Vols Will Eat Mor Chikin
It’s Tennessee vs Virginia Tech in Atlanta, Alabama will meet Texas for the title, and the SEC clean up with 10 bowl spots.
It’s official. Our Tennessee Vols will face Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Years’ Eve at 7:30 pm ET. The game will be televised on ESPN. Tennessee readily accepted the bowl bid today. The appearance in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, formerly known as the Peach Bowl, will be Tennessee’s 48th bowl appearance in school’s history, making UT tied for 3rd with Southern California in all-time bowl appearances. Only Alabama (soon to be 57) and Texas (soon to be 49) have played in more bowl games. The Vol’s bowl record is 25-22.
We’ll take looks at the Hokie’s season and team in the coming days here at Vols in the Fall.
____________________________________________________
A record 10 SEC schools were named to bowl games today, leaving only Mississippi State and Vanderbilt to concentrate solely on basketball during the holidays. Kentucky will play ACC Runner-up Clemson in the Music City on Dec 27. Georgia will face Texas A&M the following evening in the Independence. New Year’s Eve festivities will include the Tennessee-Virginia Tech showdown in the Chick-fil-A (f.k.a. Peach). New Years’ Day will see Auburn vs Northwestern in the Outback, LSU play Penn State in the Capital One, and Florida face Cincinnati in the Sugar. Then, South Carolina gets to frolic at old Legion Field (sans upper deck) against Connecticut in the PapaJohns, Ole Miss will face Oklahoma State in the Cotton, and Arkansas-East Carolina will feature in the Liberty – all three games on Jan 2. The 10th SEC bowl team is of course Alabama who will beat play Texas for all the marbles on Jan 7 in the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena.
____________________________________________________
In the BCS bowl picture, Texas wimps into the championship game picture to face off against the Alabama Crimson Tide juggernaut, and TCU gets a rematch with Boise State, this time in the Fiesta Bowl, as their thank-you slip for an undefeated season (last year the two teams played in the much lesser Poinsettia Bowl). No congratulations are granted to the Longhorns from this scribe. Here’s to the Tide bringing home yet another national championship to the SEC. Congratulations are in store to TCU, perhaps the best team in the state of Texas, for their first major bowl bid since their January 1, 1959 Cotton Bowl appearance (0-0 vs Air Force).
As a note to those who were hoping that TCU would jump Texas in the BCS poll and get a shot at Alabama for the championship – Cincinnati (#3) finished ahead of TCU (#4) due to their victory on Saturday over Pitt.
Speaking of the Bearcats, they will face SEC runner-up Florida in the Sugar Bowl. This will be Tim Tebow’s final game, and more tears will fall no doubt (I’ve seen enough already). But the game also might be Brian Kelly’s final game as Cincy’s head coach as rumors begin to swirl around South Bend for Kelly becoming recently-fired Charlie Weis’ replacement for the Notre Dame job. A huge distraction in the making?
The Orange Bowl will see Iowa and ACC Champion Georgia Tech meet in Miami, and the Granddaddy-of-them-All will have the Oregon Ducks migrating to Pasadena to host the Ohio State Buckeyes for the Roses.
Note: Thank you Bert for noticing that I can’t keep my BCS bowl games straight!
____________________________________________________
Here’s the entire Bowl lineup.
| New Mexico (Fresno State vs. Wyoming) |
Albuquerque, N.M. University Stadium |
Dec. 19 4:30 p.m. |
ESPN |
| St. Petersburg (Rutgers vs. UCF) |
St. Petersburg, Fla. Tropicana Field |
Dec. 19 8 p.m. |
ESPN |
| R+L Carriers New Orleans (Southern Miss vs. Middle Tennessee) |
New Orleans Louisiana Superdome |
Dec. 20 8:30 p.m. |
ESPN |
| MAACO Las Vegas (BYU vs. Oregon State) |
Las Vegas Sam Boyd Stadium |
Dec. 22 8 p.m. |
ESPN |
| San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia (Utah vs. California) |
San Diego Qualcomm Stadium |
Dec. 23 8 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Sheraton Hawaii (SMU vs. Nevada) |
Honolulu Aloha Stadium |
Dec. 24 8 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Little Caesars (Marshall vs. Ohio) |
Detroit Ford Field |
Dec. 26 1 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Meineke Car Care (North Carolina vs. Pitt) |
Charlotte, N.C. Bank of America Stadium |
Dec. 26 4:30 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Emerald (Boston College vs. Southern Cal) |
San Francisco AT&T Park |
Dec. 26 8 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Gaylord Hotels Music City (Clemson vs. Kentucky) |
Nashville, Tenn. LP Field |
Dec. 27 8:30 p.m. |
ESPN |
| AdvoCare V100 Independence (Texas A&M vs. Georgia) |
Shreveport, La. Independence Stadium |
Dec. 28 5 p.m. |
ESPN2 |
| EagleBank (Temple vs. Army or UCLA) |
Washington, D.C. RFK Stadium |
Dec. 29 4:30 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Champs Sports (Miami vs. Wisconsin) |
Orlando, Fla. Florida Citrus Bowl |
Dec. 29 8 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Roady’s Humanitarian (Bowling Green vs. Idaho) |
Boise, Idaho Bronco Stadium |
Dec. 30 4:30 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Pacific Life Holiday (Nebraska vs. Arizona) |
San Diego Qualcomm Stadium |
Dec. 30 8 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Bell Helicopter Armed Forces (Houston vs. Air Force) |
Fort Worth, Texas Amon G. Carter Stadium |
Dec. 31 Noon |
ESPN |
| Brut Sun (Oklahoma vs. Stanford) |
El Paso, Texas Sun Bowl |
Dec. 31 2 p.m. |
CBS |
| Texas (Missouri vs. Navy) |
Houston Reliant Stadium |
Dec. 31 3:30 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Insight (Minnesota vs. Iowa State) |
Tempe, Ariz. Sun Devil Stadium |
Dec. 31 6 p.m. |
NFL Network |
| Chick-fil-A (Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech) |
Atlanta Georgia Dome |
Dec. 31 7:30 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Outback (Northwestern vs. Auburn) |
Tampa, Fla. Raymond James Stadium |
Jan. 1 11 a.m. |
ESPN |
| Capital One (Penn State vs. LSU) |
Orlando, Fla. Florida Citrus Bowl |
Jan. 1 1 p.m. |
ABC |
| Konica Minolta Gator (West Virginia vs. Florida State) |
Jacksonville, Fla. Municipal Stadium |
Jan. 1 1 p.m. |
CBS |
| Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi (Oregon vs Ohio State) |
Pasadena, Calif. Rose Bowl |
Jan. 1 4:30 p.m. |
ABC |
| Allstate Sugar (Florida vs. Cincinnati) |
New Orleans Louisiana Superdome |
Jan. 1 8:30 p.m. |
FOX |
| International (South Florida vs. Northern Illinois) |
Toronto, Canada Rogers Centre |
Jan. 2 Noon |
ESPN2 |
| Papajohns.com (Connecticut vs. South Carolina) |
Birmingham, Ala. Legion Field |
Jan. 2 2 p.m. |
ESPN |
| AT&T Cotton (Oklahoma State vs. Ole Miss) |
Arlington, Texas Cowboys Stadium |
Jan. 2 2 p.m. |
FOX |
| AutoZone Liberty (East Carolina vs. Arkansas) |
Memphis, Tenn. Liberty Bowl |
Jan. 2 5:30 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Valero Alamo (Michigan State vs. Texas Tech) |
San Antonio Alamodome |
Jan. 2 9 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Tostitos Fiesta (Boise State vs. TCU) |
Glendale, Ariz. U. of Phoenix Stadium |
Jan. 4 8 p.m. |
FOX |
| FedEx Orange (Georgia Tech vs. Iowa) |
Miami Land Shark Stadium |
Jan. 5 8 p.m. |
FOX |
| GMAC (Central Michigan vs. Troy) |
Mobile, Ala. Ladd-Peebles Stadium |
Jan. 6 7 p.m. |
ESPN |
| Citi BCS National Championship Game (Alabama vs. Texas) |
Pasadena, Calif. Rose Bowl |
Jan. 7 8 p.m. |
ABC |
IM AWFUL. I ONLY PICKED THE SEC TO HAVE SEVEN TEAMS IN BOWLS. BUT THEN AGAIN I GUESS I FORGOT THERE WERE 53 BOWL GAMES. LIKE BERT IM NOT CRAZY ABOUT THE VT MATCHUP BUT I GUESS ILL END UP IN ATLANTA AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS. FRED ARE YOU FLYING IN TO SEE PAULINE?
fred…awesome job, as usual.
i hate to nitpick but the cotton bowl is not a bcs bowl[orange,
fiesta, sugar, rose and, of course, the bcs title game].
the bcs has a crazy rule that not more than 2 teams from
any one conference can play in the bcs bowls in a given year.
that being said, i really do wish da vols were in the non-bcs
cotton…but, if we have to face vt then i like our chances with
this coaching staff. if this had happened last year or before i’d
be seriously depressed right now!
Rank Amateurism with a capital A. Changed. Thanks, Bert.
..and the little guys get blown off again.
TCU, Cincy and Boise St. all should have been ahead of Texas. And I am likely to be further convinced that they will never be given a chance if that Heisman goes to McCoy!
Bert, I hope your feared matchup does not turn into a nightmare for all of us. If VT an TN bring their best performances (and we know they are capable) it should be excitng to the end, and Hardesty may have a chance for a sequel to his “Moment”.
Thanks for the great summary Fred. It should help keep me focused and decide whats worth the tube time.
yes dw the little ones are once again swept under the carpet…….maybe fred can enlighten us on some on some options as a way to change this………you know after all these years of the BCS ive about decided that i liked the ole AP and UPI rankings from years ago better