College football week 15 thread: The Low Sparky of High Heeled Boys

1979 Orange Bowl had Oklahoma vs. Nebraska. OU won 31-24.

Found another one, the 2015 Arizona Bowl, Nevada vs. Colorado State, both of the MWC.

 

That 1979 game was odd in that Nebraska had already upset Oklahoma earlier in the season, putting them in position to play Penn State for the national championship. Instead, the Huskers were upset by Missouri the following week, handing the Sooners the trip to Miami as the host team from the Big Eight.

Penn State instead played Alabama, Notre Dame opted for the Cotton Bowl (Joe Montana's fourth-quarter comeback vs. Houston) and the Orange Bowl was stuck with a rematch. Even worse, KC and the Sunshine Band played a tribute to disco for the Festival of Lights halftime show.

Oh, and Woody Hayes punched the Clemson kid in the Gator Bowl. What a great season.

 

I have to wait until January to see the Hokies and the rowboat captain in the mayo bowl?

 

I was struck by Herbstreit's comment that Ohio State would be better served by going on the road in the first week to avoid the negativity in Columbus. That's a remarkable statement, and it might be true. Imagine being so stressed by your own fans that you'd stand a better chance playing before 100,000 fans of your opponent.

 

Wasn't there an Army-Navy rematch in Hawaii once?

 

Other, non-playoff bowl games that caught my eye. All takes on the quality of games subject to change, depending on how many players from each team opt out:

• Tulane vs. Florida, Gasparilla Bowl — A good G5 team against a mid-level SEC team that was playing well at the end of the year. Could be a good one.

• BYU vs. Colorado, Alamo Bowl — Two upper-tier Big 12 teams that somehow missed each other all season. This looked like it could be the Big 12 championship game for a hot minute in November. Probably the best non-playoff bowl game on the schedule if all of the players show up, which is a distinction the Alamo Bowl has seemed to grab from the Holiday Bowl over the past few years. This is the ninth time in 12 years it's paired up two ranked teams, and is one of only three non-playoff games this year that does so.

• Georgia Tech vs. Vanderbilt, Birmingham Bowl — Like @Neutral Corner said, it should be fun atmosphere with two "happy to be there" teams both within easy driving distance.

• Miami vs. Iowa State, Pop-Tarts Bowl — The "We were thisclose to the Playoff" bowl. Killing and eating an anthropomorphic Pop-Tart to celebrate their victory might be good therapy.

• East Carolina vs. North Carolina State, Military Bowl — Doesn't East Carolina have a huge little brother complex with the other North Carolina schools? This is a pretty regular series, so it ought to have some sort of rivalry feel that you don't often get in these games.

• Missouri vs. Iowa, Music City Bowl — Missouri played five games this season that were decided in the final two minutes or overtime, and also lost two by a combined 75 points. We don't often see a year stranger than that, so let's enjoy one last moment of 2024 Missouri football.
Also, the Music City Bowl is now sponsored by some translation service called TransPerfect. It was previously sponsored by the Gaylord hotel chain. Is the Music City Bowl very subtly trolling SEC football fans by partnering with sponsors who sound vaguely like LGBTQ advocacy groups? The game is on Dec. 30. I'll give -600 odds that some ill-informed right-wing talk show host filling in for one of the big names makes this a segment on Dec. 26 or 27.

• Alabama vs. Michigan, ReliaQuest Bowl — Just for the LOLz of seeing Alabama slum it at 11 a.m. on New Year's Eve in Tampa with what might be a JV roster, while they're still complaining about being left out of the Playoff despite running the non-conference gauntlet of Western Kentucky, South Florida, Wisconsin and Mercer.

• Baylor vs. LSU, Texas Bowl — Dave Aranda plays LSU for the first time since he left to become Baylor's coach. First meeting since 1985, in a series that dates back to 1907. LSU wearing purple jerseys as the home team. The last time LSU was in the Texas Bowl, it had about 17 players on the roster. Lots of fun, goofy notes for the announcers to dish out if this devolves into a 42-10 blowout.

• North Texas vs. Texas State, First Responders Bowl — Wasn't this the finale of "Necessary Roughness"?

• Liberty vs. Buffalo, Bahamas Bowl — The final "normal" bowl game on the schedule deserves better than to be in another country, at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, with two teams who might have escaped the ESPN+ zone a combined four times this season.

 

In other news, Western Kentucky quarterback TJ Finley announced he will enter the transfer portal. Again.
You might remember him from such disastrous seasons as "LSU 2020: When Coach O yo-yo-yo'd all the way to the bank," and "Auburn 2021-22: Bryan Harsin doesn't fit here anymore."
Finley also spent a year at Texas State, so wherever he's at in 2025 will be his fifth school in six seasons. He's the poster child for the NIL/Unlimited Transfer/Players have 24 years of eligibility era.

https://www.on3.com/news/western-kentucky-qb-tj-finley-plans-to-enter-transfer-portal/

 

If you can't play in Conference USA, you might want to consider the rotting carcass of the entity formerly known as the Football Championship Subdivision.

 

This has to be the longest bowl game name I've ever seen.

 

These teams in neighboring states — just a fun 250-mile drive on (mostly) good ol’ US 63 — played each other a dozen times between 1892 and 1910. Then once more, exactly 100 years later, in the 2010 Insight Bowl in Tucson.

 

That's wild. Was there a story behind that?

 

Just looking it up on a Mizzou football history website, apparently the series ended in 1910 after years of “dirty play” culminated in a huge riot. I bet someone covering one of those teams will look into it before this year’s bowl game.