Bowl Preview - 8 Games Scheduled For Christmas Week

December 20, 2021 by Staff

Week two of the college football bowl season begins Monday afternoon at 2:30 ET on ESPN2 when a pair of 6-6 teams clash in Conway, South Carolina at the home of the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. Old Dominion of Conference USA will go up against Tulsa from the American Athletic Conference in a first-time meeting of the two programs. The Monarchs are quite a story as they reeled off five straight wins after a 1-6 start to become bowl eligible for just the second time in history, Their last appearance produced a 24-20 Bahamas Bowl win over Eastern Michigan in 2016. Tulsa's story is almost as remarkable as the Golden Hurricane finished with 3 straight wins to become eligible. Tulsa is 10-12 all-time in bowl games. This game features the second-lowest combined ranking of the two participants with ODU ranked 91st and Tulsa ranked 72nd.

Tuesday brings us a pair of games - the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at 3:30 ET on ESPN, and the Frisco Bowl follows on the same channel at 7:30.

The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise pits Wyoming (6-6) from the MWC against a 7-6 Kent State team that lost to Northern Illinois in the MAC championship game. This is another one of the 18 first-time matchups and it gives us a pair of teams that combine for the 3rd-lowest ranking of all the 2021 bowl games as Wyoming is ranked 85th and Kent State is ranked 74th. The Cowboys are 8-8 in bowl games after winning this bowl game in 2017 and the Arizona Bowl in 2019.  The Golden Flashes are just 1-2 all-time in bowl games after picking up their first bowl win at the 2019 Frisco Bowl.

The Frisco Bowl has an attractive matchup of UTSA (12-1) against San Diego State (11-2) in the first meeting of those two schools. The Roadrunners captured the Conference USA championship while the Aztecs were blasted 46-13 by Utah State in the Mountain West championship game. UTSA is ranked 16th in the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com and San Diego State is ranked 30th. The final playoff committee rankings had SDSU ranked 24th while UTSA was idiotically left off the list.

Army limps in to the Armed Forces Bowl after a 17-13 upset loss to Navy to end the regular season. The 8-4 Black Knights will take on a 6-6 Missouri team that was difficult to peg all season. The Tigers faced nine bowl teams and defeated three of those (Central Michigan, North Texas and South Carolina). These programs haven't met since doing so four times between 1968 and 1982. Missouri won three of those four. This game kicks off on Wednesday night at 8:00 ET on ESPN 

The Frisco Football Classic was created solely for the purpose of making sure no bowl eligible team was left out because, these days, it's increasingly more important to reward mediocrity and give everyone a trophy. There were only 36 teams (of 130) that weren't bowl eligible and don't be surprised if they receive some sort of participation trophy. This game is also one of the many that has been created by ESPN for ESPN to make money for itself and further monopolize the bowl season.

But we digress.

The Frisco Football Classic is scheduled for kick off Thursday afternoon at 3:30 ET on ESPN with the MAC's Miami RedHawks facing the Mean Green of North Texas in a battle of two teams with 6-6 records. North Texas won its last 5 games to become bowl eligible, including a 45-23 win over UTSA that handed the Roadrunners their only loss of the season. Miami got here by winning four of its last six after a 2-4 start. This game is another of the 18 first-time meetings of this bowl season. UNT will be looking to snap a 4-bowl losing streak with its first win since 2014 and while Miami can end a 2-game losing streak that dates to 2010.

Immediately following the Frisco FB Classic is the Gasparilla Bowl from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, home of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This one is an all-Florida affair with the Gators (6-6) facing the UCF Knights (8-4) for the first time since 2006 and just the third time ever. The Gators won the previous two meetings by a combined 100-27.

(NOTE: The following game has since been canceled due to covid issues within Hawaii's program.) Christmas Eve takes us to Hawaii for the bowl season's worst matchup as No. 90 Hawaii will entertain No. 75 Memphis (165 combined ranking). By won-loss record, the teams are a combined 12-13. It's a first-time meeting of these schools. The Warriors finished next-to-last in the MWC's west division while the Tigers finished 7th in the American Conference. This game unwraps at 8 p.m. ET which is 3 p.m. on the islands.

When Christmas Day finally arrives, and all the children have torn through the wrapping on their gifts in under two minutes, we get the long-awaited showdown of Georgia State and Ball State in the Camellia Bowl at 2 p.m. ET. The Cardinals will be looking for a second straight bowl win after losing their first seven. Georgia State is 2-2 in its brief FBS bowl history after creating a program in 2008, playing its first game in 2010, and moving to the FBS in 2013.