With Alabama's victory over Texas in Thursday night's BCS Championship game, the 2009-10 college football season ended with the Crimson Tide standing victoriously atop the standings.
My first efforts at handicapping the bowl matchups left me with a 14-19-1 record against the spread. In the $10 heads-up pool I entered, I finished 18-16.
Here's a breakdown of this year's bowl results (with my losing picks in blue and winning picks in red):
1. New Mexico Bowl: Wyoming 35-Fresno State 28 (2OT). Dave Christensen's Cowboys rallied from 11 points down in the fourth quarter to upset the Bulldogs (10-1/2 point favorites) in two overtimes.
2. St. Petersburg Bowl: Rutgers 45-Central Florida 24. Wide receiver Mohamed Sanu scored three touchdowns to lead the favored Scarlet Knights to their fourth consecutive bowl win.
3. New Orleans Bowl: Middle Tennessee 42-Southern Miss 32. The Blue Raiders' Dwight Dasher set a bowl rushing record for quarterbacks, his 201 yards topping Vince Young's 200 in the 2006 Rose Bowl. Favored by 3-1/2 points, the Golden Eagles couldn't contain Dasher who completed 15 of 25 passes for 162 yards.
4. Las Vegas Bowl: BYU 44-Oregon State 20. BYU quarterback Max Hall threw for 192 yards and three touchdowns to lead the 15th ranked Cougars (2-1/2 point underdogs) past the 16th ranked Beavers, while the BYU defense kept the usually explosive OSU offense in check.
5. Poinsettia Bowl: Utah 37-California 27. Down by two touchdowns early in the game, the 23rd-ranked Utes rallied for their 9th consecutive bowl victory, tied for the second-longest with USC behind Florida State's record of 14 straight post-season wins. Favored by 3 points, the Golden Bears' string of four straight bowl wins came to an end.
6. Hawaii Bowl: SMU 45-Nevada 10. In SMU's first bowl game since the "Death Penalty", the Mustangs demolished the 14-point-favored Wolfpack behind freshman quarterback Kyle Padron, who passed for 460 yards to set an SMU record.
Nevada, which led the nation in rushing, was without two of its four 1,000-yard rushers. Padron, an 18-year old freshman, took over the starting job in SMU's 7th game. He followed Chase Daniel (Missouri's all-time passing leader) and Greg McElroy (Alabama's starting QB) at Southlake Carroll (TX) High School.
7. Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Marshall 21-Ohio 17. The Thundering Herd continued its dominance over the Bobcats, a former conference rival.
8. Meineke Car Care Bowl: Pittsburgh 19-North Carolina 17. Pitt kicked a field goal with 33 seconds left to win (but not cover the 3 points) in a game I thought might be close.
9. Emerald Bowl: USC 24-Boston College 13. The Trojans took an early lead and then covered the 9-point spread with a late-game touchdown.
10. Music City Bowl: Clemson 21-Kentucky 13. C.J. Spiller capped a great career with 172 all-purpose yards and a 4th quarter touchdown that put the Tigers over the 7-point spread. Kentucky coach Rich Brooks announced his retirement shortly after the Wildcat loss on a cold and gusty night in Nashville.
11. Independence Bowl: Georgia 44-Texas A&M 20. Giving up 7 points to the Aggies, the Bulldogs were my "lock of the season".
12. Eagle Bank Bowl: UCLA 30-Temple 21. Despite trailing by two touchdowns early and playing in frigid East Coast conditions, the Bruins came back to win and cover the 3-1/2 points they were giving up.
13. Champs Sports Bowl: Wisconsin 20-Miami 14. The Badgers (3-point underdogs) were a lot tougher than I thought.
14. Humanitarian Bowl: Idaho 43-Bowling Green 42. According to the early line, Idaho was a 1-point favorite; but that moved to a 2-point spread for Bowling Green. Either way, the Vandals' improbable comeback when they went the length of the field in the game's final 34 seconds then opted for the successful 2-point conversion with four seconds left was the most exciting finish in this year's bowl games. Based on the initial line, this game was a push on my board.
15. Holiday Bowl: Nebraska 33-Arizona 0. Although I picked the Cornhuskers over the 1-1/2 point favored Wildcats, I expected a close game. The Bugeaters chewed up Arizona, dominating every phase of the shutout and giving their stoic coach Bo Pelini a reason to smile.
16. Armed Forces Bowl: Air Force 47-Houston 20. The Falcons picked off six passes and used a lethal ground game to control the clock and the game. The Cougars, 4-1/2-point favorites, didn't know what hit them.
17. Sun Bowl: Oklahoma 31-Stanford 27. I actually hit this one on the nose, picking OU to win but Stanford to cover the 9-point spread.
18. Texas Bowl: Navy 35-Missouri 13. My attendance record at Mizzou bowl games remained perfect (0-3) when Navy's Midshipmen and QB Ricky Dobbs embarrassed the favored Tigers.
19. Insight Bowl: Iowa State 14-Minnesota 13. The Cyclones, going in as 2-1/2 point underdogs, pulled off a mild upset in a game no one outside the schools' home states saw or cared about.
20. Chick-Fil-A Bowl: Virginia Tech 37-Tennessee 14. The Hokies, favored by 4, took it to a Volunteer team that was inconsistent throughout the year.
21. Outback Bowl: Auburn 38-Northwestern 35 (OT). Northwestern (7-1/2 point underdogs) had a chance to win a turnover-riddled game with a field goal at the end of regulation. After their placekicker was roughed and injured on a field goal attempt in overtime, Wildcat Coach Pat Fitzgerald inexplicably called for a fake field goal that would have tied the game in OT. The "trickeration" came up short, and Northwestern's 61-year bowl drought, including last year's overtime loss to Missouri, continues.
22. Capitol One Bowl: Penn State 19-LSU 17. The Nittany Lions failed to cover the 3-point spread in awful conditions.
23. Gator Bowl: Florida State 33-West Virginia 21: Bobby Bowden's underdog
Seminoles came up big in the senior citizen's finale.
24. International Bowl: South Florida 27-Northern Illinois 3. Did anyone watch or care?
25. Papajohns.Com Bowl: Connecticut 20-South Carolina 7. The "Old Ball Coach" dropped this one, as predicted.
26. Cotton Bowl: Ole Miss 21-Oklahoma State 7. The Cowpokes looked inept against a Rebel team that was much better than I thought. Another disappointing showing by the Big 12.
27. Liberty Bowl: Arkansas 20-East Carolina 17 (OT). The Razorbacks failed to cover the 7-1/2-point spread.
28. Alamo Bowl: Texas Tech 41-Michigan State 31. The Red Raiders scored late to cover in a game overshadowed by the Mike Leach saga.
29. GMAC Bowl: Central Michigan 44-Troy 41 (2OT). The Chippewas just missed covering the 4-point spread in one of the best games of the bowl season.
30. Rose Bowl: Ohio State 26-Oregon 17. Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes snapped their BCS bowl drought; and Terrell Pryor put on a signature performance against a Duck team that failed to show up.
31. Sugar Bowl: Florida 51-Cincinnati 24. Tim Tebow had his best day in a stellar career, leading the Gators to a rout of the Bearcats, seemingly hung over from Brian Kelly's departure to Notre Dame.
32. Fiesta Bowl: Boise State 17-TCU 10. The Broncos used a stingy defense and a fake punt to finish undefeated. The Horned Frogs never got their high-powered offense untracked.
33. Orange Bowl: Iowa 24-Georgia Tech 14. I finally got a BCS game right! This one lacked much of the glitter of the other top matchups.
34. Championship Game: Alabama 37-Texas 21. Despite losing Colt McCoy just five plays into the game and falling behind 6-24 at the half, Texas made a game of it until two costly turnovers resulted in Crimson Tide scores that cemented the national title.
If I were grading myself on this first concentrated effort to analyze and pick the winners, I'd have to give myself a C-.
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