I’ve picked all 35 bowl games based on my rankings.  I’ll post my running record as the games are played.  (Also, check out my final regular season rankings here.)

And which games am I looking forward to this year?  My number one pick for bowl entertainment is the Fight Hunger bowl.  This monstrosity of a “bowl game” will feature a UCLA team with a losing record who had to petition the NCAA to even be allowed to play in a bowl game and an Illinois team on a 6 game losing streak.  These are the kind of match-ups that I live for.

Record: 21-14
✓=Correct Pick; ✗=Incorrect Pick

Cheers.

Ok.  So I’m not sure I can defend my rankings, but I am going to try.  Even after losing to Iowa State, I still have Oklahoma State ranked number 1.  Let me try to explain what I think it going on.

The Big 12 won a lot of their non-conference games at the beginning of the season, so I’ve had them ranked as the best conference for most of the way.  What this means is that since most of the teams are ranked so high in the Big 12, that a loss to one of those really good teams doesn’t hurt that much

Ok State won it’s first three games easily over Louisiana-Lafayette, Arizona, and Tulsa.  Then they had to play 9 straight conference games in the toughest conference in the country.  Their only real weak game in conference play is Kansas.  They’ve beat Texas A&M, Texas, Kansas State, Missouri, Texas Tech, and Baylor before falling to Iowa State.  That’s impressive.  According to my rankings, all 6 of these teams are top 25.  And their one loss is to a team that I had ranked at 22 before they beat Ok State (I have Iowa State at 17 now).  They also beat Tulsa, who I have ranked 29th.

LSU’s conference wins are against Mississippi, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, and Alabama.  (Georgia and South Carolina are noticeably absent from LSU’s schedule.)  The first 6 teams have a combined record of 29-38.  Then they have that big win over Alabama.

Their non-conference games were against Oregon, West Virginia, Northwestern State, and Western Kentucky.  The Oregon win is impressive, but the other three games are jokes.  West Virginia is currently third in the Big “We still really get an automatic BCS berth?” East, and LSU shouldn’t even be allowed to schedule games against Northwestern State and Western Kentucky.  As I see it, LSU has three wins over top 25 teams (Alabama, Oregon, and Auburn).

In review, I have Ok State at 6-1 against top 25 teams and LSU at 3-0.  My ranking system rewards teams for playing tough games and Oklahoma State has had one of the toughest schedules in the country this season week in and week out, while LSU the occasional tough opponent.  From top to bottom the Big 12 is much deeper than the SEC.

So that’s my attempt at a defense.  I guess I’ll have to wait until the bowl game results to see if I am right.

Cheers.