The appetizer course of bowl season is now being servered and we are getting closer to the main course. Frankly, I've never understood the 'there are too many bowls' argument, that is if you are college football fan. For me bowl games are like beautiful women. Sure some are not my type and I may not want to look at all of them, but I'm never going to tell you there are "too many".
Seems as much as anything, bowl season is used to measure conferences. Everyone is tracking conference bowl records, even ESPN has some 'conference bowl cup' (can't remember the exact name). The ACC is off to a 2-2 start, with plenty of meaningful games in the next week. Hokie fans wanting to see their conference do well will have to force themselves to root for teams such as Georgia Tech, Clemsom, BC, and Maryland (not always easy for me).
Tracking conference bowl records are somewhat flawed due to match up discrepancies, i.e. some bowls like the the Alamo Bowl have Missouri, conference championship loser in the Big 12, vs Northwestern, the 4th best team in the Big 10. So conference bowl records like any other 'strenght of schedule' is somewhat flawed. It somewhat like teams such as Boston College which have long bowl win streaks (I think BC's is 6 or 7). Since BC has a poor traveling fan base, they generally get picked for a lower ranking bowl than they deserve, thus play easier competition. Its the same reason Notre Dame's bowl record is so bad, they are alwasy picked over their head.
But bowl season is the best (maybe only) time of year to get meaningful out of conference match ups. And college football fans generally talk about conference strength all season. This year I'll be looking to see how the Big 12 does given they are considered clearly the best conference during the season. They need a strong showing to back it up. Next, I'm very interested if Penn State can hang with USC and break the Big 10's streak of flops in BCS games. The Utah - Alabama Sugar Bowl is this year's mid-major conference over-achiever vs. Goliath game. For some reason I think Utah is in for a rough game.
The ACC has an unprecedented 10 bowl teams, and my guess is they end up around .500. Honestly the Hokies game in the Orange Bowl is the biggest 'issue' for the conference given it's win-less in BCS games in forever. A 3-7 ACC bowl record with a Hokie win in the Orange Bowl would be fine with me.
More than anything, bowl season for me time to chill and enjoy the last blast of college football. I purposely don't enter any bowl pools or wagers during bowl season so I can simply enjoy them. There are some gem games that many fans overlook, like the GMAC Ball State vs. Tulsa (serious offense) and a fascinating Cotton Bowl match-up between Texas Tech and Ole Miss.
Happy Bowl Watching, and Go Hokies!
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