Bowl Picks Final 18-14 ATS

Finishing with a flurry, my picks for January 2-9 were a stellar 4-1, including both LSU over Notre Dame and Florida over Ohio State, plus the over numbers (same score in both 41-14). On BCS games, I was also 4-1, with my Michigan choice the only one preventing perfection.

One thing I've noticed about the BCS is that they often produce mismatches, which produces more winners for me. While I love winning picks, I make the case for a college football playoff system in my final Top 25 rankings on the main site. Check it out.

College Bowl Update... Happy New Year

After starting the bowl season off red hot at 7-1, my picks have fallen to a meager 14-13 record against the spread (ATS), due primarily to a series of favorites who won but did not cover from December 29-31, including Texas, Texas Tech, Boston College and Oregon State.

On January 1, I went 3-3, including the most important, Boise State's win over Oklahoma (without a doubt the game of the season and maybe the best game of this young century). One thing I will never do again is pick any team coached by Lloyd Carr. His Michigan Wolverines have now lost 3 straight to Ohio State and 3 straight bowl games. It's his coaching style, somewhat similar to President Bush's "stay the course" strategy in Iraq. We see the results of not changing policy (or game plan) until it's too late... catastrophe.

Those anxiously awaiting the Florida - Ohio St. prediction will be happy to note that it's being posted today, noting that, if Florida wins, Boise State will be declared Downtown Magazine's NCAA National Champion as the only undefeated Division-1 team in the country.

Cougars bust Ducks 38-8; Fearless Rick now 2-0

Just to update the college bowl progress, as I so rightly predicted, the BYU Cougars blasted the Oregon Ducks in the Las Vegas Bowl (Vegas, Baby!), 38-8, ending any confusion over whether or not the Mountain West (now 2-0, both by blowout scores) was short-changed by the bowl nominating committees and the BCS.

Brigham Young in particular has been under-appreciated by the pollsters and the press. With their resounding victory over the hapless Ducks, the Cougars finish the 2006 campaign on a 10-game win streak - one of the longest in the nation - and should be a Top 15 pick in the 2007 preseason, even though they will lose QB John Beck to graduation.

Beck capped off his senior year with 2 more touchdown passes, giving him 32 for the year, and will probably go in the first round of the NFL draft this spring.

The Cougars will move up in the final rankings. Their two losses, both in September and on the road, were by 3 points to Arizona and by 7 in overtime to Boston College. Their win in the Las Vegas Bowl ups their record to 11-2. The quality of this team only reinforces the argument in favor of a playoff system for NCAA Division 1 football.

Bowl Season off to Flying Start

With the first college football bowl game of the season completed last night, Fearless Rick's record for predictions stands at 1-0 as TCU hammered Northern Illinois, 37-7, limiting the nation's leading rusher, Garrett Wolfe, to 28 yards rushing.

As stated in my preview the Horned Frogs were probably wondering why they were relegated to the low-level Poinsettia Bowl and they proved that they deserved better.

TCU's senior QB Jeff Ballard cemented his credentials as a bona fide NFL prospect with an outstanding performance in his final game. Ballard rushed for three scores, threw for another and amassed 253 passing yards.

Next up on the college football carousel is the Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl, on Thursday, Dec. 21, pitting BYU against Oregon. Brigham Young is favored by a field goal or more and I don't think it will even be that close.

I'll continue to update here as bowl season progresses.