Tuesday Bowl Pick ‘Em Standings and Schedule

And here’s where the Anchor of Gold Bowl Pick ‘Em contest hits crunch time.

After a light sprinkling of bowl games throughout the last week and a half, the bowl schedule starts to pick up today with five — count ‘em — bowl games scheduled, and none of them cancelled. Meanwhile, at the top of the standings, the amazing disappearing points phenomenon continues after Boise State had to pull out of the Barstool Arizona Bowl. (Central Michigan, the other team scheduled to play in that bowl, replaced Miami in the Sun Bowl, though I don’t think ESPN is counting that in the standings since people picked the Washington State-Miami matchup.)

For today’s standings, I’ve added the maximum number of points that each player can win. The standings are still sorted by current point totals, but keep in mind that some of the people toward the bottom of the table haven’t used their big points picks yet. As for yesterday, well, a lot of people appear to have forgotten that Jay Norvell was not coaching Nevada in yesterday’s Quick Lane Bowl, a 52-24 blowout win for Western Michigan.

And on to today’s schedule!

Birmingham Bowl: Houston (11-2) vs. Auburn (6-6) (11:00 AM CT/ESPN, Protective Stadium, Birmingham, Alabama)

This is a chance for the AAC to make a statement against the SEC, albeit an SEC team that (a) went 6-6 this season and (b) will be without quarterback Bo Nix, who transferred to Oregon (and might not have been available anyway due to injury.)

First Responder Bowl: Air Force (9-3) vs. Louisville (6-6) (2:15 PM CT/ESPN, Gerald J. Ford Stadium, University Park, Texas)

Another G5/P5 matchup, and like the first one, it matches a pretty good Mountain West team against a mediocre ACC team. Have fun with this one, Louisville.

Liberty Bowl: Texas Tech (6-6) vs. Mississippi State (7-5) (5:45 PM CT/ESPN, Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, Memphis, Tennessee)

DID YOU KNOW THAT MISSISSIPPI STATE HEAD COACH MIKE LEACH HAS A HISTORY WITHTEXAS TECH? I AM SURE THIS WILL NOT BE BROUGHT UP DURING THE BROADCAST. (Note: I am actually sure that the fact that Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach filed a lawsuit against Texas Tech will not be brought up during the broadcast, what with ESPN also being a party to that lawsuit.)

Holiday Bowl: UCLA (8-4) vs. NC State (9-3) (7:00 PM CT/FOX, Petco Park, San Diego, California)

Oh shit, this actually might be a good game. Interestingly, since the stadium formerly known as Qualcomm Stadium was demolished at the end of 2020, this is another bowl game played in a repurposed baseball stadium. I doubt it will be moving next season, either, what with San Diego State’s new on-campus stadium only seating 27,000.

Guaranteed Rate Bowl: West Virginia (6-6) vs. Minnesota (8-4) (9:15 PM CT/ESPN, Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona)

Yep, we’re just using all of the baseball stadiums. Anyway, this one doesn’t sound terribly interesting, but if you feel like staying up late, well... go for it, I guess.