College Bowl Mascot Matchups, January 1-3

Outback Bowl: Wildcats (Northwestern) vs. Tigers (Auburn)
In a matchup of similar animals, wild cats might be wild but tigers are ferocious and big. Big > Wild. Tigers will win this one.

Capital One Bowl: Nittany Lions (Penn State) vs. Tigers (LSU)
In a rivalry game between lions and tigers (no bears!), this one can go either way. It's really 50/50 but we'll go with the Nittany Lions because Mufasa in the Lion King is way cooler than Tigger.

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl: Mountaineers (West Virginia) vs. Seminoles (Florida State)
In a game filled with unathletic groups of people, we'll take the Mountaineer. The last time we checked, football players don't use bow and arrows so the Seminoles are at a severe disadvantage. They were forced from the Southeast to Oklahoma many years ago and will have nightmares coming back to the homeland. The Mountaineers will win this one ugly.

Rose Bowl Game: Buckeyes (Ohio State) vs. Ducks (Oregon)
Like everyone who doesn't live in Ohio, we had no idea what the heck a buckeye was. A few definitions: the inedible nutlike seed of the horse chestnut and a breed of a chicken seemed to be the two most popular results on Google search. Ducks are very small and honestly, we can't see them tackling anybody. Since they probably have no idea what a buckeye is either, they'll have a hard time preparing for them. We'll take the unknown buckeye over a bunch of Quack Quacks.

Allstate Sugar Bowl: Bearcats (Cincinnati) vs. Gators (Florida)
A bearcat is neither a bear nor a cat, making it more of a flip-flopper than Brett Favre. However, New Orleans is no longer under water meaning that the Gators are going to have a hard time surviving. For that reason, we'll take the "bearcats."

Papajohns.com Bowl: Bulls (South Florida) vs. Huskies (UConn)
Bulls are big bruising animals who would be hard to take down. Meanwhile, huskies are sled dogs. Unfortunately for them, the game will be taking place in Alabama where snow is not expected. For that reason, we think the bulls will win the game and eat Papa Johns pizza to celebrate the victory.

AT&T Cotton Bowl: Cowboys (Oklahoma State) vs. Rebels (Ole Miss)
With AT&T dropping Tiger Woods yesterday, wouldn't it be ironic if the tigers were playing in this game? Cowboys are smart, deceitful, and even play in the NFL. The rebels will rebel against our prediction because we think the Cowboys will win. There's a reason they play in the NFL.

AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Razorbacks (Arkansas) vs. Pirates (East Carolina)
A bunch of rugged pigs and boars against a group that had movies made about them in the Caribbean. Last we checked, Memphis is not in the Caribbean. The Razorbacks are located near Memphis so they'll be more familiar with the area. We like the home-field advantage, as the pirates normally don't carry GPS's with them on their ships. Go Hogs!

Valero Alamo Bowl: Spartans (Michigan State) vs. Red Raiders (Texas Tech)
Spartans have experience fighting in wars and winning them. However, so do Raiders. The ultimate matchup in the battle of the gridiron, we'll take the Red Raiders because Red is our favorite color.

College Bowl Mascot Matchups, December 19-25

New Mexico Bowl: Cowboys (Wyoming) vs. Bulldogs (Fresno State)
Cowboys are used to dealing with animals. They tend to overpower these animals. Meanwhile, bulldogs are small, especially compared to the animals cowboys normally deal with. Remember when Zach Morris in Saved by the Bell stole the bulldog from Valley? If Zach Morris can handle a bulldog, then cowboys certainly can too. Take Wyoming in the upset.

St. Petersburg Bowl presented by Beef O'Brady's: Knights (Central Florida) vs. Scarlet Knights (Rutgers)
This one was tough. We had to do some research to see exactly what the difference is between a Knight and a Scarlet Night. Rutgers is the scarlet knights because their team wore scarlet turbans in their first game in 1869. Meanwhile, UCF became the Knights in 2007. Since Rutgers has more experience being Knightly, we think the experience will pay off. We'll take the Scarlet Knights over the Knights in a close family-battle.

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Golden Eagles (Southern Miss) vs. Blue Raiders (Middle Tennessee)
According to wikipedia, golden eagles can fly up 150 mph. Anytime you can fly, that's a huge advantage. None of us have really seen a blue raider before, so we'll take the speedy animal in a blowout.

MAACO Las Vegas Bowl: Beavers (Oregon State) vs. Cougars (BYU)
Sexual jokes aside, this is one of the best matchups of the first week of the very long bowl season this year. Beavers are very defensive, having the ability to create dams to hide. However, they are quite slow. The cougars will have the size and speed advantage in this matchup. The Cougars offense vs. the Beavers defense will decide the winner. We'll take the Cougs but it can go either way.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl: Utes (Utah) vs. Bears (California)
A Ute is a member of an Indian Tribe that habits the Utah area. Meanwhile, a bear is one of the most feared animals around. They are so feared, people are told to act dead around them so they don't attack. The Native Americans have bow and arrows but we don't think they do much hunting in Utah. We think the intimidation factor of the bears will win it for them

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl: Wolf Pack (Nevada) vs. Mustangs (SMU)
The fact that it's a Wolf Pack and not just one wolf is critical in this matchup. Anytime you can have support behind you, it's tough for the competitor to take on the whole. A mustang is a horse. Horses are big animals, but not necessarily known for their toughtness. We'll take quantity over quality in this one. The Wolf Pack will win.

Random I-AA Coach Says He's Not Interested in Notre Dame Job

Monmouth Head Football Coach Kevin Callahan has posted on his web site that he is not interested in coaching at Notre Dame. Callahan has done a mediocre job at a mediocre Monmouth program, and doesn't want to risk everything that he's worked for, just for a job like Notre Dame. While it doesn't seem like anybody is interested in the Notre Dame job these days, the Fighting Irish are still holding out hope that they can hire someone that the rich boosters will approve of.

"We're going to continue to try to find a coach that has some name recognition" said Notre Dame spokesman Brian Hardin. "We're running out of people to request an interview out of, so if you can think of anybody, please start a Facebook group so we can find out about it."

Callahan has coached at the New Jersey school for 17 years without ever being promoted to a better football program than Monmouth. Callahan denied interest in a statement released this morning.

"I haven't even been contacted by Notre Dame because they probably have never heard of me, but just in case I receive a call, I want it to be known that I'm not interested. I appreciate the overrated talent that will be returning for the Fighting Irish and their underachieving results of the past decade. However, I am more than happy to stay with the mediocrity I already have here at Monmouth. I work with a wonderful sales staff that does a great job selling tickets, I live right next to a gas station with a store that's open 24 hours a day, and I'm just a quick drive away from watching quality Big East football at Rutgers. I plan on staying here a long time, or eventually taking a job with a better football program and higher pay than Monmouth."

Charlie Weis's Approval Rating Dips Below 110%

Public approval of Charlie Weis's approval rating has plummeted from his record high rating of 110% when he was initially hired and said his Notre Dame teams were going to give it 110% on every play, a USA Today/Gallup Poll finds. Despite a recognizable name, there is rising pessimism that Notre Dame's 6-5 record isn't going to get them into the national championship game this year.

Notre Dame fans are divided with many disappointed about the team's accomplishments, while others are disappointed that Weis hasn't turned into a muscular good-looking hunk on the sidelines. By more than 4-1, Notre Dame fans say Notre Dame should try to win football games. Meanwhile, more than 95% of Notre Dame fans say that the team should try to score more points than the other teams.

The poll of 12 adults, taken by people who joined a Facebook group started by the person who created this poll, has a margin of error of +/- a lot of percentage points.

ESPN's 24 Hour Basketball Marathon Ends After 21 Hours and 48 Minutes

ESPN's 24 Hour College Basketball marathon ended at 9:48pm as the Arkansas-Louisville game ended 12 minutes earlier than its scheduled ending of 10 o'clock, thus ending ESPN's quest to have 24 straight hours of college basketball. The station began a new 2 hour marathon to much less hoopla at 10 o'clock when Kansas played Memphis.

"We are both angry and outraged that Arkansas refused to foul Louisville to extend the game" said ESPN Director of Screaming About Duke Players, Dick Vitale. "Although they were down by 30 points, they should understand the significance of this meaningless stupid marathon that we've built up so people would actually watch college basketball in November."

ESPN showed the Monday Night Football game between the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns leading up to the marathon, giving fans the opportunity to nap before the college basketball began. The marathon started with a classic between UCLA and Cal-State Fullerton, which was followed by nine games between teams that nobody has ever heard of, and finished with the Arkansas-Louisville game. Despite the failed attempt of having 24 straight hours of basketball, ESPN is now promoting a 60 minute marathon of SportsCenter starting tomorrow at 6pm.