Let the games begin!!

Why is New Year's Day my favorite day of the year? When you can wake up and watch the Rose parade, which is so enjoyable in itself, but when you add Robb Weller seemingly a little irritated that he had to share the HGTV booth with some young Australian dude, and Bob Eubanks seemingly a little "confused" at the end of the TLC version, it makes it all just SUPER worthwhile.

And then Northwestern and Auburn play on of my favorite games to watch this year, followed by Penn State and LSU playing in the mud. You have to love it!!

Seeing the countdown to the Rose Bowl is really getting me psyched. By Monday late, I will have the first results for my tournament because the results from the games in my playoffs (Cincinnati/Boise State and TCU/Florida) will be in. But I will track each game, like Oregon/Ohio State and ponder how that impacts my tourney.

Reflecting on the bowl games and how they would have impacted my tourney, the huge Nebraska shut-out over Arizona comes to mind. If Colt McCoy's pass out of bounds had a second more of oomph, Nebraska would have won the Big XII. In my tourney, the Huskers would have been seeded tenth with a first round game versus #7 Oregon. Given their convincing win over Arizona, one wonders if they would have advanced to play the #2 seed, probably Cincinnati. Based on the Huskers of Corn's performance, an extra second on McCoy's throw, and Nebraska might have been a solid contender to make the final four.

We shall know soon how Oregon and Ohio State will project in my tourney and what Georgia Tech and Iowa will need to do to beat them. Let the show begin!!

9:29p Update:

That is why the play the games! Bucks beat the Ducks 26-17. So things look good for the Big Ten in my tourney as of now. In the 8/9 game, OSU will beat Georgia Tech unless GTU beats Iowa by 17 or more. In the 7/10 game, Iowa will beat Oregon if the Hawkeyes win or lose by 5 or less. So if the Yellow Jackets breeze to a big 17+ victory, sadness will prevail in Big Ten land as both OSU and Iowa will go down.

10:34p Update:

Poor TCU! Horned Frogs are saying "thanks for nuttin'" to the Bearcats. In my 4/5 game, Florida is looking pretty good right now, and the Broncos of Boise State are licking their chops that they can get by Cincy in the 3/6 game and make it to the semi-finals, again!