As our dreams of New Years down in the French Quarter look more and more realistic - down with rematches!!  Booo!! - I began concentrating on what the rest of my bowl schedule would look like.

Suck it, Wisconsin.

Considering bowl season pretty much coincides with my Christmas break, where I do nothing but catch up on the piles of books I've ordered throughout the semester but have had no time to read and buy a season or two of television on DVD, I'm a sucker to watch pretty much any game the bloated postseason throws at me.  I'm not one that's against this massive expansion, which has led to the Papjohns.com, Fort Worth and International Bowls, as long as they don't take away from the quality of games at the top.

Sadly, this often happens.  Due to BCS regulations, there's guaranteed bids and all sorts of ugly stuff everywhere.  Remember the good old days of 2004, when we got to see Boise State and Louisville square off in a great Liberty Bowl, guaranteed tie-ins be damned?  I hate the guaranteed tie-ins for every single bowl.  I realize that some are relevant - Big XII teams should probably go to the Cotton Bowl, just as the PAC-10 should stay tied to the Holiday - but wouldn't it be more fun if we got to see the highly touted non-BCS teams go against teams of quality?

Thankfully this season a lot of those non-BCS vs. BCS match-ups will be taking place, even if the BCS representative aren't exactly the strongest.  For example:

The Fiesta Bowl: Boise State vs. the Big XII champ- Boise State recovered nicely from last seasons' UGA bitchslap and the loss of Dan Hawkins to run the table this season, and now they'll get a chance to square off hopefully against Oklahoma, who will have regained the services of one Adrian Peterson.  Ian Johnson vs.Peterson?  Yes, please.  Granted, even if Boise State pulls the upset, no one will give them a hint of national title recognition, even if Southern Cal wins the mythical national title (Boise trounced Oregon State, who then defeated USC.  I'm not a supporter of the transitive property of college football, but it's worth mentioning.).

Las Vegas Bowl: Oregon vs. BYU- Now we're talking!  Get your holidays rocking with John Beck taking on the Dennis Dixon/Brady Leaf Two-Headed Monster of Fashionable Disappointment.  BYU had no answer for Cal's running game in last year's version, so it'll be interesting to see how they deal with the Ducks' highly-stylized spread.  Take away the Oklahoma "win", and the Oregon resume looks very, very bad.  11-2 BYU?  Excitement.

Hawaii Bowl: Arizona State vs. Hawaii- Oh fuck yeah!  Granted, Colt Brennan lighting up the in-transition Sun Devils won't really mean anything, but how much would will it be to watch?  It'll be like the GMAC Bowl of a few years back when Memphis started in the 3-3-5 against Omar Jacobs, and despite the fact Bowling Green scored on every possession, they simply refused to change their defense.  Do you ever wonder where Arizona State would be if they'd held onto that big lead against Southern Cal last season?  Probably in the same place, but Merry Christmas and happy birthday to me for this shootout that'll carry us into Christmas morning.

MPC Computers Bowl: Miami (FL) vs. Nevada- That's right, folks: Not the Redhawks from Ohio, but the Hurricanes from Florida will be playing against the Nevada Wolfpack pistol formation up in Boise.  If I told you three years ago that Miami might be the underdog playing against Nevada on a field with blue turf, how would you have responded?  This is fantastic.  What a way to close out 2006.  Thank you, Larry Coker, and thank you, Edgerrin James, for saying that Miami was a "three-year university" at the start of the season.

Now, those games are just the ones where we get to see the underdog take on the disappointing team from the power conference.  What else do you have for us already, bowl season?

Emerald Bowl (WTF?) - Florida State vs. UCLA- This is awesome!  After having Florida State suck up spots from deserving teams in the BCS the last however-many seasons, they've been relegated to a December 27th date with Karl Dorrell's merry bunch, who will either be coming off the win of the decade against Southern Cal or be reeling in another offseason of little brother disappointment.  Who knows how many quarterbacks we might see in this game, with a still-recovering Southpaw Jesus perhaps splitting time with Patrick Cowan, going against, hell, maybe Jeff Bowden at QB for the `Noles!  What else are you going to be doing on the 27th of December except packing your bag for N'awlins anyway?

Holiday Bowl - Texas A&M vs. Cal- I think you can chalk this up for another Big XII win.  Texas A&M = happy as hell to be here, just absolutely thrilled.  Cal = Again!?  The Holiday Bowl again?!  ARRRRRGGGGH.  Remember when the Golden Bears were supposed to be national title contenders in 2004, then they went and lost by a thousand to Mike Leach?  Here's hoping Tedford provides some form of motivation.

There's still plenty of fun match-ups to be decided - I'm hoping we get to see Clemson bumped up to the Gator vs. WVU or Texas, but that's highly unlikely for a great number of reasons - but don't be upset the bowl season is diluted, as long as you can still pick out a match-up here or there that'll warm your holiday.

(Also, if we cross our fingers and hope, this whole "bowl season" will be marred by a nasty, ugly "playoff" in the near future.  Sadly, I see no way the two could possibly co-exist, so it'll be one or the other.  Oh, wait...)