As you know from last year, this is not really a ranking of the bowl games.  I am more interested in possible sponsors this year for bowls and maybe a few suggestions for games.  It seems that several of the games are sponsored by banks and websites.  Of course, as you know, half of the games have already been played.

1.  The Peet’s Coffee Bowl
The game could be played in Berkley, California at Cal’s Memorial Stadium.  Berkley is where Peet’s began, and Peet’s is the best coffee on the shelf.  This bowl game would feature a team from the Pacific 10 Conference and the Western Athletic Conference.

2.  The ESPN.com Bowl
The “mouse ears” as Randy Galloway refers to them already runs  several bowls ( I think 7) so why not go all out and have a bowl sponsored by their website.  It would be great.  It could feature teams from the Big East and the Big Ten since the game would be played in  at Rentschler Field in East Hartford near the ESPN headquarters of Bristol, CT.

3.  The ING Penny Bowl
Several bowls have the backing of financial institutions, but none would be more confusing than a bowl sponsored by ING.  Do you remember the commercials where the guy looking for the rest of the word, but it’s just ing?  They have some of the best deals for online banking, helping you save pennies.  There you have it.  The teams that play in the game can be the highest ranked teams with lions for their mascot.  The game would be played in Denver, CO where one of ING’s affiliates are located.  The match-up would pit a team from the Western Athletic Conference against a Mountain West Conference team.

4.  The Wal-Mart Retail Bowl

Wal-Mart is the retail standard bearer.  Everybody measures themselves based on Wal-Mart.  Their brand is well known, and they could have a great bowl game.  This bowl would be played at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, AR just down the road from Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville.  Playing in the game would be teams from the Conference USA and the Sun Belt.

5.  The Collegefootballtopten.com Bowl
Hey, I might as well have a bowl game.  It seems websites get in the act every year.  And while we are at it, I think I want my bowl game to be played at the new Cowboys Stadium.  I really don’t care who plays in the game, but I’ll take a Mountain West Conference team and a Big 12 Conference team.

6.  The Cracker Barrel Apple Butter Bowl
Cracker Barrels are all over the country, and they have the best apple butter around, at least when you add it to their biscuits.  Since there is no real big stadium in Lebanon, TN where Cracker Barrel has its headquarters, they could play the game at Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium in Murfeesboro.  Teams from the Sun Belt Conference will play a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

7.  The Panera Bread Bowl
Sponsored by Panera Bread of St. Louis, the Bread Bowl would be played in St. Louis at the Edward Jones Dome featuring teams from the Mid American Conference and the Big Ten.

8.  The Starbucks Seattle Bowl
I know, I know, we already have a game sponsored by a coffee, but Starbucks is an institution.  It has the brand power behind it already.  And, it is a great opportunity to have a bowl game in Seattle.  The game would be played in Seattle’s Husky Stadium, and it will feature anyone willing to travel to Seattle in December.

9.  The Idaho Potato Humanitarian Bowl
This bowl can be held in Boise at the famous “blue turf,” we just want to replace the sponsor with the potato growers in idaho.  Idaho is, you know, the home of the best potatoes in the world.

10.  The Riceland Foods Rice Bowl
This bowl can be played at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, AR.  The game would feature teams from the Sun Belt and the Conference USA.

There you have it.  There are suggestions, but mostly additions.  Enjoy the rest of the bowl season.

Merry Christmas from Collegefootballtopten.com to all my friends, family, readers and blogosphere friends.  I have decided to offer a Christmas Wish List, much like I did at Pegasus News (it will be up Christmas Morning), for some of my blogger friends.

For the Finch at Spitbloodtcu.com
A win for TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl against Boise State.  Wait, that already happened.  O.k., for rest after returning home from San Diego where you watched the Poinsettia Bowl.

John at the Nebraska Sports Journal
I wish for you a win for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Gator Bowl against the Clemson Tigers.  Go Huskers!

For my friend Thomas at the Mean Green Cougar Red blog
A win for the Houston Cougars against Air Force in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl here in Fort Worth.  I usually root for the Mountain West Conference team, but in the case I will make an exception.  I know you have had a tough year this year with a hurricane, snow a few days ago, and a family member in a major accident.  I hope you get some good cheer.  By the way, I just noticed that I hadn’t put your site on my blogroll.  I am not sure how I left you off, and I am sorry.

Brian at Inthebleachers.net
I hope that your site continues to become king of the college football blogosphere because you are all class.  Also, I hope that Penn State upsets USC in the Rose Bowl.  I would love to see that, wouldn’t you?

For Doug at college football walk on
I hope that you are able to get enough nominations for the walk-on award so that we can get that first award out to a deserving kid.  Keep at it, it is a worth while award.

For Seth at Double T Nation
I hope that you keep on doing your stuff.  You may have one of the best school-centered blogs I’ve seen.  Also, here’s to hoping that Mike Leach teaches Houston Nutt how to run an offense.  “Guns up!”

Eddie at The Red Zone Report
Your site/blog may be the most comprehensive, mega-site I have ever seen.  I hope that you keep it going and are real successful.

To Josh at BigPurpleNation.com
Josh does a real good job of covering all things TCU.  Josh is also a stand-up guy.  My hope for you is that you can keep it up.  I also hope for continued success.

For Harry at GoMeanGreen.com
Keep up the good work Harry.  You guys do good work and you are really dedicated.  I hope that the dedication pays off in a successful football season next year for UNT.

For my readers like Lee Cochenour, and all of you who played in the DFW Pickem, have a very Merry Christmas!  God Bless and a happy new year!

I posted an All-DFW College Football Team at PegasusNews.com.   TCU had

the most players, naturally, since they won more games.  But, I tried to get a decent representation for North Texas and SMU.  The Media Relations Department in the respective Athletic Departments were helpful in me picking some of the players.  As far as I know, it the first time anyone has done an All-DFW College Football Team.

Check out the article.  It is the lead story today at PegasusNews.com.  Congratulations to all the players who made the team.

The Galloping Ghost:  Red Grange An American Football Legend by Gary Andrew Poole.

If you asked a 2008 high school recruit who the “Galloping Ghost” was, it would be interesting to see if they knew.  I knew who the Galloping Ghost was, I had seen those old videos of him running with the ball.  That seemed to be what defined him, running with the ball.  The Ghost, ran with the ball throughout the 1920′s and the early 1930′s.  Red Grange, the “Galloping Ghost”, was named the greatest college football player by ESPN.

In some ways football today is like football when Grange played, but in other ways, it is an entirely different world.  In The Galloping Ghost by Gary Andrew Poole, we get a history lesson in what is was like to be a football player during the 20′s and 30′s, and Poole doesn’t disappoint.  Mr. Poole was kind enough to send me a copy to read, and I will grateful for a long time.  It was one of the best sports books I have read a very long time, maybe ever.  His prose rates right up there with Jim Dent’s Twelve Mighty Orphans.  Indeed, Poole doesn’t just tell us about the facts of Grange’s life, he illustrates it for us describing in detail and taking us to the very scene as if we are standing there next to Grange and his never ending following of colorful characters including “Cash and Carry” C. C. Pyle.

As someone who has done graduate work and having had to write academic papers, I appreciate Poole’s style of detailed notes listed at the end of the

book.  Often in the popular reading world, publishers and editors decide to leave the notes off because, I am sure, they don’t think readers are

interested in that kind of work.  Well, I am.  Poole’s book uses a casual style of notation to list the notes in the back, but something, even casual, is way better than nothing for me.  He even includes a section in the

acknowledgments about his sources as well as a very detailed bibliography.

Poole retells the story of Grange, from the beginning, in a narrative style which most readers will appreciate.  Part I takes us from Grange’s birth to the beginnings of his pro career which was orchestrated by Pyle.  Part II tells of the whirlwind “barnstormer” tour in which Pyle arranged for Grange and the Chicago Bears taking them all throughout the country playing multiple games in a week to several sold out stadiums generating more profit for George Halas’ Bears than the NFL had ever seen up until that point.  The reader will understand the struggles in which the NFL had in its early years including the lack of respectability by most of the country including the college football world.  Most All-American caliber players went on to lucrative business careers forsaking anything the NFL had to offer as an un-pure reflection of the sport.

Poole works hard to bring us the story of Grange, the good, the bad, the dark.  Grange had a simple wisdom, but at times was a little too naive.  Grange’s professional career seemed to be too tied to Pyle’s shenanigans.  Later in life, Grange did separate himself from Pyle, worked hard to regain his respectability and get out of debt.  He married Margaret “Muggs” Hazleberg, a wonderful lady who helped Grange straighten out his affairs and took care of him at the end of his life.   If you still have someone on your Christmas list, and he or she is a football fan, Poole’s book, The Galloping Ghost, may be the right gift.  You buy a copy from the Collegefootballtopten Bookstore.

The real Heisman Trophy will be awarded Saturday night, but Shotgun Spratling from The Blue Workhouse solicited votes from bloggers across the country and yours truly got a vote.   He asked us to list on our site our votes and why, etc.  So here goes.  This is the email I sent him with my top three votes.

1) Tim Tebow, Florida–reason, link:  http://collegefootballtopten.com/2008/12/07/tim-tebow-is-a-great-leader/

2)  Sam Bradford, Oklahoma–I saw him take some shots against TCU and was forced in to bad throws, but he had a great game in spite of it.  He carried the offense until the running game got better.

3)  Zac Robinson, Oklahoma State–He did everything the others did with as good a passer rating  along with the feet.

There you have it.  My votes for the Sports Blog Heisman Trophy Winner.

Note:  Remember my reasons for updating every three weeks, even if some of you think I am really an idiot.

1.  Florida, 12-1
Alabama was number one in my poll, and Florida beat them in the SEC Championship Game and looked good doing it.  Florida has been on a tear after the loss to Ole Miss.  Tim Tebow has become a great leader, and he has lead this team to where it is now.

2.  Oklahoma, 12-1
There is no easy way to do this.  Oklahoma beat the number two team in my poll, Texas Tech, therefore, I will put them at number 2.  That being said, arguments can be made for both Texas and Oklahoma.  Texas, we know, beat Oklahoma on a neutral field the first weekend of October and only loss to Tech on the road on a TD pass with one second left on the clock.  Oklahoma destroyed Texas Tech, and, I might add, is not the same team it was in October.   They are running the ball better, and they have fixed some of their defensive holes.

3.  Texas, 11-1
See Above

4.  Alabama, 12-1
The Tide is a bruising team.  They will absolutely knock you silly on both sides of the ball.  They only had one slip this year.  Unfortunately, it was in their last game against Florida.  I really would love to see them play one of those great Big 12 South games.  Oh well, they play Utah in the Sugar Bowl.

5.  USC, 11-1
No one will know for sure how good USC is.  It was a bad Thursday night in Corvallis earlier this year, and if Oregon State had not have been so beat up by the end of the season, USC would have had somewhere other than the Rose Bowl to go play.

6.  Utah, 12-0

The Utes are not a flashy team.  They play good defense, and they are led on offense by a senior QB.  They make just enough plays on offense to win their games.  They run a spread offense, but it is a grind-it-out kind of blue collar offense.  They took care everyone, and then they rallied to knock off TCU before pulling away from BYU to get to that undefeated season.  They deserve what they get.

7.  Texas Tech, 11-1
This is, undoubtedly, the best season in Red Raider history.  Mike Leach showed me something as he worked to improve his running game and his defense to get his team to this special place.  In most years, 11-1 would be good enough for a BCS Bowl.  A blowout loss to Oklahoma did not help their case.

8.  Penn State, 11-1
Joe Pa may have turned his best performance this year.  He just keeps winning games.  His offense was off- the-chart good this year, and his defense was its usual good self.  One loss to an improving Iowa team in Iowa City took them out of the national title hunt.

9.  TCU, 10-2
I just wasn’t sure if the Frogs were a top ten team.  However, after the season was over, I realized they were just a better offense away from being BCS buster material.  The Frog offense was good against most teams, but when they played teams with good defenses (Oklahoma, Utah), they just couldn’t generate enough points.  TCU finished number 2 in the country in total defense, and if you don’t think they were good, give Bob Stoops a call.  The Sooners scored over 700 points this year, but they only scored 35 on the Frogs with 21 of those coming in the first quarter.  That is 19 points below the Sooners’ average.  TCU is good.

10.  Boise State, 12-0
Unfortunately, the Broncos only played one team who was ranked this year making it hard to know how good they really are.  It’s not their fault, but it hurts their credibility.  They get a chance to prove it in the Poinsettia Bowl against TCU.  Many are calling it one of the best match-ups in the bowl season.  Nevetheless, it is really hard to go undefeated in 12 games in spit of who is on your schedule.

I just want to follow up on a post that The Wiz wrote the other day about the lack of attention Turner Gill is getting for some of these marque coaching jobs.  Gill’s Bulls upset Ball State in the MAC Championship

game and has absolutely turned around one of the most horrid programs in the NCAA.  Gill would make a fine hire for some of these BCS teams looking for new coaches.  They should give him a look.

As for other African-American coaching candidates, I propose Charlie Strong.  He will be coaching in a national championship game for the second time in three years at Florida and he is up for the Broyles Award.  Not too bad.  Oh yea, I am biased because he is from my hometown of Batesville, AR.

Some may remember Dr. Fitz Hill, the former San Jose State football coach.  Well, Dr. Hill has been following the madness in the coaching carousel the past couple of years on his blog, Crackback.  Check out his blog.

In case you haven’t heard, the BCS Bowl selections came down this evening in a, almost, basketball tournament-esque type announcement on Fox.  We saw the Cincinnati fans jumping up and down as if their team was sent to the East Regional as a number one seed.  Not quite.  It seemed as the BCS Machine wanted us to believe it was as big as the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Show, but it wasn’t.  I mean, Virginia Tech, while a good team has four losses.  Maybe Boise State should take their place.

In news closer to home (Fort Worth, TX), TCU has been matched up against those Boise State Broncos led

by senior (what year?) Ian Johnson and his cheerleader wife in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.  I had to make sure I got that sponsorship in there as they payed me an undisclosed amount of money to mention it (not really).  TCU is number 11 and Boise is 9th.  This match up may be better than some of the BCS Bowl games!

The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl also made an announcement.  They have decided to match up Case Keenum and the high flying Houston Cougars against the wicked option oriented Air Force Falcons in a rematch of a game played in early September when the kids from Houston were really thinking about their homes in Houston with Hurrican Ike making an appearance.  Nevertheless, it was a close game.  This one should be fun.

The Collegefootballtopten.com Top Ten should be out either Monday or Tuesday.  I wonder who will be number one.

He may not win the Heisman Trophy this year, but Tim Tebow has more than impressed me with his leadership.  I get kind of skeptical when a college player has a ton of hype, legends, fan sites, myths and

even a Wikipedia page surrounding him.  But Tebow has shown his worth.  I think he is able to play in the NFL in spite of the Spread Offense he has played in at Florida.  He has the arm strength and the leadership to as well as the intelligence to play in a pro style offense.

Last night in the SEC Championship, Tebow led the Florida Gators to a 31-20 upset victory over previously undefeated and number 1 ranked Alabama.  I say upset because Alabama was ranked higher and was undefeated, and yes I am aware that Florida was a favorite going in to the game by the Vegas odds makers.  Tebow actually had to lead Florida from a small deficit in the final quarter to win the game, something he has never done.  Now Tebow has a national title, a Heisman Trophy, two SEC Championships (one as a starter), and some think, a second Heisman Trophy to come with a shot at a second national championship.  Is Tebow Superman?

Some players are great players.  Some great players are good leaders.  And, some great players are great leaders.  Tim Tebow is a great player and a great leader.  A good quarterback can get his offense to play hard for him, but getting the whole team to play hard for him is another matter.  Tebow is able to get his entire team to elevate their play for their quarterback.  You saw it on full display twice in the SEC Championship game.  First, after a touchdown, Tebow ran, not trotted, down to his kick off team to challenge them to make a play on the coverage.  The result, Alabama was tackled at the 15 yard line immediately putting their offense in a hole.  Second, during the second half, Tebow approached linebacker Brandon Spikes on the sidelines with a challenge to the defensive leader to get a stop.  Spikes and the defense delivered.  Tebow has that kind of leadership.  Rarely is a quarterback able to take command of the entire team, all areas, and challenge all of them to rise to the occasion.  It’s the kind of leadership that was seen in Vince Young when he was a Texas.

Tebow is a one of a kind.  He has the character, the athletic ability and the intelligence to be the nation’s premier player, and, despite how good the Big 12 quarterbacks have played, no other player means more to their team, the entire team, than Tebow does to the University of Florida Gators.  Tebow has a vote in the Heisman Trophy race, and he probably won’t vote for himself.  He is just that kind of person.  I think he will be more interested in a National Championship than a Heisman repeat.  However, if Tebow never makes in the NFL, and I think he will, he will be a great leader for some organization, church, country, etc.

On the first weekend of December last year, a series of improbable events put a two loss LSU team in the

National Championship game.  Is that starting to happen again?  Undefeated Ball State is no more.  They got beat by Buffalo in the MAC Championship Game giving the Bulls the MAC Title 42-24 Friday night.

The game became surreal as improbable play after improbable play led to the double digit lead in the fourth quarter.  Two times the Bulls returned fumbles for a touchdown and the officials failed to rule a touchdown by Ball State running back MiQuale Lewis on a review in the third quarter.  The win is the first championship of any kind for the Buffalo Bull football team.  By the way, all of you BCS schools that are looking for an up and coming coach, Turner Gill may be your man.  Gill has done what no one else has done at Buffalo, win.  The Bulls will play in the International Bowl in Toronto.