Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Consistently wrong since 2002

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The willow is too close to the house.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I really should read my own blog.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / College Football Bowl Season Kickoff

College Football Bowl Season Kickoff

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Here are the upcoming games and my bowl picks, which are, as usual, an amalgam of guesswork, SEC homerism, wishful thinking, etc.

2013-2014 bowl games

Although there’s definitely wishful thinking in my picks (considerably less than usual absent the terrible Gators), I didn’t always just go with the team I hope wins. For example, I don’t want Notre Dame to win. Ever. But I think they will.

It might be fun to have an online college football bowl pool for BJ football fans to see whose powers of prognostication reign supreme. I tried to find a free site that didn’t require a pain-in-the-ass, spam-generating registration process, but no such luck.

If anyone knows of one, please add it to comments for future reference. Otherwise, please feel free to post your picks in comments, tell me why I’m wrong on mine, etc.

Because it’s a sunny 75 F here now (high in the low 80s!), I’ll be outside watching the games and supervising the smoking of four racks of ribs on the Brinkmann for the next six hours or so. Cheers!

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    Botsplainer

    And yet, while looking at that amalgam of games, most of them bad, nobody can figure out how to make a 32 team playoff system work.

  3. 3.

    KG

    @Botsplainer: a 32 team play off would require an extra five games for the teams playing in the championship game, given that most now play 12 or 13 games, that means asking them to play as many as 18 games. That seems like a lot, and I say that as someone who likes football. So, for a 32 team playoff to happen, you’d likely need fewer regular season games, which nobody is going to agree to, because 2/3 of the teams would be left out of the tournament and would be losing revenue.

    Betty – I probably only have four quibbles: I think Wazzu wins, Stanford wins, and Wisconsin wins. I also think Georgia won’t be able to overcome their injuries. The first two might be my west coast bias showing.

    ETA: oh, and FSU in the title game

  4. 4.

    VodkaGoGo

    I tried to find a free site that didn’t require a pain-in-the-ass, spam-generating registration process, but no such luck.

    Pretty sure you can do that on ESPN. I’ve used them for fantasy football, baseball and hockey with no problems. I even set up a fantasy football league for the commenters on Wonkette and no one had any complaints about spam and it’s easy to register. I don’t pay attention to college ball so I’ve never looked but I’m sure they have what you’re looking for.

    Link

  5. 5.

    Botsplainer

    @KG:

    I tried to do a mental run on a playoff setup, but kept running into the Super Bowl unless you doubled up games on a couple of weeks – something which is not in the football culture.

  7. 7.

    Ed in NJ

    Well, I expect Notre Dame to beat us (Rutgers), but if you are grasping at something to raise your hopes, we have a new QB (who is a former starter) who doesn’t turn the ball over like the turnover machine he replaced. Also the D coordinator was fired the day the regular season ended. We lost almost the entire defensive backfield to the NFL, and then lost half the new guys to injury, so we are starting a bunch of freshman and converted WRs. The D coordinator never made any adjustments and we were burned by slants and bubble screens all year. So it should be a totally different offense and defense for the bowl. Whether that translates to a win, who knows, but with a month to prepare the new schemes, we have to be more competitive than our record would indicate.

  8. 8.

    KG

    @Botsplainer: the sports world would implode if you had college football championship on Saturday and Super Bowl on Sunday… plus, that following Monday might replace the day after St Patrick’s Day as national hangover day. FCS (what use to be I-AA) has a 24 team tournament – the Ivy League doesn’t send a team because they have a strict 10 game season policy. Almost every other conference has an automatic qualifier (which I’m not sure the power conferences would go for in the FBS, even though it’s the rule in pretty much every other sport). The I-AA teams play 10 regular season games (which means at least two fewer regular season games for teams), there’s no conference championship games (good luck on that one). I just don’t see how you make it work. I also suspect that if a team like say, Nevada, made a run like Butler did in the basketball tournament a few years ago, there would be much consternation.

  10. 10.

    Roger Moore

    Is there any bowl on the list that hasn’t figured out a way of working in a sponsor’s name? I wish the Rose Bowl hadn’t sold out, but I acknowledge that it’s far too late.

  11. 11.

    moderateindy

    For all of us that aren’t in areas that have 75 degree weather may I offer a hardy “screw you” of course, on the other hand, we don’t have to live in Florida………..

  12. 12.

    Violet

    It’s close to 75 where I am. Also raining. Supposed to be cold tomorrow. Cold front sweeping through, I guess.

  13. 13.

    nick

    You know the entire SEC cheats more than a hedge fund manager does on hus taxes right?

    The SEC hasnt won all theae titles because of hard work or integrity. Just good ol fashioned cash.

  15. 15.

    uncle rameau

    Group: Lawyers Guns and Money
    password: zevon
    bowl mania challenge at espn

    I am the Franklin Expedition

  17. 17.

    raven

    @Betty Cracker: I have to admit I admire you for doing this. There are other people who own this blog who have gone totally college football awol since their team sucks too.

  18. 18.

    Gator90

    Betty, will the Gators ever hire an offensive coordinator? Will it matter?

    Please, Auburn, please….

  20. 20.

    dr. bloor

    So basically, the “R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl” is pretty much for folks who can only get to the Superdome by public transportation, including the participating teams?

  22. 22.

    James E. Powell

    Love the bowl season because I am mostly an NFL fan. It’s the last chance to see next year’s draft prospects in games that matter.

  26. 26.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    Picking against the Cougs Betty? Yutsie and I are not impressed. In fact I’m downright wounded. Thankfully they’re proving you wrong so far, though our defense may yet save your pick.

  32. 32.

    MattR

    Horrific clock management here from Washington St. Keep taking delay of game penalties followed by kneeldowns and end the game. Any running play was a bad idea no matter who ended up with the ball.

  35. 35.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    Oh holy hell. What a choke job. Nice pick Betty. I’m gonna go curl up into the fetal position in the shower and rock myself into a happier place.

  39. 39.

    Dave

    We agree on one… I’m a Husker alum, so my two favorite teams are Nebraska and whoever is playing Notre Dame. Always.

  41. 41.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    Indeed. The injuries in Athens were redonkulous this year too. At full strength I thought UGA was maybe the best team in the SEC, suspect defense and all. But ’twas not to be.

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