New Mexico Bowl: Dec. 19 2:30 PM, Albuquerque, NM, Wyoming vs. Fresno State ESPN

St. Petersburg Bowl: Dec. 19 8:00 PM, St. Petersburg, FL, Rutgers vs. UCF, ESPN

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Dec. 20 8:00 PM, New Orleans, LA, MTSU vs. Southern Miss, ESPN

MAACO Las Vegas Bowl: Dec. 22 8:00 PM, Las Vegas, NV, Oregon State vs. BYU, ESPN

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl: Dec. 23 8:00 PM, San Diego, CA, Utah vs. California, ESPN

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl: Dec. 24 8:00 PM, Honolulu, HI, Nevada vs. SMU, ESPN

Emerald Bowl Dec. 26 8:30 PM, San Francisco, CA, Boston College vs. USC, ESPN

Meineke Car Care Bowl: Dec. 26 at 4:00 PM, Charlotte, NC, North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh, ESPN

Little Caesars Bowl: Dec. 26 5:00 PM, Detroit, MI, Ohio vs. Marshall, ESPN

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl: Dec. 27 8:00 PM, Nashville, TN, Kentucky vs. Clemson, ESPN

Independence Bowl: Dec. 28 5:00 PM, Shreveport, LA, Texas A&M vs. Georgia, ESPN

Champs Sports Bowl: Dec. 29 8:00 PM, Orlando, FL, Miami (FL) vs. Wisconsin, ESPN

EagleBank Bowl: Dec. 29 4:30 PM, Washington, DC, Army or UCLA** vs. Temple, ESPN

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl: Dec. 30 8:00 PM, San Diego, CA, Nebraska vs. Arizona, ESPN

Roady's Humanitarian Bowl: Dec. 30 4:30 PM, Boise, ID, Idaho vs. Bowling Green, ESPN

Texas Bowl: Dec. 31 3:30 PM, Houston, TX, Missouri vs. Navy, ESPN

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl: Dec. 31 11 AM, Fort Worth, TX, Air Force vs. Houston, ESPN

Brut Sun Bowl: Dec. 31 12 noon, El Paso, TX, Stanford vs. Oklahoma, CBS

Insight Bowl: Dec. 31 5:30 PM, Tempe, AZ, Minnesota vs. Iowa State, NFL Network

Chick-fil-A Bowl: Dec. 31 7:30 PM, Atlanta, GA, Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee, ESPN

Outback Bowl: Jan. 1 11:00 AM, Tampa, FL, Northwestern vs. Auburn, ESPN

Capital One Bowl: Jan. 1 1:00 PM, Orlando, FL, Penn State vs. LSU, ABC

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl: Jan. 1 1:00 PM, Jacksonville, FL, West Virginia vs. Florida State, CBS

Rose Bowl presented by Citi: Jan. 1 5:00 PM, Pasadena, CA, Oregon vs. Ohio State, ABC

Allstate Sugar Bowl: Jan. 1 8:30 PM, New Orleans, LA, Florida vs. Cincinnati, FOX

AT&T Cotton Bowl: Jan. 2 2:00 PM, Arlington, TX, Oklahoma State vs. Mississippi, FOX

AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Jan. 2 5:30 PM, Memphis, TN, East Carolina vs. Arkansas, ESPN

International Bowl: Jan. 2 12 noon, Toronto, Canada, South Florida vs. Northern Illinois, ESPN2

Papajohns.com Bowl: Jan. 2 2:00 PM, Birmingham, AL, Connecticut vs. South Carolina, ESPN

Valero Alamo Bowl: Jan. 2 9:00 PM, San Antonio, TX, Texas Tech vs. Michigan State, ESPN

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Jan. 4, 7:00 PM in Glendale, AZ, TCU vs. Boise State, FOX

FedEx Orange Bowl: Jan. 5 8:00 PM, Miami, FL, Georgia Tech vs. Iowa, FOX

GMAC Bowl: Jan. 6 7:00 PM, Mobile, AL, Central Michigan vs. Troy, ESPN

Citi BCS National Championship: Jan. 7 8:00 PM, Pasadena, CA, Texas vs. Alabama, ABC

by

PeteDymeck

http://bleacherreport.com

Thereare an abundance of issueswith the Bowl Championship Series from who gets in, to how they get in.Usually, however, the BCS corrects itself through upsets.

Forthe most part, the teams thatget into the BCS do so with little controversy, although there isalways areason to go to blows with the system itself.

Tonight,Boise State travels toLouisiana Tech in a game of epic proportions. Seriously,this will bethe lastgame where Boise State could go home defeated.

Winsdon't come easily at LouisianaTech, especially under the lights in Ruston.

LouisianaTech is 3-0 at home thisseason. The Bulldogs are 11-1 in their last 12 games at home.

Since2003, Boise State has lostjust 10 games, but they have all come on the road, away from Boise.

Luckilyfor the Broncos, theBulldogs may be without running back Daniel Porter and wide receiverPhillipLivas. Both Porter and Livas are 50-50 to go after being injured inlast week'sloss at Idaho.

BoiseState quarterback Kellen Mooreis a dark horse Heisman candidate. His best games have all come on theroad. InBoise, Moore has 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. On the road, hehas 13touchdowns and zero interceptions.

EvenLas Vegas thinks Louisiana Techdoesn't have a chance.

Still,with their backs to theropes, the Bulldogs usually find a way to win at home under the lights.Theirhome record precedes them and everyone in America aren't even going towatchthis game because they think Boise State will treat Louisiana Tech likeashopping cart and push them around.

Despiteits faults, unknown powershave been able to "push" the best teams into the nationalchampionship more times than not. Take for instance, last year whenIowaknocked off then-undefeated Penn State. If Penn State beats Iowa, theylikelyrun the table and create a controversy within the halls of the BCS.

Thequestion remains: Will LousianaTech beat Boise State tonight? My money isn't saying so, but thenagain,crazier things have happened. Everything from total defense to totaloffense,points in the direction that this should be a blowout, but I amsecond-guessingthat belief system.

Everythingthat is knownconventionally is thrown out of the window when a fellow-WAC schooltravels toRuston, La. to bang heads with the Bulldogs. Boise State, ranked No. 7in theBCS poll, is no exception.

ChrisPeterson's Boise State Broncosare officially on upset alert.

--

Publishedon Sporting News (http://www.sportingnews.com">http://www.sportingnews.com)

By mhayes.tsn

Created11/01/2009 - 22:15

It'sWeek3 in the BCS poll, which can only mean the standard deviations andquartilesand the infamous Sagarin ELO-Chess formula is now officially unbiasedin thecomputer poll portion of our program.

My kingdom for a dork translator.

Afterfurther review ... Iowa and Ricky Stanzi catch a big break againstIndiana.

Fortunately,this is also the moment where the computer polls are exposed for whatthey are:just another poll with human flaws.

How else can you explain Florida, third in two computer polls last weekand No.2 overall with the slide rules, moving to No. 1 in the computer pollswith avictory over four-loss Georgia? Or Iowa, the No. 1 last week in five ofsixcomputer polls, thumping five-loss Indiana and dropping to No. 2?

Or Oregon, embarrassed by Boise State in the season opener—I'm going tosaythis one more time: The Ducks didn't get a first down until midwaythrough the thirdquarter—passing the Broncos in the computer polls?

"Idon't understand any of thatstuff," said Florida defensive end Jermaine Cunningham. "All I knowis we have to keep winning."

Don'tpanic

No. 5Cincinnati. TheBearcats are more than a full point behind Texas andAlabama for what would be the second spot in the BCS championship game.And itdoesn't matter. Cincinnati still has games against BCS Top 25Pittsburgh (No.13) and West Virginia, and the Texas schedule is full of gimme putts.

No. 9 LSU. It starts this week for the Tigers, who will play inthenational championship game if they win out—ahead of any non-BCSunbeaten andmore than likely ahead of Cincinnati. Winning out means wins over No. 3Alabamaand (if no upsets occur) No. 1 Florida, which handed the Tigers theironlyloss, in the SEC championship game. No team will have better wins.

Startto panic

Guest post by Tyler Braun

[photo by kelthorton]

I've been a baseball fan ever since I can remember. I've also alwaysbeen a Twins fan. I grew up in Minneapolis and can remember the "gloryyears" of the late 80s and early 90s. Much has changed in baseballsince then. Rooting for the Twins against the Yankees this past weekwas probably the easiest thing I've ever done. To me both teamsrepresent everything that is right with baseball and everything that iswrong with baseball.

Nowadays professional sports are as much about business as they areabout the actual sport. Just about every professional sporthas free agency and a salary cap that makes free agency competitive.This is not the case with baseball. Sure there is free agencybut the competitiveness within free agency takes place within the top 3to 5 teams who always spend money. To me this is what is wrong with theYankees and wrong with baseball.

Don't get me wrong, the Yankees haven't necessarily done anythingwrong. They play within the system that has been established and theyplay it better than anyone else.

The Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Angels, Cardinals and Phillies are allin the top of spending in Major League Baseball and all happen to be inthe playoffs. The Rockies and Twins also made the playoffs but each didso by spending less than half of the average spent by those 6 teamsnamed above.

In every sport good teams are rewarded by making the playoffs. TheRockies and Twins have done this by having a strong farm system and bytrading great players (who cost too much money) for great prospects.These other teams have been rewarded for having an owner who is willingto spend more money than all the other teams in order to pay greatplayers that came up their farm system and to bring in other players bypaying more money than any other team is willing to.

How much longer can a sport that only rewards teams for spending stayafloat? I would say that it can't last much longer. The hit that MajorLeague Baseball took with the steroid era will be nothing compared tothe hit it will continue to take over time as long as no salary capexists. If Major League Baseball had a salary cap the Yankees,Red Sox, Dodgers, and Angels would all be in be sitting at homewatching the playoffs because they have only mastered the business ofbaseball, not the sport. Sooner or later fans of teams whochoose to put together a team by spending less will figure out thatrooting for their team is a waste of time.

I figured that out this week.

photo via WiHaloFan