Only one more day till Bowl Season starts, really a fun time of the year. Mostly cuz it gives you and your family something to talk about during family visit time besides your cousin Sally's illegitimate baby. The following is a run-down of, and my pick to win, each game. Part one will be the 2005 games, part two (naturally) the 2006 games. This is kind of lengthy, so go to the bathroom now.

New Orleans Bowl

Arkansas St v. Southern Miss

In the immortal paraphrased words of Beano Cook, hasn't New Orleans suffered enough? I don't know jack about these teams, and unless you go to these schools you don't either. And even in that case you may only know them as "the a-holes who get their papers written for them". In reading up on them it seems that Arkansas St. lost to 1-AA Tennessee-Martin and also lost to Army by 4 touchdowns. And Southern Miss, um, they have Bret Favre pulling for them, that's about all I know. However, Bret Favre's wife could probably QB Southern Miss past Arkansas St, so the pick here is SMU

Winner: Southern Miss

GMAC Bowl

UTEP v. Toledo

This marks the return of Mike Price to Alabama, so hide his ATM cards. Jordan Palmer (Carson's brother) helms the UTEP, and if he falters they can always turn to backup Jimmy Roethlisberger. Toledo comes in after not making it to the MAC title game for the first time in a long time. They boast future NFL backup Bruce Gradkoswski and guys who were either a little too short, a little too slow, or a little too unknown to play in a BCS conference. That is not to say they aren't a good team, and they are indeed the pick for this game.

Winner: Toledo

Las Vegas Bowl

BYU v Cal

First off, BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl is kind of like having Miami in the Vatican City Bowl. Anyway, the logical thinking here goes that the Cal kids will be out having a good time in Vegas; you know seeing Danny Gans and Celine Dion......*ahem*. And the BYU kids will be voluntarily locked in their rooms reading the playbook and the Book of Mormon (dum dum dum dum dum). This would normally mean that BYU would have a huge advantage. However, even a severely hung-over mid-tier PAC-10 team can score 50 points on BYU.

Winner: Cal

Poinsettia Bowl

Navy v Colorado St

This is your classic ground attack (Navy) vs. classic air attack (Colorado St.). The ground attack usually prevails in these games so the pick is Navy. However, the big question is, why call it the Poinsettia Bowl? Do you think when the players are asked which bowl they're going to they say "Uh, the San Diego Bowl"? Or did they players from the teams take poinsettias and hold them up and flaunt them much like players who go to the Tangerine Bowl do with tangerines? Or oranges for the Orange Bowl? Did they put them in their hair to make themselves look pretty? And if Navy actually did do this please don't send any SEALs to my house to silently kill me in my sleep.

Winner: Navy

Fort Worth Bowl

Kansas vs. Houston

Kansas boasts the number 19 defense in the country, not sure how that happened. They also boast the fattest coach this side of a pre-stapled Charlie Weis in Mark Mangino. How can any player take a coach who looks like they'd get exhausted gathering their thoughts seriously? Not sure, but it seems to work for Mike who has taken a joke of a football program and made it at least bowl-worthy. Houston QB Kevin Kolb recently passed up David Klinger to be number one on the all-time Houston passing yardage list. Paying attention Bengals? I think we found your QB of the future. Kansas is 0-fer on the road this year, and considering this game is on neutral turf this probably means overtime. Overtime games generally go to the teams with better offenses, so Houston is the choice here.

Winner: Houston

Hawaii Bowl

Central Florida vs. Nevada

Central Florida lost the Conference USA title game to Tulsa. They get to go to Hawaii in the middle of December. Tulsa gets to go to Memphis at the end of December. Shouldn't C-USA address this problem so that teams actually try to win their title game? Nevada gets to leave northern Nevada in the middle of winter.

Winner: Both teams

Motor City Bowl

Akron vs. Memphis

The exact opposite of the last bowl game, these teams get to got o Detroit in the middle of winter. Nothing against the fine city of Detroit, which I've never been to myself, but even they can think of better places to be right now. Anyway, Akron's head coach is JD Brookhart, who was the offensive coordinator at Pitt under Walt Harris. But the thing is Walt Harris calls all the plays for his teams and does most of the game planning. So JD was in more of a consultant role than anything. In a way Akron may as well've hired the janitor at Pitt headquarters cuz he helped about as much as JD did it would seem. However I will give the guy credit, he has inherited Walt's knack for making fans of his teams say "Wait a minute, how'd we win this game/end up with this record?" Akron is a team built on big plays and good QB play which is provided by Luke Getsy. Memphis boasts a top 10 pick in the 2006 draft, DeAngelo Williams, at running back. Memphis has the talent edge, but Akron won the MAC, which is more than Memphis did this year. So the pick goes to Akron, but barely.

Winner: Akron

Champs Sports Bowl

Clemson vs. Colorado

Clemson was not a very good team this year. Not bad, but not all that good either, the '05 Redskins of college football. And Colorado fell flatter than Anna Benson's forehead the last half of the season. This one will be more about who sucks less than who is better. Gary Barnett will be more interested in riding Small World 75 consecutive times while in Orlando than being on the Colorado sidelines, so the pick goes, with a fair amount of confidence, to Clemson.

Winner: Clemson

Insight.com Bowl

Rutgers vs. Arizona St.

Rutgers makes its first bowl appearance since the 70's, but not the 1870's as you may be thinking. They'll just be happy to be in a bowl, and Arizona St gets a home bowl-game. If Rutgers has more than 100 fans show up it'll be a minor miracle. A less impressive miracle will be if they win the game, but I wouldn't bet on that one either.

Winner: Arizona St.

MPC Computers Bowl

Boise St. vs. Boston College

Boston College makes what will probably be an annual pilgrimage to Boise. So what BC has gotten out of their ACC alliance is red-headed stepchild status, losing Notre Dame as a rival, and more miles traveled in conference than any other BCS team. But if they stay in the Big East they have a good chance to go to a BCS game every year, just saying is all. A very similar game to the previous one, where one team gets a for-all-intents-and-purposes home game, and the other team's fans will show up by the dozens. BC will be looking to get out of Boise as quickly as possible, while Boise will realize they're stuck there so they may as well feel good about themselves.

Winner: Boise St.

Alamo Bowl

Michigan vs. Nebraska

Alamo Bowl officials must've really tipped their waitresses well this year. They get a game featuring two of the most storied programs in college football history, with two of the most loyal, well traveled fan-bases. The only way it could've worked out better would've been if Notre Dame had said "Nah, we don't wanna go to a BCS game, let's go to the Alamo Bowl". Nebraska comes out of a lousy Big 12 North this year, and barely beat a lousy Pitt team at home. Michigan comes out of an overrated but still very good Big 10 conference and gave Penn State their only loss of the year. But then again Michigan has been more inconsistent than the new season of Family Guy. And Nebraska has come along offensively the last few games, and they were 5-0 at one point. Michigan is still hurting from the Ohio State loss, so Nebraska is the tentative pick here

Winner: Nebraska

Emerald Bowl

Georgia Tech vs. Utah

Utah was a great team last year, unstoppable, and may've even beat one of the top 3 teams had they had the chance. One head coach defection and a quarterback graduation later and they barely make a bowl at 6-5. Georgia Tech had an up-and-down season, and is probably overrated at number 24. The big factor may be GA Tech defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta, who some big time talking heads are saying is the best defensive coordinator in college football. But since he has the same last name as unfunny impressionist Judy Tenuta he can't be that great, unless he dresses as Cher for the game. However he did help to hold the Miami, Auburn, and Georgia offenses in check, so Utah shouldn't be that tall of a task.

Winner: GA Tech

Holiday Bowl

Oregon vs. Oklahoma

Last year Cal got screwed by the BCS system and complained very loudly about it. They were then promptly blown out of the water by Texas Tech. This year Oregon got screwed by the BCS system and complained very loudly about it. They will be promptly blown out of the water by Oklahoma, especially now that Adrian Peterson will be fully healthy after a month off.

Winner: Oklahoma

Music City Bowl

Virginia vs. Minnesota

Al Groh is a terrific recruiter, but a lousy coach. Minnesota has a great running game and that's about it. It seems Virginia shut down after the Florida St. game, like Groh said "Treat this as the ACC championship game" and the team took it a little too literally. Maybe now that they're in the bowl season they'll wake up again. Lawrence Maroney, the fine running back for Minnesota, will be taking it easy so as not to blow a knee out or anything of the sort to ruin his draft status.

Winner: Virginia

Sun Bowl

Northwestern vs. UCLA

This game will be high scoring, no doubt about it. At least with Louisville/Boise State last year they could at least fake a defense.

Winner: The Over

Independence Bowl

South Carolina vs. Missouri

This is a fairly easy call, an SEC team against a Big 12 North team. Of course if Brad Smith gets going all bets are off. But he's pretty much their only hope

Winner: South Carolina

Peach Bowl

Miami vs. LSU

This is kind of similar to the Alamo Bowl because it is a bowl lucky enough to have the two participants fall in their lap. The only downside is Miami supposedly doesn't travel well, even if it is only one state north. These are teams with great defenses and inconsistent, and sometimes downright bad, offenses. LSU choked like a groupie backstage at a 50 Cent concert in the SEC championship game. Usually the teams who lose their conference championship games lose their bowl games, so I'm going with that logic here

Winner: Miami

Mieneke Car Care Bowl

South Florida vs. NC State

Okay, how exactly does this bowl get to be on New Years Eve? This is the worst bowl game involving BCS teams. How South Florida not only beat, but destroyed a very good Louisville team is one of the great mysteries in sports this year. And NC State beat Middle Tennessee St and Eastern Kentucky to become bowl eligible this year. If South Florida can get its ground game going they will win fairly decisively. But if they have to pass at all forget about it, the Iraq army had a better air attack than South Florida does. NC State's coach Chuck Amato wears sunglasses and what appears to be pajamas during every game, looking not unlike a vacationing mob-boss. I pick South Florida only out of loyalty to the Big East, and because this is the only game I think they as a conference have a chance to win.

Winner: South Florida

Liberty Bowl

Fresno St. vs. Tulsa

Fresno St has been reeling lately, losing to both USC and Nevada their last 2 games. Tulsa is the Conference USA Champion. However, when the only guy on your team anyone ever talks about is your tight end, you'll have a tough time beating a good team

Winner: Fresno St.

Houston Bowl

TCU vs. Iowa State

This is not the Whitney Houston Bowl, which is unfortunate cuz that would probably be more entertaining than this game. And you'd get to have a giant crack-pipe trophy to boot. Anyway, TCU may've been playing in a BCS game, but they lost to SMU. Not Southern Mississippi, Southern Methodist. That may've been fine and dandy 20 years ago, but not so much today. These days it's like if you don't make your fantasy football playoffs by a game because you lost to the guy who doesn't pay attention to his team and has Maurice Clarrett starting for him all year. Iowa State couldn't win the Big 12 North.

Winner: TCU

More later today or tomorrow