After taking a day off for the Christmas holiday (belated Merry Christmas!!! everyone, I hope everything went well and you were able to spend quality time with your families). This is a big week for Baylor football with the Alamo Bowl coming up Thursday night against the Washington Huskies. Along the way I will try to post everything I can find out that matchup and the other Big XII bowls to be played this week. The first is tonight when Mizzou takes on North Carolina in the Independence Bowl (which technically isn't a Big XII bowl at all) followed by the Holiday Bowl on Wednesday night with Texas and California. Baylor then plays Thursday night, Iowa State and Oklahoma both play Friday in the Pinstripe and Insight bowls, respectively, and Texas A&M takes on Northwestern at noon on Saturday in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. Strangely, the Fiesta Bowl (our BCS-affiliated bowl) takes place on Monday, January 2, 2012, four days before the Cotton pits Kansas State against Arkansas on Saturday, January 6. Oklahoma State plays Stanford in the Fiesta.
Just in terms of those specific games, my personal ranking probably goes Alamo --> Fiesta --> Cotton --> Insight --> Holiday --> Independence --> Meineke --> Pinstripe. What about you guys?
Anyway, on to the links.
- Baylor leaves past athletic woes behind - San Antonio Express-News- Looming over busy Interstate 35, next to a photo of the Baylor quarterback in action, the wording was succinct: "Building leaders ... and Heisman Trophy winners." For the university, long considered a quaint little athletics kiosk in a landscape of corporate behemoths, the message carried seismic significance. From its powerhouse women's basketball team to the resurgent football program, Baylor is riding a wave of optimism far higher than the billboards being erected in key spots around the state. When Griffin, a dynamic force on and off the field, was handed the Heisman Trophy in a flashy ceremony in Manhattan earlier this month, it represented the exclamation point for a university that has worked hard to overcome tragedy, scandal and mediocrity in many of it programs. Under the guidance of proactive athletic director Ian McCaw, Briles and others, much more is planned, including a possible $175 million football stadium along the north bank of the nearby Brazos River.
- Yardstick: Washington-Baylor Stat Comparison | UW Football
- Alamo Bowl Odds: Baylor Favored By Over A Touchdown - SB Nation Dallas
- Washington (7-5) vs. Baylor (9-3) (ET) - KansasCity.com
- Husky Football Blog | Sunday night notes --- Teams back to work, and Baylor loses a defensive end | Seattle Times Newspaper- The DE is Tevin Elliott and that is a big loss for the defense.
- Washington’s Polk could be key against Baylor | The Local Scene | a mySA.com blog
- Huskies brace For Griffin-led Baylor onslaught | KING5.com Seattle
- Recaps Of Washington-Baylor Games | UW Football- Recaps of past games between the two schools. I had no idea they had played so many times before.
- Predictions: Non-BCS Big 12 Bowls - Big 12 Blog - ESPN- Time to dish out a few predictions for the Big 12's non-BCS bowls. I notched perfection in the season's final weekend, but bowl picks are always tough.
- Independence Bowl keys - College Football Nation Blog - ESPN- Here are three keys for North Carolina (7-5) heading into its matchup against Missouri: 1. Attitude. As simple as it sounds, if the Tar Heels...
- Independence Bowl: Three keys for Mizzou - College Football Nation Blog - ESPN- Time to look at three keys for Mizzou in its matchup with North Carolina in the V100 AdvoCare Independence Bowl.
- North Carolina Vs. Missouri, Independence Bowl 2011: Beginnings, Endings and Rain - SBNation.com
- Big 12 is a football power in all but the bowls - KansasCity.com
- Mailbag: 2012 sked, Gundy, KU QBs, TCU - Big 12 Blog - ESPN
- Baylor still unanimous No. 1 in AP women’s poll as top 5 unchanged - The Washington Post
- Parking at College Football Games is a Big Deal | College Sports Law Blog - Barlow Garsek & Simon, LLP- I just included this link because it is a story about two A&M boosters suing the 12th Man Foundation over their parking spaces. Seriously.