The Alamo Bowl

The official tie-ins for the Alamo bowl is the Big Ten #4 against the Big XII #4. For as long as I can remember this bowl has managed to pit an underachiever, ranked top 15 preseason, versus a suprise number four from the other conference. This year Missourri was as high as #3 preseason, in 2006 Texas went 13 preseason. 2007's Penn State was 15, in 2005 the Michigan team that visitied the river walk was ranked preseason 4, in 2004 Ohio State came out of the gates at 9. The team to play Missourri tonight was projected to finish the Big Ten in the eighth spot. This year Northwestern has used a combination of a potent offesnse, a rarity in the Big Ten, and horrible years from Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan to slide up to the number four spot.



Overachiever and Unerachiever in one bowl. One team is always much happier to be in the Alamo Bowl than the other one, I think that difference in attitude actually has been the reason the games are closer than the rosters should dictate. Out of the teams I listed above only one of them lost to the underdog, Michigan in 2005 was beaten by Nebraska, but the other games were usually very close.

Northwestern has not won a bowl since 1543. At this point they want to win a bowl so badly that all eighteen student newspapers ran a front page story about the Alamo Bowl. The wildcats would be happy to play Syracuse in a reincarnation of the GalleryFurniture.com Bowl. Missourri might not be so excited to end up in SanAntonio. So tonight the great equalizer of the Alamo City is on showcase once more. I fully expect Missourri to win, and I fully expect the Northwestern wildcats to give them everything they can handle. I will finish this post tomorrow.


The most accurate kicker in the history of college football missed a winning field goal. A less accurate kicker for Northwestern doinked an extra point that would have made all the difference in the world. Overtime, a fourth and goal from the 32, amazing special teams plays. Gold and black margaritas, viva la Doce Grande!