The holidays mean joy for (most) college football fans
The holiday season once again is upon us, and that means family dinners, parties and presents. And for fans of college football, the coinciding bowl season is the most wonderful time of the year.
Sure, the schedule is different now, and most of the games don’t mean as much as they used to. But for diehards, college football is an addiction, and many certainly will attempt to watch at least part of all the games. The 2022 bowl season begins Dec. 16 and ends on Jan. 9 with the CFP National Championship Game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
On Dec. 16, a pair of games usher in bowl season, as Miami (Ohio) takes on UAB in the Bahamas Bowl, and the Cure Bowl features two relatively unknown but exciting teams in Troy and Texas-San Antonio.
The following day, Cincinnati plays Louisville in a matchup of former Conference USA foes at one of the most hallowed venues in sports, Boston’s Fenway Park. This one got a little more interesting on Dec. 5 when UC hired the Cardinals head coach Scott Satterfield to replace Luke Fickell, who is headed to Wisconsin. Satterfield has vowed to stay away from the action, with former NFL player Deion Branch slated to coach Louisville in the bowl game.
In the Celebration Bowl, a contest between top HBCU teams, Jackson State will take on NC Central. It will be Deion Sanders’ last game as Jackson State’s coach before he heads west to try to rebuild the once-proud Colorado program, currently the cellar dwellers in the Pac-12. Elsewhere, BYU plays SMU in the New Mexico Bowl; Fresno State plays Washington State in the LA Bowl; and Rice plays Southern Miss in the LendingTree Bowl.
Also on Dec. 17, Oregon State will play Florida in the Las Vegas Bowl. The Beavers surprised as one of the top teams in the Pac-12, while the Gators had to be considered a disappointment in the SEC in their first season under Billy Napier. Boise State will play North Texas in the Frisco Bowl to close out the action that day.
Those games and a handful of others will take place before Christmas, and they should provide a nice break from stressful holiday shopping. In fact, there will be at least one game every day, with the pre-Christmas tilts concluding on Christmas Eve with the Hawaii Bowl, pitting Middle Tennessee State against San Diego State in what should be an intriguing matchup. After a break on Christmas Day, bowl action resumes on Dec. 26.
Really, though, and especially this year, the New Year’s Six are the games that everyone cares about.
On Dec. 30, Tennessee makes its return to the grand bowl stage in the Orange Bowl. The Volunteers will play Clemson in Miami to culminate a full day of what should be some outstanding football. Tennessee was in the hunt for the playoffs until late-season losses at Georgia and South Carolina derailed their hopes. But at 10-2, the Vols will close out a great campaign with a showdown against the Tigers (11-2), who won the ACC and have been a regular in the CFP as of late.
On New Year’s Eve, the two national semifinals will be contested. No. 1 Georgia will make the short trip to Atlanta to take on No. 4 Ohio State in the Peach Bowl at 8 p.m. The other semifinal will be at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, as No. 2 Michigan will face off against No. 3 TCU at 4 p.m.
New Year’s Eve action opens earlier in the day at high noon with Alabama taking on Big 12 champions Kansas State in the Sugar Bowl. And in a non-New Year’s Six game, Kentucky will play Iowa in the Music City Bowl.
On Monday, Jan. 2, USC will take on Tulane, this season’s Cinderella story, in the Cotton Bowl, and Utah will make its second straight trip to Pasadena to play Penn State in the Rose Bowl. After losing a nailbiter to the Buckeyes to conclude last season, the Utes won the Pac-12 again this season. In other games on Jan. 2, Illinois will take on Mike Leach and Mississippi State in the ReliaQuest Bowl, and LSU will play in the Citrus Bowl against Big Ten runner-up Purdue.
In other games featuring SEC teams, Arkansas plays Kansas in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on Dec. 28. The Jayhawks are finally back in the postseason after a long drought, but this one will be a virtual home game for the Razorbacks as they make the short trip east across the state line. Elsewhere, South Carolina will play Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl on Dec. 30, and Ole Miss heads to the Lone Star State to play Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl.
