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And we have a result on the conference champions, yeah.
Seriously, this feels a bit discounted nowadays compared to the status, say 10 to 15 years ago.
In the past, for most teams, that was it. The regular season was over, the champion was crowned and für the majority of the teams, the season was done. The lucky ones got an invite to a bowl game, roughly 40 teams, and 2 teams would clash for the ultimate national championship ranking.
The rest did sit at home during the holidays and did reflect on the season and/or did prepare for the next one.
That means, the Championship games were really for most the end of the season, period.
Today is totally different. Sure, we now know that a team did win the Championship game and that ends the conference games.
But then we wait for the final committee rankings for the playoffs and for the majority of the other teams, it’s waiting for the bowl invite, so they can start preparing for that one game (in case of a bowl) or for hopefully many games (in case of playoffs) during the holidays.
Only roughly a third of the teams can start worrying about the next season. The rest is not finished.
So, hooray for the Championships, let’s move forward.
Well, OK, I will give you a recap of the nine Championship games.
And this season, there were some real stunners!
The BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 15
Sat. Dec 7
BIG-12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#11 BYU vs #4 Texas Tech
This started interesting, since BYU did draw first blood and scored a TD after stopping TTU on their 1st drive.
And then it went all the way into boring as it can be, since from here onward, it was Texas Tech all the way.
BYU did not score any more points, their best chance was a field goal try, which missed the target.
BYU did commit errors over errors and TTU did of course tried to make the best out of it.
The Red Raiders did only get 13 points out of the turnovers, and there were plenty, but it did not matter.
The score of 13:7 at the half did mislead a bit, since BYU did not do much in the 2nd quarter, but the final score of 34:7 does more or less show the difference.
After the game the discussions did start of course, whether BYU s loss and likely fall in the playoff ranks would help teams like Miami or Notre Dame, but since other games were not played, nobody did knew.
One thing was clear, Texas Tech did win the BIG-12 and will play in the playoffs, very likely with a bye week.
Congratulation!
#11 BYU 7 vs #4 Texas Tech 34 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 28-9
SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#3 Georgia vs #9 Alabama
The 1st surprise on the surprises, but only regarding the score.
Alabama did not play any offense, as it seems.
Well, OK, they did play, but not really well. Their rushing attack was so ineffective, that their total was -3 yards!
So, they had to go though the air and that did work OK, but Georgia had no problems to stop them.
And on the other hand did the Bulldogs just score every quarter a Touchdown and Alabama not.
The Tides only score came early in the 4th quarter and there they were down 0:21 already.
Sure, at 7:21 there was still room for a comeback, but Alabama did just not get the offense moving.
At the end did Georgia win 28:7 and got the SEC title. Congratulation!
Likely a bye week spot for the Bulldogs and a big question mark for the Crimson Tide regarding playoffs as 10-3 team.
The pro-Bama-people did point towards the strength of schedule, the con-Bama-people did point out that 3 losses are just too much.
#3 Georgia 28 vs #9 Alabama 7 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 29-9
BIG10 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#2 Indiana @ #1 Ohio State
And here we have one of the biggest stunners, if not THE stunner, of the weekend.
The 2 teams did not play soft, and after the 1st quarter it did look like a game, which would be won by the least error prone team.
Both teams had already an INT thrown, but OSU got more points out of it and led 7:3.
The 2nd quarter did feature 2 field goals by the teams and Indiana did miss another one, so we went 10:6 into the halftime.
In the 3rd quarter we did see that the defense driven focus of the game continued, but Indiana managed to get the lead with a TD, 13:10.
And in the 4th did Ohio State miss a field goal and Indiana did grind it down to win the BIG10 for the 1st time since 1967! Congratulation!
What a surprise, that one of the most potent offense teams, did win the game in a defense battle against the reigning national champion.
It was clear prior the game, that regardless the result (and I think most did expect the Buckeyes to win) both teams would make the playoffs.
It was just a matter of where the losing team would land, TOP4 or less.
A top 4 spot would mean bye week.
#2 Indiana 13 @ #1 Ohio State 10 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 29-10
And some other interesting games:
Fri. Dec 6
CUSA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Kennesaw State @ Jacksonville State
Now we get to the other championship games, and this here was the 1st to be played on Friday already.
A very defense driven game, where Kennesaw State did play better for 3 quarters. At the start of the 4th did Kennesaw lead 10:0.
They did then even extend the lead with a safety.
On the next play, did Kennesaw State fumble the return and Jacksonville State got the ball.
A few plays later did they score a TD and the game was wide open.
The Gamecocks did manage to stop the Owls on their next drive in 3 plays and Jacksonville State did see their chance, marched down the field and scored a TD for the lead, 13:12.
With 4 minutes left to play, Kennesaw State got the ball back and used their chance to get the lead back, scored a TD over 3 minutes later and stopped the Gamecocks on their next drive to win the CUSA title, their 1st ever with a 19:15 score. Congratulation!
Jacks interesting games Score: 26-11
SBC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Troy @ #25 James Madison
This game went all the way as expected.
Granted, until the start of the 4th quarter was the game wide open at 17:14 Dukes, but then did JMU just score 2 TDs, including a fumble return TD on one of the last Troy attempts to get back into the game.
So, James Madison won the Sun Belt, 31:1. Congratulation.
And the team had hope for a playoff spot, of certain teams would win.
I guess, there were never so many Duke fans in Harrisonburg, Virgina than on last Saturday.
Jacks interesting games Score: 27-11
AAC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#24 North Texas @ #20 Tulane
Tulane had a big 2nd quarter, which did at the end gave them the win.
North Texas fumbled the ball early in the 2nd and the Green Wave did score a TD 2 plays later.
From here did for whatever reason the North Texas offense stumble and Tulanes did not, so at the break it was 24:7 Tulane already.
Then came the 3rd quarter and North Texas had a sequence of plays, which did hurt them even further.
The were intercepted for a pick 6 and on the next drive picked again on the Tulane 2-yard line.
Later did North Texas score, but here did just points vanish into shit.
From here it did look like, UNT was on the run to eventually getting back into the game, they did score, they did held Tulane to almost no scoring, but the team just did run out of time, so at the end did Tulane win the American Conference 34:21. Congratulation!
It was clear that the winner would get a playoff spot as at least 5th conference champ and highest ranked group of 5 team.
Jacks interesting games Score: 27-12
MWC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
UNLV @ Boise State
UNLV did just play not smart enough to win here.
Boise State did play almost flawless, while UNLV did commit errors, staring with a fumble on the 1st drive and a missed field goal in the 1st quarter.
Boise Offense was almost unstopped, while UNLV did need time to get things going.
The score was never too bad for UNLV, but bad enough to have them in catch-up-mode the whole game.
At the end did Boise State win 38:21 and won the MWC the 3rd time in a row.
It was clear at the start of the game, that the winner would very very likely not get any playoff considerations.
Jacks interesting games Score: 28-12
Sat. Dec 7
MAC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Miami (OH) @ Western Michigan
And here we have another game, which went was expected.
Western Michigan did score early, Miami did answer and from here onward it was almost all WMU.
At the end did WMU win 23:13, which is not a margin I did expect, but they did win the MAC. Congratulation!
Jacks interesting games Score: 29-12
ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Duke @ #17 Virginia
And here the most anticipated game for many teams.
The results became very important, since it did decide the fate of the conference playoff spots, and the playoff spots of many other teams, including a chance for 2 group of 5 champions to be in the playoffs!
And we got a thriller with Duke being the better team at the start.
They scored twice in the 1st quarter, Virgina missed a field goal and at the break was Duke leading by a score, 14:7.
The 3rd quarter was all defense, with 2 long drives capped with a field goal for each team, 17:10 now for Duke.
Then did Virgina throw and INT in the 4th and Duke did extend the lead by a field goal and held Virginia also to a field goal.
Done? Not so fast.
With less than 2 minutes to go did Virginia get the ball and rolled over the field and scored a TD to tie the game up at 20!
Duke got the ball in the 1st OT and scored a TD.
Virgina had to counter that and did throw an INT on the 1st play!
Duke did win the ACC 27:20 in OT, the 1st conference title since 1989! Congratulation!
By that win did they sink Virgina out of the playoffs and since Duke itself has a bad season record (now 8-5) it was clear the ACC champ would not play in the playoffs also.
That did open the gates for JMU and of course Tulane.
There was of course instant bragging of the Blue Devils deserving a spot as champs, but that are the rules, sorry guys.
Jacks interesting games Score: 29-13
That wraps it up.
So, let’s get back to the additional firings and hirings since I posted my last entry.
The hire and fire part
We continue again with the firings / leaving the team.
Chris Klieman did step down from being the HC of Kansas State. He did announce he would be retiring from coaching. He did coach Kansas State for 7 seasons and won the conference once in 2022. He also won 4 national titles and 5 conference titles with North Dakota State (FCS) in the 5 seasons he was HC there. He was for sure a good hire by the school.
I do not list the leaves by getting hired by other schools, that would make this list unreadable. But the hirings, which did happen over the past few days were quite much as a tickle down effect from highest paying conferences to the smaller ones.
South Florida did tap Ohio States OC Brian Hartline as new HC. He will remain with Ohio State for the playoffs.
And Kansas State has hired their successor to the retiring HC they had. They did get former Kansas State star QB and now OC of Texas A&M. It’s his first HC job and likely he is very glad to do that at KSU.
Cal found their guy in Tosh Lupoi, the DC of Oregon. Lupoi is a former Cal player and had several assistant positions as coach since then in the NFL and college.
Tulane did promote their passing game coordinator Will Hall to head coach. He was already a HC in division 2 and with Southern Miss until last year after he was the OC of Tulane. This season he came back to Tulane as passing game coordinator. We will see whether he fits better at Tulane than at Southern Miss, where he was not very successful.
After an embarrassing long search with a lot of declines did Penn State find their guy to become the next HC. They selected Matt Campbell, the HC of Iowa State, as new HC. Campbell was so successful at Iowa State, that he is the HC with the most wins at ISU in just 10 seasons (and if I’m not mistaken, he got that mark in his 9th season already). Campbell did lift the program from laughingstock to competitor and it will be interesting to see, how he will do in a program like Penn State.
Iowa State did not wait long and tapped Washington States HC Jimmy Rogers as new HC. Rogers was a HC at South Dakota State for 2 seasons, before he became the WSU HC for this single season this year.
UConn selected Toledos HC Jason Candle as new HC. Candle was the HC at Toledo for 10 seasons (he was promoted after Campbell left for Iowa State) and did quite good there, won the conference twice, but somehow was never selected earlier to lead a bigger program. Now he is the HC of UConn, one of the only 2 left independent schools.
UCLA hired Bob Chesney away from James Madison. Chesney has a long history as HC and did work his way up from lowest level to now a FBS power 4 school. He is allowed to coach the Dukes on their CFP-run.
And James Madison did not search for long and hired former Florida HC Billy Napier as new HC. Napier was the HC of Florida this season, until he was fired, because he did not meet the expectations. Prior to Florida he was the HC of Louisiana and very successful in the 4 seasons there.
And Memphis did hire Charles Huff, the HC of Southern Miss, as new HC. Huff was for 4 seasons the HC of Marshall until he switched the team for 2025 to Southern Miss, where he was way better than his predecessor, but failed to keep the team on track in the last 3 weeks for a championship spot. We have to see, how good he will be at Memphis.
That leaves us with the playoff rankings, the last regular season game of the season, the Army-Navy-Game and the 1st set of Bowl games coming.
Let’s dive into the playoff rankings.
As reminder, a committee did since November publish a list of 25 teams, ranked from 1 to 25, to show their view regarding the strength of each team, weekly. That means, every week the list was updated, based on the last gameday results and the results of the whole season.
Now, we have after the championship game weekend the final list.
I’m still curious, what the committee would do, if Army and/or Navy would be red hot inside the TOP25 and that upcoming game, since ages traditionally AFTER the championship games, would be important for the rankings. Likely they would wait, but that would have major impact on the Bowl setups and all related plannings.
Well, this season that is not important, neither Army nor Navy would crack the TOP25 anyway.
Where were I? Oh yes, the final list is online, and we now know, which teams did make the cut into the playoffs.
The mechanics are a bit complicated and different to last year, so here a short version.
All teams are sorted from 1 to 25. 12 teams make the playoffs and of those not even all have to be on that top25 list, but likely are.
Qualified for the playoffs are the top 5 conference champions (last year that were SEC, BIG10, BIG-12, ACC and the MWC), including at least one group of 5 champ, plus 7 at-large-teams.
The top 4 teams will get a bye week (last year it was the top 4 conference champs, but now any team will do it), the rest does play first round with home field advantage for the higher ranked teams.
The tricky part in that rule set is, that conference champs are awarded a spot, even if they are not ranked high, or even ranked.
And that’s where the bragging starts for the at-large teams and the even the conference champs.
Because if you are not ranked high enough, a spot more or less, even inside the TOP12 spots, can make the difference between playing for a national championship and getting a LOT of money, and not being in that type of series and playing only a regular bowl.
This season for example did Notre Dame brag prior the championship game about their drop in the ranks by a spot (to 10), and the lift of Alabama by a spot (to 9), since the Irish did destroy Stanford and Alabama did barely beat Auburn. Well, I guess Notre Dame did forget about the re-evaluation of EVERY game from season start onward after each gameday, to find a ranking fitting for the result of each team. Yes, Stanford was shit and Auburn was just a win better. But Alabama had a much tougher schedule than Notre Dame with the same overall record, so who should be ranked higher?
Of course, Notre Dame knew, that a spot at 10 is problematic, especially since they did not play last gameday and the championship game weekend does often shift the rankings again. Especially the BIG-12 Championship game and the ACC-Championship game were problematic for them.
If BYU, at then 11, would win against the higher ranked Texas Tech team, it was unclear, whether 1 or 2 teams would be TOP12 and were they would end up. BYU as winner could end up at 9 and Texas Tech could end up at 10 or so. And Notre Dame would have to move to 11.
And with Virginia at 17 would win, it did not matter where they would end up, they would be in and Notre Dame out, because on top would come the AAC champ at somewhat 18 or worse.
The reality did beat the fiction by a mile.
We had PRIOR the weekend following teams realistically in the mix:
Ohio State, Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, Oregon, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama, Notre Dame, BYU, Miami (listed from 1 to 12 and Virginia, Tulane, North Texas and James Madison deeper ranked, but with conference title games.
We got after the weekend Indiana as BIG10 champ getting the #1 spot. Ohio State as losing team in the BIG10-Champioship game got still ranked as #2, Georgia as SEC Champ made #3 and Texas Tech as BIG-12 Champ got the #4 spot. Those are the bye week teams. That’s quite OK from my point of view, even I would have put Georgia ahead of Ohio State.
At #5 did Oregon land, #6 is Ole Miss, #7 Texas A&M and #8 Oklahoma. Those are all at-large-teams, who did not play last weekend. Now it gets interesting, since the spots for the playoffs get short and so many teams think they ‘deserve’ a spot. The committee did put the 10-3 Alabama team, losing the SEC championship game, at #9, which became a catastrophe for Notre Dame. Of all the teams in the mix, there are 2 teams already clear, Tulane as AAC champ and James Madison as Sun Belt Champ, since the ACC champ, Duke, even they did lobby for a spot, were clearly out as 8-5 teams. And even Tulane was ranked at #20 and James Madison was ranked at #24, they got the spots #11 and #12. That leaves just spot number 10 for 2 hopeful teams, Notre Dame and Miami. BYU was clear to be shifted down the rankings (they landed at #12) because of the loss in the BIG-12 Championship game. Notre Dame lost to Miami and A&M, won against all other teams, which did include a lot of ACC teams. Miami did lose to Louisville and SMU and won against all other teams, with of course a lot of ACC teams and Notre Dame, then ranked South Florida and Florida.
In the final ranking did the committee put Miami ahead of Notre Dame at #10 and Notre Dame landed at #11, out of the playoffs.
THAT did lead to one of the biggest bragging I ever saw and Notre Dame to pull themselves out of the bowl games for this season!
I did see bragging of FSU being not in the then 4 teams playoff system as unbeaten team and they DID play in a bowl, even that was an embarrassment, too. But they did show up, at least.
Notre Dame did cry like a kindergarten kid at the sweets shop not getting their will and did decide to not play AT ALL.
They decided decades and also years ago to not being part of a conference, because they have that juice TV contract with NBC and it pays off. They did manipulate every step since the championship games were created to have a better than usual chance to get into one of those juice bowls or play for a national championship until this season and now, when the committee did their job and it came down to which at-large-team should play for the national championship in addition, with a direct compare between those 2 teams in question, and they made the decision to put the winning team in, we see a cry-baby-reaction, because they don’t want to play in a pity-bowl, they want the real deal. Pathetic!
Anyway, we have the 12 teams playing.
As additional news I have, that 2 additional schools decided to not play in a bowl game, Kansas State and Iowa State. Kansas State named the coaching change, injuries and transfers as reason to decline any bowl invite, Iowa States players did make a vote internally and decided to not participate because of injured players.
In total a disaster for the bowl system with 3 absolute eligible teams withdrawing from the list, which did barely fit the required teams anyway.
So, 3 additional teams were needed to fill the spots, which were only be found in the 5-7 teams list. Usually those are selected by academic progress rate. I did not find any hint, how the teams got selected at the end, but Rice, Mississippi State and Appalachian State, all 5-7, were selected to fill the open spots.
Honestly, cut the damn bowl spots in half and we will see, how many will withdraw then. This season they did even INVENT a bowl to fit the initially 82 teams (because they scrapped the Bahamas Bowl and needed 2 more spots for the suddenly 82 eligible teams, including the prior the season not-eligible teams in transition phase).
But it seems the bowls are usually a good enough business to keep the number of bowls high, so I have to deal with that.
BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 16
Sat. Dec 13
Army @ Navy
Sometimes this game is interesting and fun, sometimes not.
This season it feels a bit to the NOT side.
Army did win the AAC last year and fell to so far 6-5 a year after.
That’s not really a good record.
They started even with a loss to an FCS team!
You can pick as biggest win either that one against UTSA on the road inside the AAC, with UTSA finishing 6-6, or you pick the win against Kansas State on the road, with KSU finishing also 6-6 overall.
Not really impressive.
Navy on the other hand is 9-2 and their season went quite OK.
Biggest wins were against South Florida at home, they finished 9-3, and Memphis on the road, finishing 8-4.
Navy was close to play for the AAC Championship but lost the tiebreaker to Tulane and North Texas.
Both teams here won against Air Force, so the winner in this game here will take home the Commander-In-Chief-Trophy.
Last year did Navy claim the trophy, after they won the Army-Navy-game last year.
So far, 125 meetings between the 2 teams and Navy leads by 8 wins.
This season Navy is favored by 6.0 points, which is a statement.
Played at home, Navy should have a small boost on top of their better teams on paper.
But these games here are not like normal games.
We did see favorites lose, we saw high scoring and low scoring games.
In the past few seasons, this series is much more open than it was (Navy won all games between 2002 and 2015), but high scoring was not the case in any of the games in the past decade.
If Navy can score, say 20+ points, they will win, since Army were unable to score more since years.
The big question mark, every season, is, whether the Army defense can stop the Navy offense, or not.
With the Navy QB of last year back, I think this will go in Navys favor.
Midshipmen win.
And because the bowl season, including the playoffs, became so crazy in the past 2 years, the bowl season starts on the same day as the Army-Navy-game now. (It did also last year and likely will until they blob it up even further).
The FIRST SET OF BOWLs from next Saturday, 13th to Thursday, 18th of December.
Sat., Dec 13
Bucked Up LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk
Boise State vs Washington
@SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California
And quite new bowl here, since 2021 and with tie-ins to Mountain West and PAC-12 (The so called ‘legacy schools’, being the 10 schools, which left the PAC-12 a season ago, will have to fulfil the contract until this season).
So far, the naming of the bowl for whatever reason to entertainment persons (Jimmy Kimmel and since a few seasons now 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 is 3-1 in this bowl, while the PAC-12 is 1-2.
Last year the ACC did send a legacy team, which lost and this season the BIG10 does send a legacy team.
We have this season Boise State from the Mountain West, being the Champion, again, at 9-4, and we have Washington from the BIG10, which did finish so far 8-4.
The record as described above is very good for the Mountain West, but in this combination, it’s hard to see Boise State here as the favorite.
Vegas doesn’t and made Washington a 9.5-point favorite.
I think it’s a great matchup having those 2 western team clashing, but given the season results so far, I expect Washington to handle this easily.
Bowl games are always a tough one to pick, since rosters do change (because of NFL draft holdouts or transferring players), coaches sometimes change and in general the motivation is sometimes not the best, but those influences are hard to judge.
I expect a quite high scoring game, and the key will be, whether Boise State can score or not.
Huskies win.
Tue., Dec 16
2025 IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl
Troy vs Jacksonville State
@Cramton Bowl, Montgomery, Alabama
A renamed bowl, until 2 seasons ago 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, and the veterans became a title feature.
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 6-4 record here, the MAC is 4-5 and CUSA is 1-2 and did not play here since 2020.
This season we have again a CUSA team in Jacksonville State, which did lose the championship game and is 8-5 so far.
From the Sun Belt is send the championship losing team Troy, now at 8-5 also.
On paper this is clear, Troy should be the favorite, since the Sun Belt is slightly tougher then the CUSA.
Vegas agrees and made Troy a 3.5-points favorite.
But do I believe in that?
Tough to judge, since there is not much to compare here.
Troy did lose to JMU not too badly and they will play for the playoffs, while Jacksonville State almost won the CUSA, but lost to some great plays by Kennesaw State, who are not known to be a powerhouse.
So, yes, I go with the favorite here.
Trojans win.
Wed., Dec 17
StaffDNA Cure Bowl
Old Dominion vs South Florida
@Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida
Played again in the home of the Citrus Bowl and the Pop-Tarts-Bowl.
The bowl exists since 2015 and is now open for all group of 5 teams, plus eventually an ACC team.
So far, the Sun Belt did send a team to this bowl on every game until last season the streak did break. Their record is so far 5-4.
The other conferences did send a team from time to time, but none had more than 3 participations.
This season we have a gain a Sun Belt team with Old Dominion at 9-3.
From the American comes South Florida, also at 9-3.
Old Dominion did drop out of conference contention early in the season with 2 losses in a row, but did climb up the standings with a 5-0 finish.
South Florida was for some time one of the hottest group of 5 teams in the country, winning against Florida and Boise State, but the game against Miami did send the team back to reality and when they lost twice inside the AAC, the season dream of a championship and eventually a playoff spot was over.
Still, in this bowl, the favorite is clear with South Florida being way better bolstered than Old Dominion.
Vegas? They did see not that dominance and made USF only a 5.5-points favorite.
I disagree here and think they will beat that line and win double digit.
Bulls win.
2025 68 Ventures Bowl
Louisiana vs Delaware
@Hancock Whitney Stadium, Mobile, Alabama
The bowl was renamed several times in its past, but it was founded 1999 and is usually a group of 5 vs group of 5 bowl, plan was MAC vs Sun Belt, which did not work out and a CUSA team was invited.
The MAC is the conference with the most participations and has a record of 9-13, including last seasons loss.
The Sun Belt has now 15 participations, but a 11-4 record, including the 3-game winning streak they are on so far.
They play it in the home of the South Alabama Jaguars.
Louisiana is 6-6 and plays the 2nd time in this bowl.
Delaware is also 6-6 and shouldn’t even play in a bowl this season, but because of the lack of teams getting the 6 wins and because 3 schools did withdraw from any bowls at all.
My gut feeling is, Delaware is the underdog and Louisiana should win this, easily.
Vegas makes the Ragin’ Cajuns a 3.0-points favorite, so they see them also as favorite, but not that clearly.
The key will be, how the Delaware players will react on that gift they got. Prior the season no bowl possible, now in a bowl and against a quite beatable team, if Louisiana does take this too easy.
My heart would love to see Delaware win here; my gut says Louisiana all the way.
Ragin’ Cajuns win.
Thur., Dec 18
Xbox Bowl
Missouri State vs Arkansas State
@Ford Center at The Star, Frisco, Texas
This is the replacement of the Bahamas Bowl.
I always dislike the Bahamas Bowl and was happy they would just scrap it, decreasing by that the numbers of bowls in total and getting rid of that bowl nobody wanted to watch anyway.
That was the status roughly 2 weeks ago.
Then suddenly it was said that Delaware and Missouri State are eligible, because the got 6+ wins, but despite the fact they are in FCS-transition and by rule not eligible.
At that time there were 82 teams eligible and only 80 spots available.
And despite the fact that 3 teams did leave the bowl competition on their own, THIS bowl here was created to boost the spot count back to 82, which did force the NCAA to name 3 5-7 teams to participate in bowl games even they had not the 6 wins.
Too complicated?
Well, to make it short, this bowl should not exist, but it does and feature a Sun Belt and a CUSA team.
Arkansas State is 6-6 and plays the 3rd bowl in a row now.
Missouri State is 7-5 and should not be here but is and are actually the favorite in this game, by 2.5 points.
I think both teams are quite close in terms of strength, and it will come down to motivation.
Hard to say, what will happen, but expect a score-happy game.
I pick Arkansas State as the winner, but everything is possible.
Red Wolves win.
Next then the 1st round games of the playoffs and more bowls!
'Til next time
Jack6 on BLOCK OF GRANITE
Tags: Block of Granite, News
