Bring Me The Head Of Jim Haugh

I’m sure by now you’ve read all the “most of the bowl games suck” articles at the major college football websites.
But here at BMTHOJH. we’re all about solutions. We’re not just whining about the lack of compelling matchups; we’re whining that nobody will listen to our suggestions to improve the matchups.

Here is your assignment: pick two teams, any two teams, and reverse their bowl assignments. What I’m looking for the one swap that would yield the greatest overall improvement in bowl matchups. I don’t want to hear who you think should be in the national title game; I’m interested in all the bowls, from 1 to 32. Pick any two teams, flip them, and generate the best games.

Here are my ideas:

FLIP LOUISVILLE AND MEMPHIS.
Louisville faces Florida Atlantic in the New Orleans Bowl.
Memphis faces Purdue in men’s basketball.

Ball State and New Mexico get all the abuse from the Too-Many-Bowls crowd, but Memphis is probably the least-deserving bowl team this year. The Tigers’ power ranking has spent more time in the 80s than Gallagher, but thanks to Conference USA’s considerable skill at landing bowl contracts, the mighty Memphians clinched a guaranteed bowl game with one week left in the season. The teams they’ve beaten are a combined 26-57. And the teams they’ve lost to aren’t much better.

I also don’t like this matchup because I think champions of smaller conferences deserve a bowl game against “name” opponents. Much of the fun of the bowl season is seeing how conferences do against each other, and part of that is seeing how teams like FAU and Central Michigan do in against major-conference opposition in a neutral setting. This game does poorly on the rate “rank the bowls from 1 to 32″ lists, but FAU against 6-6 South Carolina or Iowa is interesting — just to see a seven-year-old program compares to somebody that’s been around for eons.

But I love the idea of Howard Schnellenberger coaching against the UofL program he helped build — a program in turmoil, whose fans will be demanding a good performance after a nightmare season. Especially after Bobby Petrino left the Atlanta Falcons for the University of Arkansas, and the things that were said about Petrino’s people management skills, and the state he left the Louisville program in.

FLIP UCLA and Purdue.
UCLA faces Central Michigan in Motor City Bowl.
Purdue faces BYU in Las Vegas Bowl.

As scheduled now, these two bowl games are the most unwanted sequels since Baby Geniuses 2. In the 2007 regular season, BYU beat UCLA, and Purdue beat CMU, without either game being interesting or even close. This flip gives each conference champion an interesting new opponent.

BYU-CMU in the Motor City and UCLA-Purdue in Vegas works too. The LDS church has a presence in Michigan, and UCLA-Purdue in Vegas might compel travelers and local fans in a way that dull regular-season rematches don’t.

FLIP ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN.
Illinois plays Florida in the Citrus Bowl.
Michigan plays USC in the Rose Bowl.

We all heard the speculation about a Ron Zook versus Florida bowl before the pairings were finalized. It was a good idea then, and it’s a good idea now. And Tim Tebow vs. Juice Williams makes for an exciting matchup.

As for the Rose Bowl… well, if they absolutely have to have to a Big Ten team, Michigan’s a more interesting foil to USC, and probably more capable of upsetting them. And I love the idea that a team could start its season with a loss to Appalachian State and end it with a win over USC. I can think of no more fitting conclusion to this season of chaos.

Which two teams’ bowl assignments would you flip, and why? State your case in the Comments section. Be creative!