Early Michigan Football vs TCU roundtable preview
What other non-playoff bowl games intrigue you just based on the eye test?
Jordan: Clemson vs Tennessee will be a great game, although it sucks that Hendon Hooker will not be playing. I also think Penn State vs Utah in the Rose Bowl will be phenomenal. Overall, there are a lot of great bowl games. A sleeper game is going to be Alabama vs Kansas State.
Brady: Utah vs Penn State in the Rose Bowl might be the best bowl game outside of the playoff. Penn State is tougher than people outside the Big Ten give them credit for, and Utah looked dominant in the Pac-12 Championship game. Oregon vs North Carolina in the Holiday Bowl also feels like it could be a fun one.
Nick: I really don’t care about the other bowls because they don’t matter, but if I’m forced to choose one then I would say Texas and Washington in the Alamo bowl. Oregon and North Carolina in the Holiday bowl should also be a classic.
Josh: I love bowl season and can’t get enough college football so I’ll be watching everything that I can – and listening to the ones I can’t watch. That being said, three in particular that I’m most excited for are the Sugar Bowl matchup of Alabama and Kansas State. Alabama has been known to look past teams in the NY6 games in non-playoff years, plus KState is just a fun, physical team to watch. Another is Mississippi State vs Illinois. How does Illinois recover from losing defensive coordinator Ryan Walters who just took the Purdue job, and does MSU come out and fight for the late head coach Mike Leach? The other one I really want to see is Michigan State vs… oh wait, the Spartans didn’t make a bowl? Huh, weird.
Cameron: Just like Josh, I love bowl season. It isn’t what it used to be with all the bowl opt-outs, but some of the earliest bowl games are honestly the most fun because those smaller programs that make bowls treat it like the Super Bowl and go all out to win. It typically makes for high-scoring affairs. The games I will be really paying attention to are FSU-Oklahoma, Clemson-Tennessee, Bama-Kansas State, Oregon-North Carolina, and Purdue-LSU.
Chris: I concur. Love bowl games. The one I’ll make sure to watch is the Rose Bowl. Both teams want to be there and win the game. I also don’t think bowl games are meaningless. I do wish all postseason games meant something though. I’m a sucker for any bowl game between conference champions though, such as the Cure Bowl, which is actually the only bowl matchup between two teams that won their conference.