Ole Miss (6-6, 3-5 SEC) vs. Pittsburgh (6-6, 3-4 Big East)
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN

The History: Formerly known as the Birmingham Bowl and the PapaJohns.com Bowl, the BBVA Compass Bowl takes place in Birmingham, Alabama. BBVA took over sponsorship of this game in 2010. The game usually puts a team from the SEC against one from the Big East, and this year is no exception with the Ole Miss Rebels taking on the Pitt Panthers.

Ole Miss Scouting Report: Ole Miss plays in the gauntlet that is the SEC. The Rebels lost six games this year, five of which came to teams which finished in the top 25 at the end of the regular season. Sophomore quarterback Bo Wallace leads the Rebels’ offense as he threw for 2,843 yards and 19 touchdowns on the season. He also tallied eight rushing touchdowns on the year. … [Read More]

Here’s a look at the Top 25 Week Ahead and Week in Review.

1.       Duke (12-0) Previous Rank: 1

Past Week:  12/29 Santa Clara, W 90-77

Upcoming:  1/2 @ Davidson & 1/5 Wake Forest

The Blue Devils pulled away from Santa Clara late and will open up ACC play this week against Wake Forest.

2.       Michigan (13-0) … [Read More]

Where does the conference fall in the national rankings – how likely are they to have a team in the Title game?

With the departure of West Virginia, Louisville is the cream of the crop in this conference. They are currently the only team ranked in the AP Top 25, and the conference has … [Read More]

The Basics: Saturday, January 7, 2012, 1:00 PM EST on ESPN, from Birmingham, Alabama. SMU (7-5, 5-3 CUSA) and Pitt (6-6, 4-3 Big East).

History: Formerly known as the Papajohns.com, All-American, Hall of Fame and Dixie Bowl, this is the second year that BBVA Compass has been the main sponsor of Saturday’s event. Pitt returns after a big win over Kentucky last season. UCONN beat toUSC in 2010 pretty easily as well. The bowl was established in Birmingham in 2006, but there is a rich history of bowl games in the city in years past.

SMU: So…. June Jones isn’t the coach for Arizona State. He … [Read More]

This maybe the most difficult region that I have ever tried to predict in recent memory.  On the 1 line is a very solid Pitt Panthers team, but they are a team that can struggle offensively at times.  If they face someone that gets hot from deep not sure they can keep up.  Then you have a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 seeds that are so similar that it would be hard to call any win by them an upset.  I’m not sure that any team is favored by 8 points or more, with most … [Read More]

The chili is simmering, my daughters have already made the only dessert appropriate, and the tasty beverages are chilling awaiting consumption. I’ve got my spot staked out in front of the plasma, and the guy that’s been at my Super Bowl party for eleven of the last twelve years has flown down from Seattle.

But, you know what? I have no idea who I want to win.  Seriously, and I know that there’s a lot of folks who are like this, but this is the most apathetic I’ve ever been about a “Super Bowl”… heck, at this point, I wouldn’t care how it was spelled.

I haven’t watched the fifteen months of coverage, so I’m not all that informed about this year’s game. I know Roethlisberger did something creepy and this is a chance at redemption and everyone got freaked out because he liked Billy … [Read More]

Pitt (7-5, 5-2 Big East) vs. Kentucky (6-6, 2-6 SEC)

January 8, 2011 Noon ET

History: This ‘classic’ event in Birmingham Alabama was initially chartered as the Papa John’s bowl, which had a history of issues from its inception; including poor ticket sales that required the crowd to sit on one side of the stadium (so it looked full on TV), to continual problems with the sponsor providing enough pizza. Our friends over at The Wizard Of Odds have done a great job at covering the fiasco- my favorite is the misspelled “Cincinnati” on the game t-shirts. Look, when the local media is making fun of you, and you’re supposed to be a tourism event, you know there’s a problem.

So, of course, with this much prestige it deserves a January 8 broadcast date. And why does it get the prime slot on ESPN? Well, probably because … [Read More]

Although I usually don’t take requests, I almost made an exception for Coach Rodriguez.

What a great week of football- three days worth of collegiate goodness, interspersed with some NFL stuff, lots of food, and the occasional neighborhood game. Although, this year things ended up being a little messy.

I guess you could say that the mess all started on Thursday, when our friends in burnt orange managed to lose their rivalry game against the Aggies.  As you can imagine, the good folks at Shaggy Bevo are taking this well, particularly given that most of the losses happened in Austin.

The Longhorn’s collapse is the first time in recent memory that a team has gone from the BCS championship game to not … [Read More]