New Year’s Day Bowl Pick ‘Em Update and Schedule

Well, yesterday’s action in the Anchor of Gold Bowl Pick ‘Em contest saw a whole bunch of people go 3-0, because going 3-0 just meant picking Wake Forest against a 5-7 Rutgers team and picking the two SEC teams in the semifinals. Unless you’re me, in which case your Ke’Shawn Vaughn-issued Georgia fan card is revoked after picking Michigan to beat the Bulldogs. Whoops!

In the more relevant news, jeturn opens up a big lead in the points standings after putting 38 points (now the maximum) on Wake Forest, 36 on Alabama, and 27 on Georgia. Has jeturn built enough of a points lead to hold off a charge from Import, whose point total is finally starting to catch up to his sterling picks record? We shall see.

With only two bowl games left after today — the Playoff championship on the 10th, and the “oh shit we forgot to put this on the calendar” Texas Bowl between LSU and Kansas State on the 4th, this is the last big day of bowl season. As such, there are five games on the schedule.

Today’s schedule:

Outback Bowl: Arkansas (8-4) vs. Penn State (7-5) (11:00 AM CT/ESPN2, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida)

One of seemingly a jillion SEC-vs.-Big Ten bowl matchups features the Ol’ Bald Poach — fresh off signing a $95 million contract extension that he for some reason got during a 7-5 season — taking on the Razorbacks, whose turnaround from the horrendous Chad Morris era has been stunning.

Citrus Bowl: Kentucky (9-3) vs. Iowa (10-3) (12:00 PM CT/ABC, Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida)

There is no total low enough for me to take the over.

Fiesta Bowl: Notre Dame (11-1) vs. Oklahoma State (11-2) (12:00 PM CT/ESPN, State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona)

The winner of this game will inevitably claim that they should have been in the Playoff over Cincinnati (hell, Oklahoma State would have been if they had just beaten Baylor.) When, really, Michigan had the worse performance of the semifinal losers last night.

Rose Bowl: Utah (10-3) vs. Ohio State (10-2) (4:00 PM CT/ESPN, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California)

Andy Ludwig coaching in a Rose Bowl. You’re inevitably going to see a jillion sarcastic comments about a sunset if you ask why the Playoff semifinals are not on New Year’s Day.

Sugar Bowl: Baylor (11-2) vs. Ole Miss (10-2) (7:45 PM CT/ESPN, Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana)

Contrasting styles here, with Ole Miss’ high-powered offense going up against Dave Aranda.