New Year’s Eve Bowl games open thread

Happy New Year’s Eve, Raider Nation! There are several college bowl games today for your viewing pleasure, and they should be pretty good.

On ESPN this morning is the Military Bowl between Virginia Tech and Cincinnati. The Bearcats have had a solid season, going 10-2, and were a strong candidate to get a Group of 5 New Year’s Six bowl bid until they dropped a few games. They are an excellent team and should give Virginia Tech fits.

At 11 AM on CBS is the Sun Bowl from El Paso, between Stanford and Pitt. Stanford had a bit of a dip in the middle of the season, but started and finished strong. Pitt made it to the ACC title game but were waxed by Clemson.

At noon on Fox is the Redbox Bowl between Oregon and Michigan State. MSU had a bit of a disappointing year in the Big Ten, with their offense unable to generate many points, but they have a killer defense and will look to slow down Oregon’s spread attack. Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert should play in this game, as he has eschewed the NFL in favor coming back to college for one more year.

At 12:45 Pacific on ESPN is the Liberty Bowl between Oklahoma and Missouri. Both of these teams have explosive offenses and questionable defenses, so this one might be a shootout,

At 4 PM on FS1 is the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl between Northwestern and Utah. The Utes had a really good season, losing in the Pac-12 title game to Washington, and Northwestern made it to their title game as well, losing to Ohio State. This is the Rose Bowl Runners-Up Bowl today.

Finally, at 4:30 PM on ESPN is the Taxslayer Gator Bowl between NC State and Texas A&M. One imagines A&M is still tired from that 7-OT game they played against LSU, but Kellen Mond and company should be ready for a stout Wolfpack defense and an offense led by senior quarterback Ryan Finley.

Enjoy the games!