Hi Joan,
Well, I see we are 7 point favorites in San Antonio. Meanwhile here is the Harmon forecast for all the bowl games:
Harmon Forecast: Bowl games
The Harmon Football Forecast is one of the most highly regarded and widely read sports features in the country, published in over 200 newspapers.
It all began when Bob Harmon began predicting college and NFL games in 1957. He devised a mathematical formula that picked winners correctly between 72 and 78 percent of the time; most seasons getting almost 75 percent of his college picks right.
BCS Bowls
Jan. 1 Rose Wisconsin 27 Stanford 14
Jan. 1 Orange Alabama 21 Michigan 20
Jan. 2 Fiesta Nebraska 32 Tennessee 26
Jan. 4 Sugar Florida State 28 Virginia Tech 21
Other Bowls
Dec. 18 Heritage Jackson State 33 Hampton 13
Dec. 18 Las Vegas Utah 24 Fresno State 17
Dec. 22 Mobile Ala. East Carolina 21 TCU 16
Dec. 25 Aloha Arizona St. 20 Wake Forest 19
Dec. 25 Oahu Oregon St. 30 Hawaii 15
Dec. 27 Motor City Marshall 22 BYU 20
Dec. 28 Alamo Penn State 27 Texas A&M 21
Dec. 29 Music City Syracuse 17 Kentucky 16
Dec. 29 Holiday Kansas St. 34 Washington 17
Dec. 30 Humanitarian Louisville 21 Boise St. 19
Dec. 30 Micron PC Illinois 18 Virginia 14
Dec. 30 Peach Clemson 26 Mississippi St. 21
Dec. 31 Insight.com Colorado 20 Boston College 9
Dec. 31 Sun Minnesota 24 Oregon 21
Dec. 31 Liberty Southern Miss 14 Colorado St. 7
Dec. 31 Independence Oklahoma 25 Mississippi 14
Jan. 1 Outback Purdue 20 Georgia 10
Jan. 1 Cotton Texas 17 Arkansas 7
Jan. 1 Gator Miami 29 Georgia Tech 25
Jan. 1 Florida Citrus Michigan St. 24 Florida 23
Highlights
The Virginia Tech Hokies will no doubt be most college fans' sentimental favorites over Florida State in the battle for the national championship at the Sugar Bowl Jan. 4. It seems some team from Florida plays for the title almost every year, and though Virginia Tech has made bowl appearances in each of the last six seasons, the Hokies aren't exactly regulars in the brightest spotlight: This was the Big East champs' first perfect season in 81 years.
Harmon's Top 20
1 Florida St. 11 Oklahoma
2 Va. Tech 12 Penn St.
3 Nebraska 13 Texas
4 Kansas St. 14 Miami
5 Wisconsin 15 Purdue
6 Tennessee 16 Minnesota
7 Michigan St. 17 Southern Miss
8 Alabama 18 Texas A&M
9 Michigan 19 Colorado
10 Florida 20 Ga. Tech
Virginia Tech and F.S.U. last met in 1991, when the Seminoles won their ninth in a row over the Hokies, 33-20; Tech hasn't defeated Florida State since '75. But in these days of Beamer Ball (the nickname for Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer's almost fanatical emphasis on special teams) and the dazzling play of 19-year-old redshirt freshman QB Michael Vick, the Big East player of the year, there's no doubting the Hokies' potential to win their biggest game ever.
Our stats rate the teams virtually dead even, but Florida State gets the nod, having played for the title a year ago in the Fiesta Bowl and gotten burned by Tennessee. Seminoles QB Chris Weinke sat out that frustrating game with a neck injury, but he's come back as strong as ever this season. Vick may well light up the Louisiana Superdome, but in this confrontation we figure F.S.U.'s year-long motivational simmer and Weinke's experience are worth a seven-point win.
As usual, there are lots of intriguing, almost-too-close-to-call bowl matchups. Undefeated Marshall--which, like Tulane in '98, ranked just below our Top 20, in the 25th spot--will have a whale of a Motor City Bowl with Brigham Young. And Syracuse-Kentucky (Music City), Minnesota-Oregon (Sun), Michigan State-Florida (Citrus), and Alabama-Michigan (Orange)? Your guess may be as good as ours. We like Penn State by six over Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl, which may be little solace for Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno. The Alamo will be a record 30th bowl appearance for JoePa, who's already the leader in bowl wins with 19, but Penn State's three season-ending losses brought its string of eight straight New Year's Day bowl games to an end.
Our forecasting accuracy stayed strong all season, finishing at .754, based on 1,821 games predicted correctly and only 593 picked wrong. Finally, as always, we've averaged our power quotients of the teams in every conference, and we present our exclusive ranking of the top 20 conferences. With stellar seasons from Wisconsin, Michigan State, Michigan, Purdue, Minnesota and, yes, Penn State, the Eleven That Call Themselves Ten climbed back to the top for the first time since '96.
No. Conference Power Quotient
1 Big Ten 97.6
2 Big 12 95.2
3 Southeastern 94.4
4 Atlantic Coast 93.3
5 Pac-10 91.6
6 Big East 89.7
7 Conference USA 88.2
8 Mountain West 87.2
9 Western 78.5
10 Big West 75.1
11 Mid-American 71.5
12 Gateway Athletic 68.7
13 Atlantic 10 67.4
14 Big Sky 62.3
15 Southern 61.7
16 North Central 61.0
17 Southland 60.3
18 Ohio Valley 55.0
19 Patriot 50.5
20 Ivy 49.4
Gary
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