Oilcan J's Bowl Predictions 2012-2013

As a mild-mannered undergraduate, I began a tradition of making bowl season picks on games I knew absolutely nothing about. Which, I contend, is a practice engaged in every year by sports pundits who do the same. So enjoy another installment of an irregular tradition your family is sure not to care about around the table this holiday season.

Like Aunt Mildred's prune casserole, the bowl predictions return for an irregular holiday season. I'll confess to watching roughly three hours of uninebriated college football this season, which means I saw 2 hours and 58 minutes more of the sport in a cogent state of mind than Lou Holtz. I also missed the prestigious Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. My apologies to all tubors involved.

For now, sit back, knock back some egg nog and enjoy another unqualified clod telling you what to think about sports. Because I know you don't have nearly enough of that in your life.

Picks (winners in bold)

S.D. County Credit Union Poinsettia

 BYU vs. San Diego State 

Beef 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg

Ball State vs. UCF

R+L Carriers New Orleans

East Carolina vs. Louisiana-Lafayette

MAACO Las Vegas

Washington vs. Boise State

Sheraton Hawaii

 Fresno State vs. SMU

Little Caesars Pizza

Western Kentucky vs. Central Michigan

Military Bowl Presented By Northrop Grumman

San Jose State vs. Bowling Green

Belk

Cincinnati vs. Duke 

Bridgepoint Education Holiday

Baylor vs. UCLA

AdvoCare V100 Independence

Ohio vs. Louisiana-Monroe

Russell Athletic

Rutgers vs. Virginia Tech

Meineke Car Care of Texas

 Minnesota vs. Texas Tech

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces

 Rice vs. Air Force

New Era Pinstripe

West Virginia vs. Syracuse 

Kraft Fight Hunger

 Navy vs. Arizona State

Valero Alamo

 Texas vs. Oregon State

Buffalo Wild Wings

 TCU vs. Michigan State

Franklin American Mortgage Music City

 NC State vs. Vanderbilt

Hyundai Sun

USC vs. Georgia Tech

AutoZone Liberty

 Iowa State vs. Tulsa

Chick-fil-A

LSU vs. Clemson

TaxSlayer.com Gator

Mississippi State vs. Northwestern

Heart of Dallas

 Purdue vs. Oklahoma State

Outback

 South Carolina vs. Michigan

Capital One

Georgia vs. Nebraska

Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio

Wisconsin vs. Stanford

Discover Orange

 Northern Illinois vs. Florida State

Allstate Sugar

 Louisville vs. Florida

Tostitos Fiesta

Oregon vs. Kansas State

AT&T Cotton

Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma

BBVA Compass

Pittsburgh vs. Ole Miss 

GoDaddy.com

Kent State vs. Arkansas State

Discover BCS National Championship

Notre Dame vs. Alabama 

THE Ohio State Blackeyes

As news of Jim Tressel's resignation broke this morning, I believe I was somewhere around Paducah, Kentucky fleeing the cicada-infested Middle Tennessee Valley for the friendly confines of Kansas City for the summer. Luckily, I picked up a feed of ESPN Radio and the Colin Cowherd morning program somewhere in between three guys trying to sell me Drano in Spanish and an angry and misguided evangelical pastor explaining the inherent sin present in miniature golf on the AM radio dial in rural Kentucky. Cowherd conducted several thought-provoking interviews this morning (as he is, I'll admit, wont to do) in response to the resignation, and the positions of three men in particular ran the gamut of the subsequent public response I have gleaned from perusing the sports blogosphere.

As expected, Kirk Herbstreit came quickly in defense of both the program and Tressel. Arguing that Tressel's actions (or, rather, inaction) was inspired be a conscious effort on his part to "protect his student-athletes," Herbstreit further went on to say that both the coach and the team would be able to land on their feet, and Ohio State would still have a successful year with a QB who is likely to take a shelling from the local media for driving out an extremely popular head coach and an interim head coach who has zero experience in the position at any level, and certainly not as head coach of one of the premier programs throughout Division I college football. In other words, Herbstreit gave the predictable interview of a hopeless, partisan fan--the same illustration of either a subconscious or poorly hidden favoritism that often bleeds into his work for Gameday throughout the college football season on ESPN. I will grant Herbstreit, however, the honor being the least senile of the two-man broadcasting team of himself and Brent Musberger for Saturday Night Football. But that's a lot like bragging about being more sane than the guy who has shoes made of pennies on the street corner and still believes in the tooth fairy.

Robert Smith (not "Close to Me" or the guy who killed Mecha-Streisand, the former stand-out running back for the Minnesota Vikings in the early 90s and current college football analyst for ESPN) went to the other end of the spectrum, painting Tressel as a lone disingenuously pernicious influence on the sanctity of college football that needed to be dealt with in this manner. To his credit, Smith admitted that the kinds of infractions that allegedly occurred at Ohio State are probably occurring simultaneously at institutions throughout the country. However, Smith argued that Tressel's blatant disregard for protocol showed favoritism to his starters, rather than a genuine attempt to protect all of his student-athletes from the disciplinary hand of the NCAA, and that his lie of omission exceeded by degree numerous other recent and historic violations of NCAA rules.

To his credit, Colin voiced his own opinion as somewhere in between the unquestioning reverence of Herbstreit and the jilted antagonism of Smith, both Ohio State alums. As the old saying goes, this is likely where most of the truth lies. More will inevitably come to light as the investigative piece on Ohio State athletics is published in Sports Illustrated in the coming weeks and the NCAA intensifies its probe into the program (ESPN is already reporting the NCAA will launch a separate investigation into potential individual violations by Terrelle Pryor). As just another in a series of high-profile blackeyes for college football in recent years, however, Tressel's resignation and the subsequent sanctions on the Ohio State program simply illustrate a sign of the times in college athletics, and illustrate (just as South Park so brilliantly did last week) the lack of easy answers in the designation between amateur and professional as determined by the NCAA.