College Bowl Game Picks: Beef 'O' Grady Bowl Mocking And Pity For Boise St.

Here's what's most awesome about 35 college bowl games, the picks we get to make. It's fun to look at games like the Beef 'O' Grady Bowl and wisely ponder the strengths and weaknesses of Louisville and Southern Miss and then close your eyes and pick the team with best mascot or the one you have some tangential tie to. My neighbor's third cousin is from Tennessee which is next to Kentucky so therefor I am going with the Cardinals. That's not exactly a true story but there's no reason it couldn't be. With that stirring introduction, here's a quick preview of these two bowl games and your predictions for each.

St. Petersburg Beef 'O' Brady Bowl 

Louisville vs. Southern Miss
Tuesday, Dec. 21 @ 8pm ET (ESPN)

There is simply no amount of mocking the "Beef 'O' Brady Bowl" that would be too much. It's a shame these two fine teams who combined to lose 10 games and represent the best something college football has to offer are forced to play under the worst sponsor moniker conceivable. 

OK, that's not completely true. The AR Portable Toilets Bowl would probably be worse. Or the AIG Government Bailout Bowl. Worst yet would be the Waste Management Open...err Bowl.

Here's more on the actual game which features the Cardinals at a 2.5-point favorite with the total point line set at 57 (via SB Nation.com).

The Cardinals, in the inaugural season of first-year head coach Charlie Strong, finished 6-6, third from the bottom of the Big East, and are the conference's last bowl-eligible team. A tough out-of-conference schedule for a Big Six school helped do them in -- two of the losses came to in-state rival Kentucky in Week 1 and then-No. 25 Oregon State in Week 3. Of their four conference losses, only the Pitt game was a decisive one (20-3). All the rest (to Cincinnati, South Florida, and West Virginia) came by a margin of eight points or less. Louisville closed out the season on a pleasant and eligibility-securing note, in a laughable 40-13 road win over Rutgers. 

The Golden Eagles recorded an 8-4 2010 season, but being a mid-major, this is their lot. Their four losses were neatly spaced over three months, including a nasty spill against future division champ South Carolina in Week 1, and shootout defeats against East Carolina and UAB. The final stumble was a 56-50 loss to Tulsa in their last regular-season game. The Golden Eagles finished second in C-USA East, behind overall conference champs Central Florida.     

Prediction via your picks:

Your picks are tracking nicely with what the Vegas odds-makers think with 51% picking the 2.5-point favorite, Louisville. Either you guys are really smart or you basically just followed the betting line. Either way, good job!

MAACO Las Vegas Bowl 

Boise St. vs. Utah
Wednesday, Dec. 22 @ 8pm ET (ESPN)

Poor Boise St has to go from being a potential BCS National Title snub to playing Utah in the freaking Las Vegas Bowl all thanks to a missed field goal. Oh the humanity! 

On paper this looks like it might actually be a decent game between the 11-1 Broncos and the 10-2 Utes but Vegas doesn't think so. They set the line at a whopping 17-points for Boise St. and are predicting a shootout in the process with a game total of 60.5, which actually feels kind of low.

More on the game (via SB Nation.com).

The Utes came into this season highly touted, but after eight straight wins out of the gate took two highly public stumbles in a row, getting beaten badly by Notre Dame and utterly annihilated by TCU. They won out with victories over San Diego State and BYU, but are frankly lucky to be ranked given how voters feel about non-AQ teams. 

The Broncos, of course, were gunning for yet another undefeated season themselves and harbored legitimate national title aspirations, but fell in double overtime to conference foe Nevada over Thanksgiving weekend. It'll be a short trip for both teams to Sam Boyd Stadium on December 22.    

Prediction via your picks:

Shockingly only 6 percent of the picks are in favor of the Utes. Obviously, you people haven't read the story of Little Big Horn. Hint, the Native Americans kicked ass.

Predictions update:

We've had three bowl games so far and you guys have a 1-1 record with the crowd being absolutely correct in picking the BYU Cougars to beat the tar out of UTEP and screwing the pooch by picking the Fresno Bulldogs to beat the Northern Illinois Huskies. "Screwing the pooch"...Bulldogs and Huskies...ROTFLMAO.

Yes, there were three games but due to an administrative oversight, the New Orleans Bowl was left off the picks survey. Before you get all high-and-mighty about our f--k up, let me point out that over a hundred people made picks and not one of you noticed either. So piss off...and Happy Holidays!!

Bowl Picks: New Mexico Bowl, Humanitarian Bowl and New Orleans Bowl

Over the next few weeks we will be giving our picks for each of the bowl games along with a quick preview. The picks, however, come from you via the entries you make in our College Bowl Game Picks Contest where you can not win an empty cereal bowl as a non-prize. Entries will be accepted right up until the bowl game is actually played. Today we are going to look at the first three bowl games of the season that will be played on Dec. 18: New Mexico Bowl, Humanitarian Bowl and New Orleans Bowl.

New Mexico Bowl

BYU vs. UTEP 
Saturday, Dec. 18 @ 2pm ET (ESPN)
University Stadium, Albuquerque, N.M.

The Brigham Young Cougars of the Mountain West Conference come to the bowl game with a 6-6 record facing the UTEP Miners of Conference USA who are also 6-6 on the season. BYU is a 12-point favorite in this game with the total points set at 49.

UTEP is lead by quarterback Trevor Vittatoe who failed to reach 3,000 yards for the first time in his college career. His favorite targets, wide receiver Ross Apo, is questionable for the game as is running back Mike Hague. With Max Hall now "playing" in the NFL, BYU relies on its running game to put points on the board which has been its strength this season. They put 40 points on the board in three of their last five wins.

Prediction: 91 percent in favor of BYU

Humanitarian Bowl

Northern Illinois vs. Fresno State
Saturday, Dec. 18 @ 5:30pm ET (ESPN)
Bronco Stadium, Boise, Idaho

The Huskies of Northern Illinois (10-3) from the Mid-American Conference will face the Fresno State Bulldogs (8-4) of the Western Athletic Conference on the blue field of Boise. Northern Illinois is a 1.5-point favorite with the point total of 59 points for the game.

The key player for the Huskies is running back Chad Spann. Spann, a senior, ran for his second straight 1000+ yard season and averaged 99.56 yards per game this year. The team also features a solid run defense that failed them in the MAC Title game which they lost to Miami of Ohio after going undefeated through October and November.

Freson once again features a potent passing attack with quarterback Ryan Colburn completing 62 percent of his throws. The Bulldogs have been very effective getting after opposing quarterback with 37 sacks this season which is sixth overall in the nation.

Prediction: 56 percent in favor of Fresno

New Orleans Bowl

Ohio vs. Troy
Saturday, December 18 @ 9pm ET (ESPN)
Superdome, New Orleans

The Ohio Bobcats (8-4) of the Mid-American Conference take on the Sun Belt Conference Troy Trojans (7-5) in this battle of small schools that very few people care about. Troy is a 1.5-point favorite with the point total of 58 points for the game.

Ohio brings a perfect 0-4 record in bowl games to New Orleans and hopes it can limit the Trojans with its defense. It recorded 17 interceptions on the season and held opponents to just 3.2 yards per carry. Phil Bates and Boo Jackson split time at quarterback and wide receiver Terrence McRae has nine touchdowns on the year.

Troy is 1-1 in the New Orleans Bowl so it at least brings experience to the game. The Trojans feature a high-powered offensive attack that has averaged 441 yards per game. Redshirt freshman Corey Robinson threw for 3.339 yards and 24 touchdowns this season.

Bowl Game Schedule To Help You Plan All Your Holiday Excuses

Here's the schedule you need so you can give your wife/mom the proper excuse for why you can't go to your Aunt's / Sister-in-law's house for tea and fruit cake.

Below is the complete 2010 college bowl schedule. You can also find all the info you need about the BCS bowls at SB Nation's BCS Evolution.

College Bowl Game Picks Contest: Call Your Shot, Win A Bowl

College Bowl Game season is upon us, like it or not, and so we are running a Picks contest. With 34 games ranging from the tradition-bound Rose Bowl to the GoDaddy.com Bowl (that might or might not feature scantily clad football players seductively ripping off their jerseys and pants right up to the point that the FCC censors step in and bleep the entire damn game) we feel it is our civic and moral duty to find some way to make this mess more interesting.

The idea here is pretty simple, you fill out the form and pick the college football team you think will win the college bowl game it is going to. For example, did you know that Louisville and Southern Miss were playing in the Best 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg Bowl? Probably not, unless you are associated with one of those schools or your name is "Brady". 

That doesn't matter though, all you have to do is pick which of those two fine teams you think will win the game. Straight up, no spreads to worry about.

You can pick the Louisville Cardinals (6-6, 3-4 in the Big East) or the Southern Miss Golden Eagles (8-4, 5-3 in Conference USA). Personally, I am going with Louisville because that's where Earl Clark went to school. You might choose Southern Miss because they have a better record or perhaps because you think Golden Eagles would tear the crap out of a Cardinal in a real life bird fight.

We are not here to judge the reason you make your picks. In fact, we might as well call them "Freedom Picks" because you are free to make your own picks without fear of reprisal. Freedom isn't free, but making picks on college bowl games is.

More than anything, this is an experiment in the wisdom of crowds. We'll be looking at each of the 34 bowl games in more detail over the next few weeks and we want to be able to talk about how the picks are going because we are convinced that our readers know more (or possibly less) about college football bowl games then anyone else out there.

Plus, the winner of the contest gets their very own Cereal Bowl***

*** cereal and bowl not included as we do not have the sponsorship funding to give out a real prize

To play, just fill out the form below or click here to fill out it out. One entry per person or you wont be eligible to win the cereal bowl we are not really giving out.

Entries accepted up until the first bowl game kicks off on December 18, so hurry or you will miss your chance to not win a cereal bowl full of cereal.