College football season is almost over. With only one game left, let’s take a look at how this bowl season went. From Semifinals to the Cheez It Bowl, I tried to do a more thorough run through of bowl season.
The Semifinals…
were definitely not the best bowl games but we are going to go over them anyway.
The Cotton Bowl
Alabama did what Alabama does best. QB Bryce Young threw 3 TDs and 1 interception. The game was only 17-3 at half which doesn’t seem like an out of control game but Alabama was not in jeopardy of losing that game ever. Even without WR star Metchie, the Crimson Tide had too many offensive weapons for the Bearcats. Cincinnati didn’t score a TD the entire game. Final score was 27-6. Coincidentally 19 points is the average at which Alabama wins their playoff games; the line was 13.
The Orange Bowl
Georgia went up quick 17-0 at the beginning of the 2Q. Funnily enough when analysts and announcers were talking about the QBs in the lead up to the game they all said they would prefer Michigan’s McNamara over Georgia’s Stenson Bennett. But McNamara had 2 straight interceptions followed by a fumble by RB Corum that forced Michigan to put in Freshman JJ McCarthy. Of the 3 turnovers, Georgia didn’t actually score any points off of them but it didn’t matter. Georgia was up 27-3 at half. Michigan did finally score a TD with 4:25 left in the game. Final score was 34-11.
The national championship will be a SEC rematch of Georgia vs Alabama. Alabama has won the last 7 match ups including the one for the conference championship 41-24. However, Georgia is favored by 3 points in this game. The final game of the year will be Monday Jan 10 @ 7pm on ESPN.
National Championship Bet: Alabama +3
Take it with a grain of salt but I would take Alabama with the points for the national championship game. Before this season no assistant had ever beaten the GOAT HC Nick Saban. Texas A&M HC Jimbo Fisher is the only one to successfully do it so far. This national title would surpass Bear Bryant for the most titles at Alabama. #GFHint: You may remember after Alabama won last year there was a lot of talk about how he broke Bear Bryant’s record, well he did but as a total of national championships. Saban won one of his 7 titles while the HC at LSU. This game would solidify him as the best Alabama HC.
There is also the argument that we JUST saw this game. Alabama won 41-24. Now it is hard to beat a good team let alone beat them twice. But Georgia was definitely taken off guard in that game and will have to figure out a way to put pressure on Tide QB Bryce Young.
So my recommendation is take the underdog Alabama team. Personally, I do hope Georgia wins though.
Top 25 bowl games
Of the 44 bowl games, 5 games were canceled. UCLA, Boise St, Miami, UVA, Hawaii and Boston College all pulled out of their bowl games. Hawaii was the only team to have a losing record (6-7) and still make a bowl game, otherwise it took at least a 6-6 record. So all the teams in the Top 25 had a bowl game. The worst record of a ranked team was Texas A&M and Arkansas with a record of 8-4.
The first ranked team to play was #13 BYU who lost to unranked UAB 31-28 in the Independence Bowl back on Dec 18th. Quite a disappointment for for a team that entered that bowl game at #13 and 10-2.
#19 Clemson had one of the craziest pick 6s I’ve ever seen and beat Iowa St in the Cheez-It Bowl 20-13 to extend their 10 win season streak to 11 straight seasons. They also snap the ACC losing bowl game streak from 2019. HC Dabo Sweeny also becomes just the 3rd coach in history to hit 150 wins in his first 15 seasons. Iowa St had a chance to tie it up at the end but QB Brock Purdy, well he did what Brock Purdy does… he got the yardage needed on a must have 4th & 2 but then fumbled the ball backwards and fell on it behind the line to gain. That’s how the game ended.
In the Peach bowl, #10 Michigan St scored 21 points in the 4th quarter to clinch the win over Pitt who was Kenny Pickett-less 31-21. #20 Houston beat Auburn 17-13 in the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl. Auburn was without QB Bo Nix who was in the transfer portal and will now be wearing an Oregon Duck uniform.
Not top 25 games but these had some entertainment:
Shane Beamer got mayo bath after South Carolina won the Duke’s mayo bowl over UNC 38-21. Proceeds of the stunt were donated to charity. UNC was preseason ranked #10 before finishing with a losing 6-7 record. The Carolina state rivalry is alive and well.
In the Music City Bowl, Purdue won 48-45 in OT after a questionable call on the goal line. It was the most points scored in that bowl game in its history. #GFHint: Rule was he was down due to forward progress being stopped. The blown whistle is not the ultimate decider of forward progress.
The New Years 6 bowl games:
They were awesome! #21 Arkansas got a big win over Penn St 24-10 in the Outback Bowl. #15 Iowa played its normal low scoring game and lost to #22 Kentucky 20-17.
Then things got really fun. #9 Oklahoma St had their biggest comeback in history to beat the #5 Irish 37-35. OSU trailed 28-7 before scoring 24 unanswered points to book their first 12 win season under HC Mike Gundy. Not a great way to kick off the the Marcus Freeman era at Notre Dame.
In the grandaddy of them all (‘the Rose Bowl’), #6 Ohio St started slow losing 21-35 to #11 Utah at half before coming back to win with a walk off FG 48-45. Utah was impressive and tied 38-38 with just under 10 minutes left in the game when their QB Cam Rising went down and had to leave the game. Even though that looked to be it for the Utes, they took the Buckeyes down to the wire. The Rose Bowl was arguably one of the best bowl games of the season if not the best. The Pac 12 also needed that win very badly…
#7 Baylor won the Sugar Bowl 21-7 after Ole Miss Heisman candidate QB Matt Corral goes down with a sprained ankle in Q1. Although back up QB Altmeyer did well. This was Baylor’s first season with 12 wins win school history.
To Opt Out or Not To Opt Out
Matt Corral going down was THE big story from this year’s bowl games. With multiple players opting out for many reasons, the main one is ‘declared for the draft.’ Despite being a senior and definitely having high draft status, Matt Corral said he wanted to play ‘sitting wasn’t even something that crossed his mind’. Let me be clear, he is an outlier here. Matt Corral was (and luckily still is) #2 in QBs going to the draft [according to profootballnetwork.com]. #1 NFL prospect Kenny Picket sat out his Pitt game along with Michigan St star RB Kenneth Walker. Corral going down was the exact reason why many players do. It gave life to the ‘haters’ that want kids to opt out. And while opting out is on the one hand a smart decision to save their NFL careers right when they’re about to go make some money, it does kill the bowl game season. Many analysts believe that eventually we will even see athletes sit out of playoff games. That hasn’t happened yet but it is only a matter of time. Also some of the money argument gets assuaged as now college athletes are at least allowed to make money through NIL. So they’re not making nothing anymore but it’s still nothing compared to what Corral’s signing bonus is going to be.
There’s not even a general figure I could find to fully encompass all of the players that missed their bowl games. 26 had opted out for the NFL as early as Dec 17th when this article was released and bowls were set to begin. Note: this is not an inclusive number as I could name some OU players who aren’t on this list. To give a rough estimation, of the NFL projected Top 10 draft picks, 5 opted out, 3 played in playoff games (so I don’t count those as no one has skipped those to date) and 1 had their bowl game canceled. That leaves only 1 who played – Ole Miss QB Matt Corral.
Bowl season results by conference:
The biggest loser was by far the Pac 12 who won 0 of their 5 games that they played in. The Mountain West came out on top with the best winning percentage of 83% going 5-1. The SEC despite having 2 in the national championship had a losing record going 5-7. For the full details, check out the NCAA website. The rest:
- Mountain West: 5-1
- American & Sun Belt: 3-1
- Big 12: 5-2
- Big 10: 6-4
- Independents: 2-2
- SEC: 5-7
- MAC & Conference USA: 3-5
- ACC: 2-4
- Pac 12: 0-5
Here are the teams that were in the Top 25 that lost their bowl game: #2 Michigan, #4 Cincinnati, #5 Notre Dame, #8 Ole Miss, #11 Utah, #12 Pitt, #13 BYU, #14 Oregon and #15 Iowa. So funnily enough the lower 10 of the Top 25 went undefeated (2 being canceled).
The CBAs (Claire’s Bowl Awards):
The Worst Bowl Game (as in most boring) in the Power 5
The Pinstripe Bowl between Maryland and VTech. Maryland won 54-10 and all of the Hookies points were in the first half. The Turps scored their go-ahead TD while the new coach of VTech was on an interview during the game too… awkward.
The Best Bowl Game
The Rose Bowl for the reasons stated above. Although the Music City Bowl and the Cure Bowl deserve honorable mention here. The Cure Bowl between Coastal Carolina and Northern Illinois was awesome too with 7 lead changes and came down to the final play but it was literally the 2nd bowl game. The Chanticleers won 47-41.
The One No One Watched
The Camellia Bowl. It was on Christmas between Georgia St and Ball St. Georgia St won 51-20 so it wasn’t a close game. It was obviously on Christmas while a lot of us were busy. Oh and btw the camellia is a flower found in Asia so someone explain to me why a bowl game in Alabama is called that? (I’m sincerely asking).
The ‘Could’ve Been Good but Thanks to COVID It Wasn’t’
The Gator Bowl was supposed to be #25 Texas A&M and #17 Wake Forest. The Aggies defense would’ve been one of the best the Demon Deacons had faced all year but that offense knows how to score. That was until the Aggies had only 30 or so guys able to practice due to COVID, injuries and etc. At least, Jimbo Fisher announced early that they wouldn’t be able to play… 8 days before the bowl game. It was enough time to find another opponent (losing record Rutgers) but also wouldn’t that have been enough time to get some of those guys out from COVID protocols? Kudos for Rutgers for stepping in though! Wake won 38-10.
The Good Sport
Central Michigan. They drove (yes, drove) all the way to their original bowl game in Arizona to play Boise St. Boise St backed out due to COVID, transfers and injuries. Miami also had similar issues in their scheduled bowl game vs Washington St, causing them to pull out. So the Chippewas hopped back on the bus and drove down to Texas to play Washington St in the Sun Bowl. Not only did they call a complete audible but they beat the Power 5 team despite having 2 turnovers. They were leading 21-0 at half.
Runner-Up: LSU. I cant believe I’m typing that as I don’t like the team but I have to admire the fact that they did not back out of their bowl game when they had only 38 scholarship players available including no QB. LSU lost to Kansas St 20-42.
Biggest Flop:
Mississippi St’s HC Mike Leach faced his old team of Texas Tech and got his ass kicked 34-7. I don’t think Leach actually had any hard feelings to his old school but it was 100% the main story line of the game. The Bulldogs were favored by 10 points and the O/U was 58. Both were very wrong! Super unusual for a Texas Tech and Mississippi St UNDER to hit – both teams are usually very air-raid heavy.
Comeback Kid:
Technically I’m giving this one to a coach. Big Game Bob Stoops came back to coach Oklahoma after HC Lincoln Riley ditched the team for USC the morning after their Bedlam loss. Bob Stoops has been HC at Oklahoma from 1999-2006 but was currently an announcer on Fox before offering to step in. Oklahoma beat Oregon in the Alamo bowl 47-32.
MVP of Bowl Season:
Ohio St WR Jaxson Smith-Njigba. He was the team’s leading WR coming into the game and when the other 2 WR studs opted out, he set records. He had 347 receiving yards (FBS bowl game record) and a school record of 15 passes caught for 3 TDs.
Biggest Surprise of the Bowls:
Army and Air Force, 2 armed forces team beat an ACC and a SEC team in their bowl games. Army beat Mizzou 24-22 in the Armed Forces Bowl and Air Force beat Louisville 31-28 in the First Responder Bowl.
Wrap Up
Well that’s it for football season. This year was a dozy. We had 46 teams make the ranking throughout the year. And who would’ve gone into this year thinking Ohio St, Clemson and Oklahoma would all not just not win their conference title game but not make it there. We might have a rematch of the SEC Championship game and the 2018 national championship game but this year definitely not boring.
Great content! Keep up the good work!