One of the biggest weekends in College Football is here!
There will be a number of conference championship games to be played, and those are huge.
These are very important games with big rewards going to the winners. Those rewards are invitations to “so-called” bigger bowls. Bigger Bowls are bowls that might have a bit larger payout to participants. They are bowls that will draw a more accomplished opponent too.
So, those conference championship games certainly carry a great deal of attention.
But for most of College Football America, the biggest and most interesting day of the weekend is Sunday. After all those conference championships have been staged, there comes college football’s “Selection Sunday.”
That’s when all of the matchups are announced. Each and every bowl game, and each and every team that will play in those games will be announced Sunday.
And when there are to be 41 bowl games in total to be played, that makes for a lot of matchups. That 41-game bowl schedule begins Friday, Dec. 16 with the Bahamas Bowl in Nassau, and will conclude with the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in Inglewood, California, on Monday, Jan. 9.
And we’ll find out the wheres and whens for 80 college football teams this Selection Sunday.
Now, I’m one of those who will probably, at the least, “look-in” on every one of those bowl games. Like many, I’m just a big fan of the sport. The college football bowl season is a great time of year, it’s college football’s Thanksgiving and Christmas all in one month.
We “feast” on the many “gifts” of the season.
So, college football’s Selection Sunday is always of major interest.
Like many here in the Cowboy State, I’m also a Wyoming Cowboy football fan. And that, of course, brings a little more meaning to this year’s Selection Sunday.
The Cowboys posted seven wins this season, an overall mark of 7-5. The Pokes are a strong bowl-eligible football team, and it’ll be fun to watch and experience the thrill of Wyoming being named a participant. And it’ll be just as exciting to find out who and where the Cowboys will play.
Sunday’s selection announcements will be anticipated by many, and the interest it brings reminds me very much of college basketball’s announcement of its post-season field of 64. It’s a dramatic, an edge-of-your-seat experience when one is watching and waiting for their team to be announced.
College football’s Selection Sunday is very similar. The anticipation and excitement to hear the details of a bowl game appearance feels very much the same.
It’s been fun over the past couple of weeks speculating where the Cowboys might end up this bowl season. And, by the way, speculating is very much OK. When your team has had a bowl-qualifying season like the Cowboys just had, it’s an earned right.
The Cowboys gave their fans the right to speculate and anticipate. These are just the early rewards one can enjoy before the game is ever played.
We know that there are certain bowls that the Cowboys are tied to. It’s really the Mountain West Conference that is associated with certain bowl games.
The Mountain West is contracted to provide one of the opponents for the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque and the L.A. Bowl in Inglewood, California. The Mountain West also has ties with the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise and the Arizona Bowl in Tucson, two bowls the Cowboys have played in before.
Some of the other bowls with Mountain West ties are the Frisco Bowl in Frisco, Texas; the Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth, Texas; the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa, Florida; the Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu; and the Texas Bowl in Houston.
And just speculating here, but here are my best picks for a landing spot for the Cowboys.
I think the Cowboys will be desired by the two bowls the Cowboys have most recently played in. The Idaho Potato Bowl would love to have the Pokes in that game for a third time. And I think the Arizona Bowl will have a keen interest in Wyoming to appear there for a second time.
I am also speculating that the Texas Bowl and the L.A. Bowl will like the Pokes as well.
Heck, I think all of those Mountain West-affiliated bowls will take a look at the Pokes. Wyoming Football has a great reputation for being a wonderful bowl participant because of the class of the program and its outstanding fans. Wyoming fans show up and participate fully, and bowl games and the communities in which they are played appreciate that.
I have no inside information, no really good reason, but I’ll take shot at it and predict an invitation for the Cowboys to the … Arizona Bowl!
I have no idea on who the Pokes would play. It will be a team from the Mid-American Conference, but I wouldn’t mind a spot in the Arizona Bowl.
And I wouldn’t mind seeing you in Tucson on Dec. 30.
