Welcome back, sports fans from the island of St Maarten. First, a piece of business. Both the men and women have resumed playing basketball, mostly with conference games, and we will resume our ranking on 1/5 with our normal schedule. The men’s ranking will be on 1/7. We skipped week 7 because of the end of year break when teams took almost a week off.
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Back to football. Yesterday, the games proved a few things. 1) the GCR did not have the correct top 4 teams (we had Indiana, Ohio St, Texas Tech, and Oregon) with just 2 of those teams advancing to the semifinals, 2) the committee did a worse job as they had Georgia rather than Oregon and only got 1 team in the semifinals, and 3) we have just seen why we at the GCR love to predict games for fun, but never gamble on teenagers or young adults. The players are great and hard-working people, but they do not always respond the way we would like. To sum up yesterday’s actions, Oregon showed up for work shutting out Texas Tech 23-0 and playing like a championship caliber team – GCR 0-1/0-1. Indiana continued to look like the best team in the country by dropping Alabama 38-3 – GCR 1-1/1-1. In a game that went to the last few seconds before being decided Mississippi edged Georgia 39-34 by scoring 5 points in the final 9 seconds – GCR 1-2/2-1.
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The semifinal pairings will be Indiana/Oregon and Miami FL/Mississippi. Tune in next weekend for the Expectation for those games. Speaking of tuning in, on 1/5 we will have an Expectation for the FCS championship game between Illinois St and Montana St.
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Today, we have our last 4 bowl games that are not playoff games. First, at 12:00 (all times Eastern), in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forced Bowl based in Fort Worth, we have two Texas teams. The American’s Rice Owls (5-7/112) who are in a bowl due to Iowa St (who only has 16 players on their current roster), Kansas St, and Notre Dame opted out of bowl play, will face the Sun Belt’s Texas St Bobcats (6-6/84) who are playing their last SBC game before moving to the Pac-12 next season. Rice faced 8 bowl teams this season going 3-5 but did not see a playoff team. Their highpoint was a win over UCONN (9-4/64) but they lost to FAU (4-8/115) which was their worst defeat. The Bobcats were just 2-5 against bowl eligible teams including a loss to playoff team James Madison. Their best win was against UTSA (7-6/72) while their worst defeat was at the hands of Louisiana (6-7/102). Vegas likes Texas St big at -16.5 and the GCR agrees on a big win at 61.0%, but not that big. Look for Rice to cover.
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At 4:30, we have the AutoZone Liberty Bowl played in Memphis between the American’s Navy Midshipman (10-2/49) and the Big 12’s Cincinnati Bearcats (7-5/44) – who were in the American until a couple of years ago. Navy was 4-2 against bowl bound opponents but did not face a playoff team. Their best win was against South Florida (9-4/41), and their worst loss was against North Texas (11-2/27). The Bearcats were just 1-5 against bowl teams without facing a playoff team. Their best and worst were Iowa St (8-4/30) and Nebraska (7-6/58), respectively. Vegas sees NAVY-7.5 and the GCR agrees at 58.5% and to cover.
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The Trust and Will Holiday Bowl with an 8:00 kickoff out of San Diego features the Big 12’s Arizona Wildcats (9-3/16) and the ACC’s SMU Mustangs (8-4/22). Both teams were 4-3 against bowl bound teams with SMU going 1-0 against playoff teams by beating Miami FL. Arizona beat rival Arizona St (8-5/38) but lost to Iowa St (8-4/30). SMU had that win over MIAF (12-2/6) but lost to Baylor (5-7/78). Vegas has SMU -1.5, but the GCR has Arizona winning this one 53.5% and covering.
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Also at 8:00, based out of Charlotte, we have the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The ACC’s Wake Forest Demon Deacons (8-4/32) will tackle the SEC’s Mississippi St Bulldogs (5-7/70). Wake was 4-3 against bowl teams this year without facing a playoff team. They did beat Virginia (10-3/18) but lost to Florida St (5-7/60). MSST played 8 bowl teams winning just two of them including an 0-3 mark against playoff teams Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas A&M. Their best victory was against Arizona St (8-5/38) – part of a surprising 4-0 start – but they also lost to Florida (4-8/69) – part of the 1-7 rest of the season. Vegas has MSST-3.5, but the GCR is seeing the WAKE head coach getting the mayonnaise bath this year 68.5% and to cover.
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That’s it for today and for the rest of our vacation. We will be back Monday with the FCS championship preview as well as the Women’s Basketball Top 363. As always, we thank you for reading as well as sharing with others. Have a great weekend, JoJo and G.
