Bowl season is upon us. Or rather, college football exhibition season, if that’s how you feel about it.
Nevertheless, the holidays will be littered with games from the Bahamas to Idaho. We’ll see winning coaches drenched in mayo and covered in corn flakes. We’ll see teams battle for trophies bearing the names of sugary cereal, mortgage lenders and late-night talk show hosts. Some of our favorite players are playing (shoutout to Grayson McCall for sending bettors into a frenzy) while others are skipping.
As usual, this bowl season is shaping up to be a beautiful mess.
Outside of the New Year’s Six games, some of these will be truly difficult to digest. We’ve seen some historically bad football played during bowl season.
But some of the games not played around New Year’s could be really fun.
Here are the four most watchable games from that non-NY6 class, with apologies to the Cure Bowl, featuring No. 24 Troy and No. 25 UTSA.
4
Alamo Bowl: No. 12 Washington vs. No. 20 Texas (Dec. 29, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN)
This game would’ve been ranked a little bit higher if not for a few key opt-outs. We won’t get the chance to see Texas All-American Bijan Robinson run all over Washington’s 36th-ranked rushing defense, but this could be a showcase for younger tailbacks in the Longhorns’ backfield, like Jonathan Brooks. He ran for 108 yards on just 11 carries last month against Kansas.
It’s also a game where Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. could really shine. He led FBS in passing yards this season with 4,354 and is facing a Texas defense that gave up 239 yards through the air per game in the regular season, which ranks 88th in the nation. There’s potential for Penix to light up the Longhorns’ defense or get into a shootout with Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers.
3
Fenway Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Louisville (Dec. 17, 11 a.m. ET, ESPN)
If I’m being totally honest, the top reason you should watch this game is to see if a fight breaks out. Seriously, there’s potential for fireworks here.
For starters, Louisville and Cincinnati used to play an annual rivalry where the winner went home with something called the “Keg of Nails” Trophy. They haven’t played since 2013, when Louisville bolted from the American for the ACC.
And if you thought that conference affiliation made Louisville the better job, well, Scott Satterfield would disagree with you. He just ditched the Cardinals to become the Bearcats head coach. Pretty wild, right?
To put icing on this cake of nails (see what I did there?) both teams are going to be sharing the same sideline. As it turns out, playing football games inside of old baseball stadiums means some of the configurations wind up being pretty whacky. Anyways, I’m sure both of these teams will be able to share space amicably, right? Nothing bad will happen, right?
They should make Satterfield sit on top of the Green Monster for this one.
2
Armed Forces Bowl: Air Force vs. Baylor (Dec. 22, 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
If high-powered rushing attacks are your thing, look no further than this matchup in Fort Worth, Texas. Air Force enters this game with a 9-3 record and the nation’s best ground game, running for an astounding average of 330.9 yards per game. Baylor’s rushing offense isn’t too shabby either, covering 194.1 yards of turf per game, which is 34th nationally.
Air Force beat both Army and Navy this season to win the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy, which also means the Falcons are unofficially the best in the nation this year at running the triple-option. Air Force’s rushing attack is powered by Brad Roberts, who led the Mountain West and was third nationally in rushing yards with 1,612. The Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year also ran for 15 touchdowns. Baylor’s defense – which ranks 45th nationally against the run – will also need to keep an eye on Haaziq Daniels, who has rushed for seven touchdowns and thrown for six more at the center of Air Force’s option.
Since losing to Boise State in October, Air Force has won four straight games. Meanwhile, Baylor limped into the postseason with three straight losses to ranked opponents. We’re either going to see two streaks extended, or two of them broken.
1
Holiday Bowl: No. 15 Oregon vs. North Carolina (Dec. 28, 8 p.m. ET, FOX)
Fine, you sickos. You want offense? You want a game where both teams can score into the 60s? Look no further than this matchup in San Diego’s Petco Park between the Ducks and the Tar Heels.
UNC’s offensive attack is orchestrated by redshirt freshman quarterback Drake Maye, who threw for an ACC-leading 35 touchdowns this season and ran for seven more. He finished 10th in Heisman Trophy voting and might be heading into this game with something to prove after the Heels got blown out in the ACC title game by Clemson.
On the other side is one of the most fun and most reckless quarterbacks we’ve seen recently in college football: Bo Nix. The transfer from Auburn threw for 27 touchdowns this season and ran for 14, but is known to have a bit of a Jekyll-And-Hyde streak in him. Sometimes we get the Bo Nix that throws multiple interceptions, and sometimes we get the Bo Nix that throws for five touchdowns.
Oh, and the other thing here: Both of these defenses are horrific. That’s not hyperbole. Oregon is 75th in total defense and UNC is 115th. Each has given up more than 35 points in a single game four times this season. Count on this one being the fifth.
