The underdog experiment was a colossal failure on Friday.
Although North Texas put forth a valiant effort and I came away extremely impressed with Drew Mestemaker (let’s watch out for this kid in the future, by the way), ultimately Around The Corn was 0-2 yesterday in Bowl Mania.
To make matters worse, others around me took the safer route and went with the favorites. I lost control of the lead and fell back to fifth place, my lowest ranking in the Von Hugendong Bowl Mania group since pre-Christmas.
Matman Robinson retook the lead, and with just several games left in the season, choices must be considered carefully.
Let’s take a look at the lone FBS contest taking place on Saturday.
Bahamas Bowl
Buffalo vs. Liberty (Saturday, 11 PM ET – ESPN2)
A proper bowl game locale at an improper time, the Bahamas Bowl is perhaps the most desired landing spot for non-Playoff bowl eligible teams save the Hawai’i Bowl. But unfortunately, unlike its island brethren, this game takes place after the rest of Bowl Mania except for the semifinals and national title game. Even for nuts such as myself, there is general tiredness. As a plea to the bowl organizers that will likely fall on deaf ears – please move this bowl game back to an earlier slot in the postseason schedule.
Both teams got to eight wins this season, but the Bulls are certainly the team happier with that result. Liberty was supposed to compete for a Playoff spot, let alone a Conference USA title, but achieved neither and had one of the most shocking losses of the season when the Flames gifted Kennesaw State its first ever victory as an FBS member. The Flames come into this game with a number of holes to fill, including quarterback Kaidon Salter, top running back Quinton Cooley and a ton of offensive line depth, including two starters for that unit. Buffalo already had a fighting chance thanks to a solid defense that is good at stopping the run, but will see a significant advantage in terms of its roster depletion. The Bulls were the second best scoring offense in the MAC this season and assuming that Pete Lembo’s team didn’t mentally check out for the past month, should have enough firepower to overwhelm a Liberty team that may simply want to close the books on the 2024-2025 campaign.
My Pick: 30-21 Buffalo
Bowl Mania Confidence: 12 points
