What: GMAC Bowl
Date: January 6, 2008
Place: Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, AL
Teams: Tulsa vs. Bowling Green

Bowling Green (8-4) has won four straight games but Tulsa (9-4) brings the nation’s top offense into the game, averaging 549 yards. It also doesn’t hurt that Tulsa QB Paul Smith is second in the nation in yards passing and TD passes.

“We think we’ve had a really good month of preparation of how we went about it,” Tulsa coach Todd Graham said. “We spent a lot of time with our young kids before Christmas, almost like a second spring training.”

A college bowl game in Toronto? Yep. On Saturday, Jan. 5 2008 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ont. the Ball State Cardinals will take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in the International Bowl.

For Rutgers, Ray Rice comes into the bowl game with seven consecutive 100-yard rushing performances, including a 243-yard game in the win over Army. He has 20 touchdowns and 1,732 yards rushing.

For Ball State, QB Nate Davis has thrown for 27 touchdowns with only six interceptions to go along with 3,376 yards. He is also coming off a 326-yard, two-touchdown performance in the victoryt over Northern Illinois in the final regular-season game.

Ball State head coach is a little worried: “Rutgers is a very good football team on both sides of the football. Any team that has a 1,700 yard rusher, a good quarterback and some great receivers will always get your attention.”

Tennessee Vols offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe announced he was going to coach Duke next year and wide receiver coach Trooper Taylor said he’d be at Oklahoma State as co-offensive coordinator next year. Will these coaching changes have an effect on the players at this year’s Outback Bowl? Maybe. Maybe not.

“I’m sure it’s somewhere back in the back (of their heads), but this team has had a lot of things go on during the course of the season,” Coach Phillip Fulmer said during Saturday’s team practice. “They’ve been able to do a really good job of staying the course.”

The No. 16th-ranked Vols (9-4) play No. 18 Wisconsin (9-3) New Year’s Day at the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida.

For the 2007 Humanitarian Bowl my money is on the Yellow Jackets. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are 7-5 and the Fresno State Bulldogs are 8-4. Defensively, Georgia Tech has a big advantage. The Yellow Jackets are better at total defense, pass defense and rush defense. Offensively, Fresno State has a slight advantage.

But not enough to win the game. Sorry.

If the Yellow Jackets can shut down the rushing attack on early downs and force the Bulldogs to throw more than they would like, Georgia Tech has a good chance to take control of the game. Despite their name, this is a bigger team and they should win this thing in the end.

Betting stats: The Bulldogs are 7-19 ATS in their last 26 games overall and 2-6 ATS in their last eight non-conference games. The Yellow Jackets are 1-5-1 in their last seven games as a favorite and 2-5 ATS in their last seven games in December.

Georgia is making its third appearance in the Sugar Bowl in six years…

“To be able to go to the Sugar Bowl every other year would be pretty exciting,” Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said. “We’ve been able to do that the last six years. It’s so good to be back here and see the city up and running again.

Is Hawaii feeling a little out of their element? Maybe…

“I’ve been trying to prepare these players for the media and the hype surrounding a game of this magnitude,” said University of Hawaii Warriors coach June Jones, upon arriving at Louis S. Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. “It’s going to be a Super Bowl-like atmosphere. I don’t think they have any idea what they’re getting into.”

Still, a lot of college football fans are counting on the Bulldogs to maul Hawaii, something that could set the stage for a better season (ranking) next year.

“We have a lot to gain with this victory,” Richt said. “I think the underclassmen realize a victory here could set the stage for the future. The way the BCS is set up, it’s very important where you’re ranked in the preseason. I hate to say that much about it, but that’s the way it is.”

These two teams meet on Jan. 1, 2008 and the Bulldogs are currently -8 point favorites to win.

No. 8 Kansas vs. No. 5 Virginia Tech: This is their first meeting but a look at their separate bowl histories tells us this much…Kansas is 4-6 (won 42-13 over Houston in ‘05 Fort Worth); Virginia Tech is 7-13 (lost 31-24 to Georgia in ‘06 Chick-fil-A).

Virginia Tech has a great defense and will prove to be a handful for the Jayhawks. But in order for Tech to win they’re going to have to improve upon their throwing game. Kansas has averaged over 44 points per game but Tech is still favored to win. Yikes. All things being equal, his is going to be a close game…possibly coming down to a field goal.

The wild-card round was added to the NFL playoffs 30 years ago. Of those, 9 have gone on to the Super Bowl and five have won the Super Bowl. Interestingly, eight of the nine, including all five champions, were AFC teams. Four of the last 10 Super Bowl winners (Denver, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Indy) were AFC teams that had to go the extra round. And in 29 years only one NFC team has gone to the Super Bowl as a wild-card (Carolina)…and they lost.

There are two wild cards for each conference. I wouldn’t count on any of this year’s wild cards to beat the likes of the New England Patriots or the Dallas Cowboys. Although not a wild card, the Seattle Seahawks could surprise everyone. They’ve won five in a row and came oh-so-close to beating the Bears in the playoffs last year.

Even though the Pittsburgh Steelers clinched the division title last weekend with a win over the St. Louis Rams, this Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens is still a huge one. Because they are tied with the San Diego Chargers in the conference, they must beat the Ravens and hope that San Diego loses against Oakland. (The Chargers also hold a slight edge over the Steelers with a better conference record.) If not…they’ll face the Jacksonville Jaguars, who they lost to back on Dec. 16th. Oh…and there’s that small matter of Willie Parker breaking his leg and ending his season in last week’s game.

“If we have an opportunity to get the 3 seed, we are going to do that,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “It’s significant between 3 and 4, saying that if you win your first game then it tells you where to go. So there is definitely at least some significance there.”

If all goes well for the Steelers and they somehow pull off a miraculous post season, they are at 25/1 odds to win the 2008 Super Bowl.

Major League Baseball can be forgiven for being one of the most anal sports organizations on the planet. Baseball is a numbers game, after all, and makes billions of dollars off the obsession over keeping score. However dickish the Roger Maris home-run asterisk was, it did have some statistical merit.
The career home-run record set by Barry Bonds is more problematic. Any talk of putting an asterisk next to his 762 (and counting) homers, or to wipe them from the record books altogether, is purely a moral issue. And to do so requires first and foremost indisputable proof that Bonds broke the MLB rules regarding steroid use.
Track and field athletes like Marion Jones have had career achievements officially rendered null and void because of steroids, so there is precedent for MLB officials to do the same with Bonds. But their best hope for redemption is if Alex Rodriguez breaks the record and stays out of trouble.

As expected, the Mitchell Report has turned Major League Baseball on its ear. Dozens of players have been implicated in steroid use, from big-league sluggers to journeyman scrubs.

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, we humbly suggest these four athletes, if they haven’t done so already, join the parade and grab a bottle of “Vitamin B-12.”

Brandan Wright, Golden State Warriors: Generously listed at 6-foot-9 and 205 pounds. Needs significantly more bulk to play the post in the NBA.

Martin Biron, Philadelphia Flyers: Those rules limiting the size of goalie equipment aren’t helping this 6-foot-3, 163-pound beanpole.

Garrett Wolfe, Chicago Bears: Get this man some HGH. Listed at 5-foot-7 and 186 pounds, the rookie RB has had trouble staying healthy on the football field – go figure.

Randy Johnson, Arizona Diamondbacks: If you want to extend your career another few years, think Roger Clemens. Plus, imagine the fastball you could throw at 6-foot-10 and bigger than your current 231 pounds.