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Five Best Bets for the Bowl Season

For degenerate gamblers, bowl season is a bit like staring at an In-N-Out Burger separated from you by a minefield. If the regular season treated you kindly, no need to risk blowing yourself up for some fast food. If you took it on the chin for the last three months, jump in and hope you’re […]

The Miami Beach Bowl Is Not A Pleasure Trip For BYU Or Memphis

Miami is — along with New Orleans — one of the great winter party destinations for American football fans. The city has served as the longtime host of the venerable Orange Bowl game, and it has also hosted 10 Super Bowls. Miami is a city made for postseason football, so it might be easy to […]

Ranking coaching hires is like picking your reindeer

Follow TSS on Twitter @TheStudentSect Author @TheCoachBart I was watching the timeless holiday classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer last week when it struck me that Santa’s whole system needs an about face, and to bring in an HR guy at some point. He basically dismissed Rudolph’s chances of being on the sleigh team just […]

Why We Love Bowl Games: Caution Can Be Checked At The Door

The story of the last two New Mexico Bowls is the story of why bowl games are a (wait for it) Land of Enchantment as far as college football fans and pundits are concerned. Bowl games don’t always hit the sweet spot (see the 2011 Fight Hunger Bowl between 6-6 Illinois and 6-7 UCLA), but […]

Duke picked up a critical win at Georgia Tech last weekend. The Blue Devils probably didn’t expect Virginia to be an equally consequential contest the following weekend, but the other teams in the ACC Coastal didn’t expect Duke to represent such a key game last season. Duke is now finding out what it’s like to be on the other side of the tracks. Virginia-Duke will do a lot to shape the evolving ACC Coastal race.

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: When Bowl Results Mean More For One Team Than Another

It’s not as though dozens of bowl teams won’t be motivated. Yes, you’ll get the occasional “sulking bowl team” such as USC in the 2012 Sun Bowl against Georgia Tech, but in most cases, the “motivation factor” manifests itself in the form of the underdog that really, really wants to prove a point or make […]

Bowl Season: How Important Is Each Game To Each Team?

There are hundreds of different ways to approach bowl season — let’s at least take a few different views of this unique part of FBS college football, something which separates it from every other American team sport. No best-of-seven series, no bracketed tournaments. You can call bowls one-game exhibitions. You can call them one-game championships. […]

College Basketball: 10 Potential Mid-Major Bracket Busters

We are still early in the 2014-2015 season, and most leagues have not even started conference play yet, but it is already time to talk about one of the best parts of the NCAA tournament: bracket busters. Although the lines separating low-majors, mid-majors and high-majors get blurrier and blurrier every year (the packs might begin […]

Watch how it looks parachuting into the Army Navy Game

The army Navy Game is one full of traditions and plenty of fanfare before the opening kickoff. When the weather is good, as it was this past weekend in Baltimore, parachute teams from the army and Navy drop in from the skies above to thunderous applause and a good amount of awe. Ever wanted to […]

The Student Section’s Staff Bowl Picks – Straight Up

Admit it: you’re waiting until the last minute to fill out your bowl picks. While you’ve figured out whom to pick in most of them, there are still a few where you’re prepared to flip a coin. Don’t worry, the Student Section is here to help. Although the staff doesn’t always agree, we’ve all listed […]

The Student Section’s Staff Bowl Picks – Against the Spread

One of the things the Student Section strives to provide its readers with is a wide range of opinions about what’s going on in the worlds of college football and basketball. Bowl season is no different, which is why we listed each staff member’s picks against the spread. The number in parentheses is the confidence […]

Bowl Swag: Which bowls are giving out the best gifts?

One of my favorite parts of bowl season is seeing what “swag” the bowls are giving out to the players. The Sports Business Daily does a great job each year with this topic. Here’s the publication’s explanation of bowl swag: At least $5.4M will be spent on gifts that will be given to the ’14-15 […]

Conference Strength And The Bowl Games: Separating Fact From Fiction

Linking conference strength to bowl results is always a tenuous, risky thing to do — it can be done, but it requires great care and an awareness of limitations. The reasons for being cautious about touting — or downgrading — a conference based on bowl performance are obvious. They do, however, demand some care and […]

College Football Playoff: 5 Overlooked Storylines Heading Into The Semifinals

You know what the main stories will be when the College Football Playoff arrives on Jan. 1: Can Mark Helfrich not get destroyed in the coaching matchup with Jimbo Fisher? Can Cardale Jones lead Ohio State’s offense with distinction? Can Oregon’s offense deal with an extended layoff, finding rhythm in a situation that is often […]

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