Pinstripe Bow/Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl

Second and third games of the day.  Why in the world the San Francisco based Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl isn't played after 10pm is beyond me.

Great logo for the game at Yankee Stadium.  This is everything the Holiday Bowl logo is not.  Not so great weather.  And yet the NFL agreed to play the Super Bowl here, in February.  Enjoy that. 

West Virginia vs. Syracuse

Renewal of an old Big East rivalry, but no more thanks to WVU moving to the Big 12 where they found the playing wasn't as easy as they thought.  After a few games this season where they threw up a ton of points the Mountaineers game back to Earth and wound up losing five in a row.  Some "experts" were pushing West Virginia as a national title contender.

And then today's game happened.  A complete mess as Syracuse ran roughshod over the porous West Virginia defense like so many others did this season.  I foolishly chose West Virginia to win this game instead of looking at stats to see Syracuse was scoring a ton of points during the second half of the season.

Former Heisman hopeful Geno Smith may have hurt his draft stock the way he played for WVU today.  He made Gary Nova of Rutgers look competent.  Okay, it wasn't that bad, but it was bad.  Somehow Syracuse lost to Nova and Rutgers earlier this season.

Syracuse 34  WVU 14

Game notes:

-It's really hard to pick winners in these games but I should have seen this one coming.

-They get a good crowd for this lower tier game, over 38,000 for this one.  Being in New York City doesn't hurt.  I doubt that many would turn up for a game in Buffalo.

-I like the cold weather bowl game idea but it was snowing most of the game and this happens.

Not exactly fan friendly in person or on TV.

-Bowl swag:  The players clean up at this game.  Bowl committee would not disclose details about participants’ gifts, but last year’s gifts included a Sony video camera, Armitron watch, Balfour ring, New Era duffle bag, New Era caps, a winter hat, hoodie, sweatpants, thermal, polo and crew shirt.

If you hadn't figured it out by now, I had West Virgnia to win.

Navy vs. Arizona State

I only watched the second quarter of this beat down.  The Sun Devils scored touchdowns on their first nine possessions.  I don't think it took Arizona State more than three or four plays to score in the quarter I watched.

The game is still going on as I write this.  I didn't feel like creating a separate page for this game.

Done.

I had Arizona State with a fairly high confidence pick.  Should have made it higher.

Bowl record now (or will soon be) 9-7.