Orange Bowl: #6 Virginia Tech vs. #9 Kansas
Sugar Bowl: #10 Hawaii vs. #5 Georgia
Fiesta Bowl: #3 Oklahoma vs. #9 West Virginia
Rose Bowl: #4 Southern Cal vs. #13 Illinois
Those are the matchups, incorrect as they may be.
Rose Bowl: This game is going to be a joke. Illinois is an improving team, but only got the nod because the people in Pasadena care more about their parade and tradition than the actual game. Illinois is team number 1 that Missouri beat that's in the BCS. Southern Cal is arguably the hottest team right now and will laugh up and down the field.
- Nate's Prediction: USC 45, Illinois 14
- Nate's Selection: USC vs. Ohio State
Orange Bowl: Kansas in a BCS bowl game over Missouri is insane. First off, Missouri beat Kansas on the road. Second, Missour played the nations 38th toughest schedule while Kansas floated along on the nations 106th toughest schedule. And both teams finished with 11 wins. Apparently the tie-breaker in NCAA is now losing to the team you're up against. In that case, I nominate Duke for the this game. They lost to everybody.
- Nate's Prediction: Virginia Tech 31, Kansas 21
- Nate's Selection: Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia
Sugar Bowl: Any team that goes undefeated should be in a BCS bowl. And Hawaii did that. But it's in the wrong one. Bowl games serve to create the most-wanted matchups. UGA-Hawaii has nothing. Hawaii hasn't really played anyone and Georgia's best win is over a three-loss team. They lost AT HOME to a 6-6 South Carolina team and were blown out by Tennessee. Oh yeah, and there's the whole "didn't even win their own division, let alone conference" thing.
- Nate's Prediction: Georgia 40, Hawaii 28
- Nate's Selection: UGA vs. Missouri
Fiesta Bowl: Remember last year's Fiesta Bowl? Undefeated and underrated WAC team against a premiere program. Sound familiar? It doesn't, but it should. OU's going to roll West Virginia, but the best game here would be Hawaii and Ohio State or Oklahoma. But since they're both taken in my predictions, and the Pac-10 doesn't deserve a second team and the Big 12 and SEC already have two teams (dumb rule) I'll go Illinois here. Hook and Lateral, Statue of Liberty and a wedding proposal. It doesn't get much better than that, and the BCS doesn't seem to want to try.
- Nate's Prediction: Oklahoma 52, West Virginia 21
- Nate's Selection: Illinois vs. Hawaii
National Championship Game: Change "LSU" to "Florida" and you have an identical championship matchup as 2007. Bob Stoops is right. Knocking off the #1 team by three touchdowns on a neutral site earns you a right to play for the national championship. Beating Youngstown State and Akron does not. The top two Big 12 teams this year got hosed.
- Nate's Prediction: LSU 41, Ohio State 14
- Nate's Selection: LSU vs. Oklahoma
Biggest Winners: Kansas, Ohio State and Illinois
Kansas and Ohio State benefitted from cakewalk schedules while Illinois lucked out that the Pasadena crew favors Pac-10/Big 10 matchups over better games.
Biggest Losers
Definitely Missouri. Missouri is the only team in the nation that has played three BCS bowl teams and the only team that has beaten two BCS bowl teams. Their BCS rating is higher than three teams playing in BCS bowls and they didn't lose to an unranked team. LSU, OSU, UGA, Oklahoma, USC, Illinois and West Virginia can't say that.
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I've never been a proponent of a playoff system, but there's never been a college football season quite like this one. Mizzou's ranked higher in the BCS than 5 teams that were awarded BCS berths. I'm fairly certain that that's never happened before.
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