BCS bowls...what to watch, and not watch.....

I admit it...I am a college football junkie. I am sure there are many of you out there. With the regular season behind us, and no games this weekend, I am sure many of us want to rend clothing, cry, and anything we can do as an excuse from going to the mall. Yes, is that time of year that is the most stress-filled part of our collective American culture and existence. I am talking about the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years holidays.

Yes, that time of year when all thoughts turn to....alcohol, sugar and caffeine. When you put large groups of people you hardly know into small spaces, get them all honked up on a buzzed laced, sugar rush, drunk high and expect them to get along. Like THAT is gonna happen......NOT! That type of comaraderie ONLY happens in the confines of your home team's stadium.

BUT, we have a solution fellow junkies! We do NOT need a self-help group. Why? Because we have 32 post-season bowl games to get us through. We can take refuge in our "man cave's" and bask in the warm glow of TV radiation, while we blissfully listen to the sound of bone crushing hits and QB's that bark out signals the way that a mall shopper does when grabbing that last Elmo. BTW, it is perfectly legitimate to be a woman and have a "man cave" for sports. I know several that do. Man cave's are gender neutral, but they all must have the same ambiance to them. You know what I mean. That dank, dark, musty smell that can only come from socks and spilled beer. It just gives you that "warm, fuzzy" feeling. Of course that could be just mold....but I digress.

Having said all of that though, I have to say, in all my 30 years of watching post season bowl games, NONE of them leave me as flat and disinterested as the BCS championship game this year. LSU vs Ohio State. Color me UN-impressed and completely bored.

There is no interest there are at all for me. And even though that game will be the only spoting event played on a Monday night in January, I will probably not watch it. Oh, I'll look up the stats and the score the next day, feign surprise about the winner and shock about the poor officiating. But the bottom line is, I just simply could NOT care less about that game. It is not even in my top 5 bowl games to watch this season. Maybe not in the top 10!

But there are a few that are absolutely "must watch" games, IMHO. As we get closer to the start of the games, I will add some detail, but for now, here are a few that I will NOT be missing regardless.

1) Hawai'i vs Georgia. This is going to be a VERY fun game. As good as UGa is, the speed of the Rainbow Warriors and that oddball passing attack will not be stopped. This game could be the highest scoring game of the post-season bowls. I expect this will be a video game score. And a LOT of fun to watch.

2) UCF vs Miss State. If you have not seen the RB for UCF this season, then you have missed something special. Kevin Smith is not only the leading rusher AND the leading scorer in the nation, but also now holds the all-time rushing yards in a season. The kid is just a phenom, and the best player you have never heard of. Too bad the Heisman voters have never heard of him either.

3) Southern Miss vs Cincinnati. This is a personal favorite of mine this season. It might not be a great game, but a great story. Two old conference foes going back at it in a bowl game.

4) Indiana vs Oklahoma State. How can this NOT be a 'must watch' game. With all that this IU team has struggled with to get to 7 wins and reach a bowl game, which was the goal of their coach who passed away over the summer, and their adopted 'MOM', who is their coach's widow. This may be the best "story" bowl game to watch.

5) Utah vs Navy. The big interest here is that with UL looking for a DC, one of the possible candidates for that position could be the Utes DC, Gary Anderson. And wouldn't that be interesting seeing as he is basically 2-0 vs Kragthorpe, as well as having beaten UL at PJCS this season.

I have other matchups and games to go over, but I am running out of time right now. I'll review some games in depth as they get closer. Like that Dec 20th matchup between Utah and Navy.