Music City & Holiday Bowls

Still steaming after the outcome of the Pinstripe Bowl, not much in the mood for the Music City Bowl from Nashville.  (Note:  this morning, ESPN's Robert Smith and Herm Edwards both echoed my sentiments about the Pinstripe Bowl and the over officiating.  I wasn't overreacting.)

This game almost always features the Kentucky Wildcats but this year the Tennessee Volunteers are the 6-6 team from the SEC against North Carolina.  These two teams haven't played in a long, long time despite being located relatively close, much like Missouri and Iowa the other night.  I don't have any idea if the relationship between the schools and their fans was as contentious as the one between Hawkeyes and Tigers, but nonetheless, they teed it up.

Even game through a quarter, tied a7-7.  That's all I watched.  When I woke up at 3:15am to do my last day of mornings on WGRR, my wife said it was another wild finish with the Vols coming up on the wrong side of the score.  Anyone who saw Tennessee lose to LSU knows what she's talking about.  

Late, the officials ( involved again) ruled that time had run out giving Tennessee the win but then a review puts a couple seconds back on the clock, North Carolina ties it up with a field goal.  Game goes to double overtime and Volunteers are left on the short end again.  Final score 30-27.  

I did pick this game correctly in ESPN Bowl Mania, the only correct pick of the day.  I picked the next game incorrectly assuming Nebraska would destroy Washington like they did earlier in the season.

What kind of bowl game logo is that?  And what is Bridgepoint Education?  This used to be the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl and used this much better logo with a whale jumping out of the water. 

Bad logo, bad game.  As noted, I was in bed having to do the morning show so the boy picked up the first quarter of this stinker.  He didn't have much of anything to say about it other than he watched to 11:00 or so.  
Obviously Nebraska falls into the category of team that didn't care for or about their bowl game and mailed it in.  Nebraska destroyed Washington 56-21 early in the season and probably figured they didn't have anything to prove.  Washington didn't feel the same and won the game.  Huskies 19, Huskers 7.  Embarrassing for the Nebraska program - a team that was in the Big 12 championship game should not lose to a 6-6 weakling from the PAC-10. 
By the way, this game used to be one of the best bowl games of the season and even factored into the national championship before all this BCS nonsense.  Now we get this awful game.  I guess Pacific Life felt the same way.  Bridgepoint Education jumped in as sponsor - they're some non-descript online "higher education" company.  Their website is so bland it's hard to tell what they actually do. 

As for ESPN Bowl Mania, I only picked one game correctly so I drop to 8-10.  There's some guy playing this game who has picked 17 correct.  "Chitownduk_2", you have my respect.