Happy New Year, everybody! Today marks one year since I started this blog, and I wanted to just say thank you to every single one of you for reading my posts and supporting the blog throughout 2021. I’m excited to expand what type of content I post and hopefully continue to run this blog for as long as I can. This post also doubles as Saturday Selections, as there are many games to look forward to. Here are my selections for New Year’s Day:
Outback Bowl: Penn State (7-5) vs. #21 Arkansas (8-4) (-3)
New Year’s Day kicks off with the Outback Bowl, which has a great matchup between Penn State and Arkansas. Someone to keep an eye on in this game is NFL prospect and Arkansas wide receiver Treylon Burks. I think he is the game-changer for Arkansas in this game. With a better overall scoring offense, I’ll take the Razorbacks.
Tune into the Outback Bowl at 12 PM ET on ESPN2.
Playstation Fiesta Bowl: #9 Oklahoma State (11-2) vs. #5 Notre Dame (11-1) (-1)
Notre Dame has had much more time to prepare than Oklahoma State, due to its independence. Notre Dame leads as the best scoring offense in this matchup and barely trails Oklahoma State as the best scoring defense. Notre Dame is 1-4 in the Fiesta Bowl, with their only win coming in 1988. On the other hand, Oklahoma State is 2-0 in the Fiesta Bowl. If you don’t look at the history, you would take Notre Dame, but with that history, I have the Cowboys in an upset.
Tune into the Playstation Fiesta Bowl at 1 PM ET on ESPN.
Vrbo Citrus Bowl: #15 Iowa (10-3) vs. #22 Kentucky (9-3) (-3.5)
Some call this bowl game the Mark Stoops Bowl, as Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops faces off against his alma mater. Each team won the last time they were in the Citrus Bowl, so all bets are off. Kentucky scores on offense much more than Iowa, which is the tiebreaker for me. I’ll take Kentucky in a very close bowl game.
Tune into the Vrbo Citrus Bowl at 1 PM ET on ABC.
Rose Bowl Game Presented by Capital One Venture X: #11 Utah (10-3) vs. #6 Ohio State (10-2) (-4)
My favorite bowl game is this one. Every single year it is. Ohio State is 8-7 in the Rose Bowl, while this is the first appearance for Utah. Under Kyle Wittingham, the Utes are 11-3 in bowl games, but they have not faced a team like Ohio State. The Buckeyes are one of the nation’s top scoring offenses. I’ll take C.J. Stroud and Ohio State based on experience in these types of bowl games.
Tune into the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Capital One Venture X at 5 PM ET on ESPN.
Allstate Sugar Bowl: #7 Baylor (11-2) vs. #8 Ole Miss (10-2) (-1)
Of all the games that could end up being the best, I think it could be the Sugar Bowl. As Matt Corral ends his college career, he has one last chance to not only boost his draft stock but bring the Sugar Bowl home to Oxford. Baylor is 1-0 against Ole Miss all-time and 1-1 in the Sugar Bowl. Ole Miss is a more experienced team when it comes to the Sugar Bowl, this is their 10th appearance ever! I’ll take the top quarterbacks prospect and the Rebels in the Superdome
Tune into the Allstate Sugar Bowl at 8:45 PM ET on ESPN.
Calhoun's Corner 