/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62669794/usa_today_11737955.0.jpg)
The holiday season is a blessed time. Not only do the football gods gift us a bowl slate that ensures a handy distraction from up to 80% of our awkward Christmas break family conversations, but we also get the chance to root for Vanderbilt in an honest-to-goodness postseason game.
The Texas Bowl is the crown jewel of 2018’s bowl games, slapped smack-dab in the middle of the post-Christmas bell curve so that all other bowls can be judged against it. The Commodores will face a university who dared ask “what if we placed an institution of higher learning in a complete vacuum of culture” and then scoffed when the answer was “a whole bunch of sexual assaults.” Baylor University rebounded from last year’s 1-11 record to go 6-6 this fall, but that still doesn’t mean I’m gonna pick them to beat the Commodores.
Oh right, the pick’em! So we’ve got a little tradition for the Texas Bowl and the other 39 bowl games set to kick off Saturday. A test of knowledge ultimately decided by luck, much like the ACT. All you’ve got to do is pick the winner of every bowl game this season and rank your choices based on how confident you are in the outcome. Whoever finishes with the most points after the national championship game is the winner, and he or she will walk away with ...
well, probably just bragging rights. We’ve been trying to come up with some good Vandy prizes, but it turns out no one is super interested in donating promotional gifts to our 30-person contest.
Anyway, here’s where you sign up:
http://sofachamps.com/bowl-pickem/2018/league/62/join?rid=50
SofaChamps is run by a pair of Vandy grads, so you know it’s well made (and condescending to users who graduated from state schools). You’ve got until early Saturday morning to make your picks for the entire bowl season. Then, you get to sit back and act like you’ve got a dog in the fight when UAB and Northern Illinois go to war.
Go, click that link, and prove you know more than the people who wrote about college football all year long. You’ll find it’s surprisingly easy to do.