Ranking the college bowl games.
1. National Championship game. Will it be Clemson-Alabama?
2. Oklahoma-Clemson (Orange). There haven’t been too many times Baker Mayfield has been the second-best QB on the field.
3. Alabama-Michigan State (Cotton). How many times more than 40 will Derrick Henry carry the ball?
4. Notre Dame-Ohio State (Fiesta). A lot of marquee players for teams that just missed the playoffs.
5. Stanford-Iowa (Rose). Stanford’s Christian McCafferty is a whole lot of fun.
6. Houston-FSU (Peach). Greg Ward and Dalvin Cook might as well run wind sprints against each other.
7, Michigan-Florida (Citrus). Call it the Coach of the Year Bowl.
8. Ole Miss-Oklahoma State (Sugar). Watch the Rebels’ Robert Nkemdiche.
9. Oregon-TCU (Alamo). Both interesting offenses, even in off seasons.
10. West Virginia-Arizona State (Cactus). Nice regional matchup, fun to watch.
11. LSU-Texas Tech (Advocare). Remember Leonard Fournette? He’s still pretty good.
12. Pitt-Navy (Military). How many touchdowns will Keenan Reynolds score in his final game?
13. North Carolina-Baylor (Russell Athletic). Will the scoreboard hold all the points?
14. USC-Wisconsin (Holiday). Two great programs even in a down year.
15. Northwestern-Tennessee (Outback). The Vols were the hard-luck team of the SEC this year behind Josh Dobbs.
16. N.C. State-Mississippi State (Belk). Two pretty good, not great, ballclubs.
17. Miami-Washington State (Sun). A pretty good chance for the Hurricanes to show off for new coach Mark Richt.
18. Texas A&M-Louisville (Music City). Both teams can move the ball.
19. USF-Western Kentucky (Miami Beach). The contrast of styles between the running Bulls and throwing Hilltoppers makes this fascinating.
20. Tulsa-Virginia Tech (Independence). Made interesting by the retirement of Tech coach Frank Beamer.
21. BYU-Utah (Royal Purple). Offensive fireworks should say farewell to BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall.
22. Auburn-Memphis (Birmingham). Memphis’ Paxton Lynch might run away with this one.
23. Temple-Toledo (Boca Raton). Both teams just missed conference titles.
24. Georgia-Penn State (TaxSlayer). Will Georgia’s Kirby Smart go to the game?
25. UConn-Marshall (St. Petersburg). The Thundering Herd is better than you think they are.
26. UCLA-Nebraska (Foster Farms). Two schools still chasing who they used to be. Nebraska has a 5-7 record.
27. Washington-Southern Miss (Heart of Dallas Bowl). The Huskies led the Pac 12 in defense, but Southern Miss averaged 40.6 points per game.
28. California-Air Force (Armed Forces). Cal makes its first bowl game since 2011.
29. Indiana-Duke (Pinstripe Bowl). Does anyone have a basketball?
30. Boise State-Northern Illinois (Poinsetta). Wouldn’t it be cooler if Boise brought its blue turf?
31. New Mexico-Arizona (New Mexico). Rich Rodriguez isn’t going anywhere.
32. Kansas State-Arkansas. (Liberty) Arkansas has put up some points this season.
33. San Diego State-Cincinnati. (Hawaii) The Bearcats can usually throw the ball.
34. Akron-Utah State (Potato). Between the two of them, they have 13 losses.
35. Central Michigan-Minnesota (Quick Lane). Minnesota has a 5-7 record, so it goes to Detroit.
36. Middle Tennessee-Western Michigan (Bahamas). Nice bowl trip for two decent teams.
37. Arkansas State-Louisiana Tech. (New Orleans Bowl) Anyone want to watch Jeff Driskel again?
38. Georgia Southern-Bowling Green (GoDaddy). Nick Arbuckle is well known for Southern.
39. Ohio-Appalachian State. (Camellia Bowl) Appalachian State is 10-2, so don’t scoff too much.
40. Georgia State-San Jose State (Cure). Georgia State lost four of its first five games but reached its first bowl.
41. Colorado State-Nevada (Arizona). Even the conference boss griped about this matchup.