New Year's Day Open Comment Thread.

Happy New Year! In addition to the traditional black-eyed peas and promises to actually exercise, today also brings a smorgasbord of college football action. Things kick off on ESPN2 with the Outback Bowl at noon. Wisconsin and Auburn will each be trying to put sour endings to their respective seasons behind them, to wash away the sorrow in a torrent of bloomin' onion sauce, if you will.

12:45 brings the Cotton Bowl between Michigan State and Baylor on ESPN. It will be interesting to see whether Baylor comes out angling to show the playoff committee they made a mistake, or whether they've already checked out for the season. I suspect we're in for an entertaining contest between one of the most exciting offenses in college football and one of the sport's most hard-nosed defenses. Should be fun.

1:00 brings the Citrus Bowl on ABC between Gary Pinkel's Missouri Tigers and Jerry Kill's Minnesota Golden Gophers. And then this evening it's the Granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl, featuring the first of two college football playoff semifinals between the Florida State Seminoles and the Oregon Ducks. My suspicion is that this is where the Seminoles finally get exposed and don't have the Tallahassee police there to cover things back up for them. But hey, that's just one guy talking' bout the Noles. Until later . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!