As usual, a few great games, lots of pretty good matchups, and some real stinkers for this bowl season.

I think you and I will have a conflicting rooting interest on Jan. 2. I have to pull for the MWC and root for Utah against Bama. I think that if the Tide rolls out flat, the Utes stand a good chance of winning, but if Alabama's at the top of their game, it could get very ugly very fast.

Although I think the matchup deserves a better bowl with a bigger payout and a later date, I'm pretty excited about TCU vs. Boise State. It looks to be one of the top three or four matchups of the whole bowl season. Naturally, I think we'll win, but it'll be a tough one. Interestingly, it'll be on the fifth anniversary of the only other time (to my knowledge) TCU and Boise played, in the 2003 Fort Worth Bowl.

I'm still not all right with OU over Texas (and I've always rooted for OU well before I rooted for Texas, and TCU has something of a vested interest in OU doing well this season), but that national title game looks to be lots and lots of fun. I think the difference will end up being Florida's defense, though, and the Gators will win.

Cheers to you for using Peach and Citrus instead of the corporate names. Some of the less-established bowls I can understand, but those two are ancient enough that the names should be preserved.

Jeers to the Fort Worth Bowl (I just can't embrace the name Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, I'm sorry) for giving us a rematch some 30 miles from where it last happened. USAFA beat Cougar High in Dallas (specifically, on SMU's campus; this one's on TCU's campus, go figure) back in September. The game was moved from UH's campus because of Hurricane Ike. Dishonorable mention goes to the inaugural EagleBank Bowl for also giving us a rematch. Rematches blow, especially for what essentially are just exhibition games.

I agree that TCU/Boise St. should have had a better bowl, but also that the matchup is a good one.

I think it's probably true Texas should be playing instead of OU, but I find it hard to care about anything the Big 12 (or any other conference) does. :)

The only corporate named bowls I didn't change were ones where I didn't know if there was a previous bowl and there was nothing else to call it. (Meineke Car Care?) And I didn't know the Armed Forces bowl was the Fort Worth Bowl or I would have called it that. Someone has to push back! Notice that USA Today did almost the same thing, dropping off the sponsors in the name if possible. Hooray USA Today!

I bet when Notre Dame thought they might get a bowl on the "Eve", they didn't mean Christmas Eve.

ND is 6-6 with only one win against a team better than .500: Navy. Can you say 0-10 in 10 bowl games?

Man, ESPN is going to have almost every single bowl once they get the rest of the BCS bowls in a few (two?) years. Hope everybody likes hearing promos for all the other events on the Disney family of networks.

As for the bowls, I'm digging some of the matchups. I like BYU v Arizona, S Miss v Troy, Boise St v TCU all before Christmas, then Boston College v Vandy, Georgia v MSU, PSU v USC, Utah v Alabama, OSU v Texas, and Florida v Oklahoma down the stretch.

Other matchups don't work out well because of styles of play, such as Ole Miss v Texas Tech, LSU v Georgia Tech, and Missouri v Northwestern. Some of the rest promise to be mediocre games, but what can you do when there are too many games to begin with?

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the ginormous number of bowls on the four letter network.

I'm looking forward to the Cotton Bowl matchup.

I think that, even more than Florida winning the BCS Championship, Ole Miss could prove the Big 12 is the SEC's bitch with a win.