Preview 2010 Way-Too-Early Bowl Picks - Part 1
College Football News
It's May, so let's get a few things out of the way before proceeding with the goofy and totally ridiculous exercise to get the fires burning in the off-season. (What else are you going to do ... baseball?)
First, this is a nearly-impossible puzzle to put together correctly in the first week of December with all the inside information possible, much less now, and there will be changes in the bowl tie-ins, the seedings, and the conference pecking order before the dust settles at the end of the season. Some of the bowls aren't even sure which teams from which conferences will be available to them, so while a slot might make sense, things get out of whack when bowls jump the gun with invites or go with geographical matchups over good football pairings. The goal here is to attempt to account for the self-interests of the bowls that'll want to sell tickets and generate publicity.
Second, remember that schedules mean everything. Some teams might be better than others but are predicted to go to lesser bowl games because their records might not be as strong as other possible choices. The best educated guess is taken at every turn.
Third, not everyone will get the call. There are only so many available slots, so some worthy teams, especially from the Big 12 and Big East, might get shut out due to a lack of at-large bids available.
Finally, don't yell at us if you don't like where your team is predicted to go. This will all likely change this before the season starts and will be updated every week throughout the year. If it looks like some team that we have playing in December looks like a world-beater, it'll obviously be predicted to go to another bowl as the year goes on.
A few rules going forward.
1) The BCS games that lose their natural tie-ins get the first choices of at-large teams, and after that it goes Orange, Fiesta, Sugar in the selection process.
2) Notre Dame can take the place of any Big East slot, so someone is going to get left out between Cincinnati, Connecticut, Rutgers and South Florida.
3) Some bowls ignore the final standings as far as the seedings and pairings. Again, geography is a big deal.
December 18, 2010 Albuquerque, NM
New Mexico Bowl
Mountain West No. 5 vs. WAC
Way Too Early Projection: San Diego State vs. Nevada
WHY? Colorado State might be here instead of San Diego State, but the Rams play Nevada on September 11th. The Emerald Bowl will want Fresno State, who's the better fit here, so Nevada will try to finally crack the run of four straight bowl losses.
December 18, 2010 Boise, ID
Roady
