuff and make a difference, while ISU was not, and their line became weaker and weaker.
That did result on offense in a bad running game and a bad QB protection, while on defense the line did not create enough pressure to limit the Sun Devils rushing attack and gave often also the QB too much time to pass.
Arizona State lead at the half, 24:10 and that did still look manageable for the Cyclones, but the 2nd half was so bad and error prone, that you had to ask yourself, why the team did make the game.
With 3 turnovers in that 2nd half, you cannot come back from 14 difference.
Main difference at the end was the ASU running game, which was unstoppable or better to say, the Cyclones were unable to tackle the RB, who gained 170 yards with an average of 10.6 per carry.
Arizona State wins the BIG-12 and a ticket to the playoffs in their 1st season inside the BIG-12.
#16 Iowa State 19 vs #15 Arizona State 45 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 36-13

SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#5 Georgia vs #2 Texas
A real thriller, some will say, a modern classic.
A very defense driven game, not much did happen in the 1st half on the scoreboard, just on the field.
Texas started with an INT, but came away with no harm, did score a field goal a bit later and Georgia had to punt.
Texas did again score a field goal and this time Georgia did the same, allowed again some movement to the Longhorns, but this time the kick did miss the uprights.
They did again miss the uprights a bit later.
Then both teams did accomplish not much until the half, Texas leading 6:3.
Georgia came out of the locker room and scored a TD, creating pressure on Texas, but it stayed a defense driven game.
A bit later did Texas miss another FG, and Georgia did kick a field goal to lead 13:6.
A drive, which did lead into the 4th quarter, was capped by Texas with a TD to tie the game at 13.
And Georgia did answer a few drives later with a field goal to take the lead, slowly eating the clock away.
Texas went out and tried to respond but was intercepted.
Georgia now with a gifted field position did ... throw an INT on their own and Texas got the ball back!
This time they went over the field, did eat the clock away and scored a game tying field goal with 18 ticks left to play.
The game went to overtime and Texas got the ball 1st but was held to another field goal.
Now Georgia on the move, came close the endzone and at the end, run it in for a TD, the Championship and a playoff ticket.
Texas came up short in their 1st SEC season, while Georgia did luckily made it into the game and won it all.
#5 Georgia 22 vs #2 Texas 19 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 36-14

And some other interesting games:

Fri. Dez 6
AAC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Tulane @ #24 Army
I did expect that Tulane would pick apart Army, but their offense was ineffective and error prone.
But worse, their defense was non-existing against that option offense of Army. Why?
I don't know.
Army did throw only for 17 yards and the rest was just rushing. Still did Tulane allow almost 340 yards on the ground.
Congratulation to Army, winning the AAC 35:14 on their 1st season.
They will have to play Navy next and then of course they will also play a quite high-profile bowl. Could be one of the best paid bowls the team ever played in.
Jacks interesting games Score: 33-19

CUSA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Western Kentucky @ Jacksonville State
Oh man, Jacksonville State wanted revenge and the title.
WKU did get hammered on that rematch, one week they did beat the Gamecocks.
At the end did Jacksonville State win 52:13 and carried home the CUSA title.
Jacks interesting games Score: 34-19

MWC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#20 UNLV @ #10 Boise State
In this game was much less offense fire power than I did expect.
Boise State won at home clearly the Mountain West and earned a playoff spot, but the score of 21:7 was a bit disappointing.
Jacks interesting games Score: 35-19

Sat. Dez 7
MAC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Ohio vs Miami (OH)
Here I have to say, congratulation to Ohio winning this game in such a way.
Miami was basically a non-factor on the field and Ohio did dominate the game after the first 2 drives.
Miami scored a field goal at the start then it was all Ohio until the final score of 38:3.
Ohio won the MAC, the first time since 1968!
Jacks interesting games Score: 35-20

SBC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Marshall @ Louisiana
And another surprising finish on a season.
Marshall, with all the troubles during the season did dominate Louisiana, who did more or less cruise to this game.
The Cajuns did not stand a single chance here, starting, similar to Miami (OH) in the MAC, with a field goal and then stopped playing until the game was over and Marshall won the SBC, 31:3.
Their 1st Sun Belt title, since they switched conference for 2022.
Jacks interesting games Score: 35-21

So, those are the results.

Because of the result inside the ACC and the BIG-12, the discussion was big, who would be in and who would be out. And who gets a 1st round bye. SMU was highly ranked PRIOR the loss to Clemson, which were not that high ranked, and several of the teams NOT playing were waiting, whether they might slip into the mix, or not.
The BIG-12 did see themselves on a bye week in 1st round, as did Boise State and of course Clemson as ACC champ had also a case.

The committee made their final round and came up with the following rankings:

The BIG10 kept the 1st place with Oregon winning the conference and Penn State was not punished too hard by losing against the #1 team in a close game. #1 Oregon, #4 Penn State, #6 Ohio State and #8 Indiana.
At #20 was now Illinois put in, but that is for the playoffs irrelevant.

The SEC was of course adjusted, thanks to Georgias title. #2 Georgia, #3 Texas, #7 Tennessee and #11 Alabama became the relevant teams, but for Alabama there was still a surprise waiting.
#14 Ole Miss, #15 South Carolina and #19 Missouri became irrelevant.

Notre Dame dropped without any game playing a spot to #5, but they get any way only an at-large-spot.

The ACC was the big question mark after the loss of SMU.
At the end did the committee drop SMU to #10 and lifted Clemson to #16. But Clemson had a spot guaranteed, so that means at least 1 team from the top 12 would be left out, maybe even 2. Now the BIG-12 rankings became important for Alabama and for Boise State and Clemson regarding the 1st round bye.
At #13 was Miami sorted in, out of the playoffs for sure and #21 Syracuse did also rise by 1.

The Mountain West was won by Boise State, and they got raised to #9, which means they will have a 1st round bye as 3rd best conference champ.
At #24 was UNLV put, now only relevant for some bowl seatings.

The BIG-12 did know, their champ would be in regardless the ranking, but of course they wanted a 1st round bye. At the end was Arizona State ranked at #12, which did give them a 1st-round bye as 4th best conference champ and did also seal the fate of Alabama at #11 to be out of the playoffs. I will explain it in detail a bit later.
The other BIg-12 teams in the rankings are #17 BYU. #18 Iowa State and #23 Colorado.

Army did win the American, but was only raised to #22 in the ranks, not going to the playoffs, and Memphis stayed at #25.

Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State were ranked highest as conference champs and did get a 1st round bye. That means they will play their next match in some bowls against the winners of 4 non-bowl games defining the 1st round, played on the homefield of the highest ranked teams in that matchup.
Clemson as 5th conference champ did get a seat, even as #16.

The other 7 seats were given to the 7 highest ranked at-large-teams, Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee, Indiana and SMU. Alabama at #11 drops out, since there is no more space left.

Of course, there were big discussions on whether that set of teams is fair, right or wrong, the best or not. But there is no help. The easiest way to get in the playoffs was always to win. But there are more issues at stake here. Assuming they would have put Alabama (or any other not playing team) in the playoffs and pushed SMU out, it would mean, that SMU would have been better off NOT playing for the championship game and just stay put to stay at #8 to #10 and not getting punished losing in that game. Likely they did not want that to happen.
Remember, last season did Alabama get the shot in the 4-team-playoff-format over a perfect FSU team, which was then ranked #5 and fell apart.

Are the 12 best or strongest teams in the playoffs?

Likely not.

But it gives several teams a legit chance to win, including Boise State and SMU, while it leaves some likely stronger teams out, like Alabama and Ole Miss.
I personally like that teams from such conferences now have a better chance to at least compete, while in the past they never had a chance at all.

In the old world of the BCS (just a national championship game), we would see Oregon vs Georgia. I don't think we would have a lot of arguing this season over that matchup, but still a bit with Georgia having 2 losses and Notre Dame only having 1. Nobody would pay attention to Boise State, who did lose only against Oregon by a few points and did beat everybody else. No chance for them.
In the 4-team-playoffs, we would see Oregon vs Penn State and Georgia vs Texas again, even I think they would have tweaked the ranking to have a cross conference matchup. There would be ranting from Notre Dame over the 5th place and also here, nobody would think about giving Boise State a shot.

NOW they have a shot and a really good one, too.
Will they win their game (it will be against Penn State or SMU)? Maybe, or maybe not. But they will have a chance to prove they are legit. A chance they did not have since introduction of the BCS system.

And if the price for that is, that some teams, who lost a few more games on a tougher schedule, are left out, I think that is worth the price.

Bottom line for me is, if you want to win championships, win games. If BYU would have won all games to the championship game, they would have been in. If Alabama would have won all games, they would have played for the SEC championship and they would have been in the playoffs.
Same for Miami, if they wouldn’t have dropped 2 games in the last few weeks, they would have been in.

I will preview the games, when they come up. They will be played during bowl game period, even they are not really bowl games.

That in the box, we shift towards coached news.

Ball State did hire a new coach, Mike Uremovich. Uremovich did serve as HC of Butler the past 3 seasons, 23-11 overall and a high at 9-3 this season, but no playoff spot in the FCS. Prior to that he was the HC at a JUCO St. Francis for 7 seasons, after which he started getting better paid jobs as position and coordinator coach on FBS and FCS level. Ball State will be a rebuilding job, I hope he gets the time needed.

Joe Harasymiak was hired by UMass to coach the team for the next season. Harasymiak was the past 3 seasons the DC of Rutgers and prior to that of Minnesota. He is under 40, so quite young compared to the majority of the HCs. UMass will join the MAC (again) in 2025 and the new HC will have a lot of work to do, to make the team a winner.

Fresno State did hire the USC Assistant HC/LB coach Matt Entz to become their next HC. Entz was prior the USC job the HC of North Dakota State and won the National Championship with the team twice and has a HC on FCS level of 60-11. Fresno State did struggle this season and the new coach will have to restore the program fast.

At least for me surprising was the hiring by Charlotte, who got Tim Albin, no former HC of Ohio. For me that came out of nowhere, since Albin is only 4 seasons at Ohio, successful (33-19, conference championship this season), he got an extension last season and Charlotte does not look much like an upgrade to me. But Charlotte did move to the AAC and should now by able to spend more money on the HC than a MAC school. Likely a good hire, but he will have a lot of work to do at Charlotte.

Utah State did not wait long and hired Bronco Mendenhall away from New Mexico. Mendenhall has deep roots to the state of Utah, since he was the HC of BYU for a longer period. He just 1 season at New Mexico and had not moved much there. But when he was hired at Virginia a few seasons ago, the program became a competitor in a few seasons. So Utah State found likely a good fit here.

Southern Miss made a good hire by getting Charles Huff, the now former HC of Marshall. He was the HC of Marshall for 4 seasons and his contract was running out, which does not happen very often. Bad timing for the school, Huff had the best season of his career this season and won the conference. Likely the team wanted to prolong the contract NOW (last season the record was 6-7 and prolongation talks were stalled or not even initiated with having in mind to get rid of him cheaply), but Huff did get an (better) offer from Southern Miss and he will coach the competitor of Marshall from now onwards. Huff record at Marshall was 32-20 overall.

But, maybe the whole theory is rubbish and Marshall had their successor already in place, because when Huff went to Southern Miss, Marshall did present Tony Gibson, the former DC of NC State, as new HC. He takes over a championship team.

And another hire, now by Tulsa, hiring Tre Lamb, former HC of Gardner-Webb and East Tennessee State, both FCS. He won the conference with Gardner-Webb twice and just got the gig at ETS, so that can't be judged deeply.

Central Michigan was searching for their new HC, after their old decided to retire, and found Matt Drinkall, the so far OL-coach of Army. He was a HC in the past before, but only on JUCO Level, his record is there, 42-17. He takes over a Team, which went through several good and bad seasons under the past HC. The program did lack regular bowl participation and main focus on such a school is the compare to Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan and also of course a good result inside the MAC. The last 3 seasons was the Michigan-MAC-Trophy not won by CMU.

A surprising hire came from Central Florida, who decided to hire the current L.A. Rams Analyst and former Nebraska and UCF HC Scott Frost. Frost was 2 seasons with UCF and gave them a perfect Season in his 2nd season, which led to a claimed National Championship in that season (2017). His stint at Nebraska lasted 4+ seasons and was a disaster. He never was able to turn the performance of the team around and got fired early in his 5th season. It will be interesting to see, what he can do at UCF now, which had a very bad season inside the BIG-12.

Florida International found their guy in Willie Simmons, the former RB coach of Duke and also former HC of 2 FCS Teams, winning a conference championship in 2023. FIU is a rough place to coach, expectations are usually quite high, but the results of the past few coaches were bad, including proven coaches.

Appalachian State made quite a splash to get their new HC by hiring South Carolinas OC Dowell Loggains. The Name itself is not a big Splash, since this is his 1st HC stint ever, but South Carolina seems to be on the rise and Loggains is since 2 seasons the OC and a Major factor on that rise, so getting him away from the Gamecocks can only mean, the guy seeks a HC opportunity which brings him further up the ladder. The expectations at App State are high, the program is used to win, a lot.

Purdue found their guy by hiring Barry Odom away from UNLV. Odom was once the HC of Missouri but failed there. Later he was hired at UNLV for 2023 and guided the team twice to the championship game in 2023 and 2024 but lost to Boise in both seasons. Now he has to turn Purdue around, which will be a tough cookie.

And as last info, Oklahoma States HC Mike Gundy agreed to a contract restructuring, including a pay cut, after his 3-9 season with the Cowboys, his worst ever in 20 seasons with the team. According to the school the talks were planned anyway to make financial room for player payments to keep the program competitive inside the BIG-12. Gundy did already fire his coordinators and will have to make a big makeover on the team to not facing such a bad season again.

If I'm not wrong, schools searching for a new HC are New Mexico, North Carolina, West Virginia, Sam Houston State, Ohio and UNLV.

Which leaves us with the traditional lone game on this weekend, the ARMY-NAVY-GAME.

The BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 16

Sat. Dec 14
Navy @ #22 Army
Played this season in the stadium of the Washington Commanders as neutral site, both teams did enjoy a quite successful season.
Especially Army, which joined the American Athletic Conference this season, the conference of Navy, did at least for me surprisingly win the most games during the season inside the conference and went to the conference championship game.
Even more surprising they did win big inside the Championship game and will now face as AAC champ Navy, who did have a good, but not very good season inside the AAC.
Both teams did already qualify for a bowl game.
Army did win the Commander-In-Chief-Trophy last season and the winner of this game here will take home the price as real winner, not because of that 'shared' use case.
Navy and Army both did top Air Force, so the winner here will have 2 wins and gets the shiny trophy.
The series Army-Navy has so far 124 games and Navy leads, 62-55- - 7, including losing the past 2 years.
Based on the season results is Army of course favored to win, by 6.5 points.
With the type of game they did show in the championship game, they could even win against much stronger opponents, but they did also lose big against Notre Dame.
Lucky for them, Navy did lose even bigger against the Irish and by that logic, Army should be able have a close game and even win this game here.
The rest is up to the players and coaches, such a rivalry game can't be picked, it can only be guessed and afterwards you were right or wrong.
This season I pick Army to win it all.
Black Knights win.

Which brings me to the upcoming bowls, which start suddenly on the same day as Army-Navy? That’s not fair and good.
Not fair to me preparing all that stuff and not fair to Army-Navy, who wanted always an exclusive gameday.
Not good, since it (from my point of view) lowers the value of both games on the day. Army-Navy is NOT a bowl and you might think ‘oh, some unimportant game is also played’ and on the other hand you might think ‘Oh, that bowl must be shit, since it is played in parallel to the national wide Army-Navy game’.

This season is the 1st to have the 12-team-playoff format and we have again 41 bowl games on FBS level plus the 42nd one to be the National Championship game.
BUT ... this season, because of the new playoff format, more bowls are filled with winners of other bowls.

Last season, only the National Championship game was filled by winners of bowls (the semi-finales, which were Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl), but this season we have 1st round games for the playoffs, which are NOT bowl games, then quarterfinals, which are Bowl games (Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl) and the winners of those will advance to the semi-finales (Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl) and of course the winners of those will advance to the National Championship game.

That means, 2 Bowls drop out of the pre-selection phase (when the spots are filled, usually after the conference championship game week) and that means, only 39 bowls will get selected teams, equals 78 teams (last season it was 82).

That did lead to less voodoo-magic to fill all the spots.
Last season we had teams which were not eligible to play, because of transition phase from FCS to FBS (Jacksonville State and James Madison) playing in a bowl, because spots were still open. And we had a team not eligible to play, because it had only 5 wins (Minnesota), because of a spot still open and having the best academic progress rate (APR).
This season we have actually 82 Teams eligible, but only 78 spots to be filled.
BUT ... one thing I did not had in mind is, that teams selected to play in the 1st round matches will NOT play in any other bowl, which opens up regular bowl spots for the other teams.
To make this more confusing, of those 8 teams then 4 teams WILL block regular bowl games spots, since the winner will play in the quarterfinals.
Hence, only 4 spots are more available than I thought, which means, ALL 82 eligible teams this season will play in a bowl and no one is not invited.

Damn, that gets complicated.

The FIRST SET OF BOWLs from next Saturday, 14th to Thursday, 19th of December.

Saturday, December 14
2024 IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl
South Alabama vs Western Michigan
@Cramton Bowl, Montgomery, Alabama
A renamed bowl, until last season known as Camellia Bowl. It had several naming sponsors since it was started in 2014, but so far always the Camellia inside the name, but starting this season, the Camellia is gone.
It features usually Sun Belt vs MAC and so far only in 2020 did the Sun Belt not send a team to this bowl.
The bowl is owned by ESPN and is played on the field for the FCS Kickoff in Alabama.
The Sun Belt has a 5-4 record here, the MAC is 4-4, thanks to last seasons win, and CUSA is 1-2.
South Alabama had a up-and-down-season inside the Sun Belt.
They came close to a win against Arkansas State, did then beat so far unbeaten ULM, lost to Georgia Southern a week later and gave then a week later Championship-participant Louisiana their 1st loss of the season, while losing on season final against Texas State.
Overall did the Jaguars record a 6-6 Season, mainly, because they last 3 of 4 non-conference games.
Western Michigan did look like a hot Team inside the MAC, starting 4-0, but lost then 3 in a row afterwards and finished with a win against Eastern Michigan to become bowl eligible.
Their non-conference record is also 3-1, but to be fair, their opponents were a bit tougher overall than USAs ones.
Still, I lean towards the Jaguars here, who did show they can win against tough opponents, while Western Michigan did not beat any bigger contender inside their conference.
Vegas has South Alabama also ahead by 7.5 Points, which is quite some stuff.
In Bowls, everything can happen, but I expect USA to be prepared and ready, when they play an almost-home game, while the Michigan team has to come south.
Jaguars win.

Tuesday, December 17
Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl
West Virginia vs Memphis
@Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas
Founded in 2017 as American Athletic Conference Bowl against an at-large-team, the bowl did strip down in the past 2 seasons and did seek any matchup between Group of 5 teams.
Even it was planned to have an American Athletic Team each season, only on the 1st year, 2017, and last season, 2023, a team from the American did participate, beside that and most of the time a team from the Mountain West was in it. They have a record of 2-2. Conference USA is 2nd with a record of 1-2, thanks to last season’s loss.
But oh wonder, this season again a Team from the AAC was selected and on top a power-4 Team from the BIG-12.
The record of the AAC is 1-1, the BIG-12 did never play in this.
The stadium is a soccer stadium for a MLS team from Dallas.
My gut Feeling is, Memphis will eat West Virginia alive.
West Virginia did barely make the 6-6, finished with a loss at season end, won more or less only against bad teams lost to all stronger ones. The Team did also fire their HC and runs on Interims Management.
Memphis on the other hand is 10-2, and did only not play in the AAC Championship game, because they lost on the road against Navy and UTSA, with the last one being the worst loss. The team did compensate the loss against ranked Tulane (later AAC Championship participant) by Winning against them to give them their 1st loss and taking away the homefield advantage in the Championship game (which might have result in the loss of Tulane against Army for the AAC title).
Vegas? Has Memphis ahead by 4.5 Points. Not that much.
The Interims HC of the Mountaineers is the key factor.
If he, as new coach, different coach, can motivate the team and bring them together, West Virginia will likely outperform Memphis by a lot, since the power-4-talent should be good.
But if the Team performs as before (or worse), Memphis should win here.
I think Memphis has a good chance and I'm following my gut feeling.
Tigers win.

Wednesday, December 18
2024 Boca Raton Bowl
Western Kentucky vs James Madison
@FAU Stadium, Boca Raton, Florida
A bowl since 2014 it's a game between always new negotiated conference tie ins, usually for 2 seasons.
This season again we should have any Group of 5 team or Army in it, but usually the grab what they can get.
It's played on the home field of the Florida Atlantic Owls.
Since the tie-in did shift over the seasons, there were a lot of teams from different conferences in it.
The unbelievable streak of the CUSA with 6 wins in 6 appearances still stands.
Last year did the American finally get their 1st win in this bowl and are now 1-4.
Western Kentucky will have the pressure to Keep the CUSA streak alive, but the 8-5 Teams does face one of the toughest Teams from the Sun Belt, James Madison, which had actually a down season with a 8-4 record.
WKU did slip into the CUSA Conference Championship game with a win at home against the leading team from Jacksonville State but did then lose against the same team in the title game big time.
James Madison was one of the favorites to lead the Sun Belt, but they lost the crucial games against contenders to fall behind and finished below their own expectations.
Vegas thinks, the Dukes will win by 7.0 Points, I think, they will win by even more, IF they are motivated to play.
I assume they want to snack at least one title, so ...
Dukes win.

Art of Sport LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk
Cal vs UNLV
@SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California
And quite new bowl here, since 2021 and with tie-ins to Mountain West and PAC-12 (which is funny, since the PAC-12 has right now only 2 members, but contracts are contracts, right?)
So far, the naming of the bowl for whatever reason to entertainment persons (Jimmy Kimmel and Rob Gronkowski).
Of course, the stadium is the home field of the LA Rams and the LA Chargers and right now one of the most advanced stadiums in the world.
The Mountain West got their 1st loss in this bowl last season, now 2-1, while the PAC-12 got their 1st win, now 1-2.
But of course, this season we have a funny situation with a FORMER-PAC-12-team, now ACC-team, Cal and a Mountain West team.
Cal had a rough season and their transition to the ACC was much tougher than from other teams making the move (but there were also worse examples, like Stanford).
They finished 6-6, mainly because the lost a lot of games inside the ACC of which likely the loss to FSU is the worst, since FSU did finish 2-10.
UNLV had a quite good season, recorded 10-2 in the regular season, went to the MWC Championship game and lost to the favorite Boise State.
They also lost shortly afterwards their HC to Purdue.
Now under interims Management, the key to the game is likely, whether UNLV does fall apart in that situation or not.
Cal is not a good team, but good enough to give UNLV a challenge and under the gone HC I would have picked them to win here, but under the current circumstances, I think Cal has a good chance to win here.
They had an extra week to prepare and do not have that off-field-disturbance.
I expect a close game, so does Vegas, which gives Cal the nod with 2.0 points.
Golden Bears win.

Thursday, December 19
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Georgia Southern vs Sam Houston
@Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana
This exists since 2001 and is a Sun Belt vs Conference USA game.
Played in the Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints.
The Sun Belt has a record of 12-9 in this bowl, the CUSA 8-11, thanks to the win of the CUSA team last year, making it 2 CUSA wins in a row.
Georgia Southern did drive me mad this season, since they did sit on top of the Sun Belt East division for some time and then did lose crucial games, cane back to the top and lost again.
What did make me mad was, they did not lose to the later division and conference champ, no! They did win against Marshall. They lost to Old Dominion (5-7) and Troy (4-8).
So, they shot themselves in the foot, finished 8-4 and made it into this bowl.
Sam Houston on the other hand is a 2nd year FBS teams, which did almost make it to the CUSA Championship game, but lost against the 2 Championship game participants and finished 9-3.
On paper should Georgia Southern wipe the field with Sam Houston.
Vegas thinks, they will do that with 6.0 points, which is not really wiping.
I think, if the team comes to play, they will win, big time. The team had all the potential to win the Sun Belt and had 2 bad games.
Sure, they can have another one, but that can't be projected.
Sam Houston had problems with tough teams, and Georgia Southern is a tough one, of they want to be one.
Eagles win.

That's it for the 1st set of Bowl games.

'Til next time
Jack6 on BLOCK OF GRANITE

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