As I did a little New Year Cleaning out of some of my crap, I started to throw away my trusty copy of Phil Steele’s College Football book. I don’t buy into the predictions, but he does do a lot of work with all of the schedules, the recent history of the teams, etc. etc. etc.
But on the front few pages are his Bowl Predictions. I don’t know why you would even TRY to predict this stuff (save the BCS bowls), but he went through every last one. Well now that everything is all set (and some of the games are already in the books), lets see how Mr. Steele did:
| Bowl | Proj. | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Poinsettia Bowl | Navy vs. BYU | Navy vs. Utah |
| New Orleans Bowl | Troy vs. Tulsa | Memphis vs. Florida Atlantic |
| PapaJohns.com Bowl | UCF vs. Pittsburgh | SMU vs. Cincy |
| New Mexico Bowl | New Mexico vs. Fresno St. | New Mexico vs Nevada |
| Las Vegas Bowl | TCU vs. Arizona St. | UCLA vs. BYU |
| Hawaii Bowl |
New Mexico St. vs. UTEP | Boise St. vs. ECU |
| Motor City Bowl | Northwestern vs. Toledo | Purdue vs. Central Michigan |
| Holiday Bowl | Oregon vs. Nebraska | Arizona St. vs. Texas |
| Champs Sports Bowl | Clemson vs. Wisconsin | BC vs. Mich St. |
| Texas Bowl | Auburn vs. Houston | TCU vs. Houston |
| Emerald Bowl | California vs. Virginia | Maryland vs. Oregon St. |
| Meineke Car Care Bowl | USF vs. NC State | UConn vs. Wake Forest |
| Liberty Bowl | S. Miss vs. Tennessee | UCF vs. Miss St. |
| Alamo Bowl | Purdue vs. Texas A&M | Penn St. vs. Texas A&M |
| Independence Bowl | Texas Tech vs. Arkansas | Alabama vs. Colorado |
| Armed Forces Bowl | Oregon St. vs. Utah | California vs. Air Force |
| Humanitarian Bowl | Boise St. vs. Maryland | Georgia Tech vs. Fresno St. |
| Sun Bowl | Oklahoma St. vs. UCLA | South Florida vs. Oregon |
| Music City Bowl | Georgia Tech vs. Vandy | Kentucky vs. Florida St. |
| Insight Bowl | Kansas St. vs. Illinois | Indiana vs. Oklahoma St. |
| Chick-Fil-A Bowl | Virginia Tech vs. Florida | Clemson vs. Auburn |
| Outback Bowl | Iowa vs. South Carolina | Tennessee vs. Wisconsin |
| Cotton Bowl | Missouri vs. Alabama | Missouri vs. Arkansas |
| Capital One Bowl | Ohio St. vs. Georgia | Michigan vs. Florida |
| Gator Bowl | Notre Dame vs. Miami | Texas Tech vs. Virginia |
| Rose Bowl | Texas vs. Michigan | Illinois vs. USC |
| Sugar Bowl | West Virginia vs. Hawaii | Hawaii vs. Georgia |
| Fiesta Bowl | Oklahoma vs. Louisville | W. Virginia vs. Oklahoma |
| Orange Bowl | Florida St. vs. Penn St. | Kansas vs. Virginia Tech |
| International Bowl | Rutgers vs. Kent St. | Ball St. vs. Rutgers |
| GMAC Bowl | W. Michigan vs. Memphis | Tulsa vs. Bowling Green |
| BCS Championship Game | LSU vs. USC | LSU vs. OSU |
That’s 7, although he lucked into LSU making it in. Maybe give him +1 for correctly predicting that Hawaii would make it to a BCS bowl and not getting the automatic bid to the hometown game.
Am I saying I could do better? Abso-freaking-lutely not. I’m saying there’s absolutely no way you could possibly hope to correctly predict everything. Trust me, I love him for giving a nod to Toledo, but who could see all those injuries coming?
So I think I’ll predict next year’s 1 and 2 as USC and OSU. Why not?
