Why Cincinnati-Georgia Tech Will Be the Best Matchup of Bowl Season

As the Crimson Tide overtook LSU this weekend, it became very clear that the national championship game will go through Atlanta.

We know the national title game is a sham, especially if there are three or four undefeated teams standing at the end, but as a fan I want to see the best games possible.

With the absence of a true championship game, looking for real football entertainment has led me to explore other options. What will be the most compelling matchup of the bowl season?

The Orange Bowl

No. 5 Cincinnati vs. No. 7 Georgia Tech (Does it sound like a Sweet 16 or is it just me?)

If you will only watch one game this bowl season, it should be this one. Not easy sledding for either team to make this happen though: Cincy has WVU and Pitt left on the schedule, while Tech will be troubled with an ACC Championship game, likely against a Clemson team that gave them all they could handle.

Paul Johnson's Yellow Jackets prove, every week, that football is NOT rocket science and have left football prognosticators to ponder the age-old question, "If you can run, why pass?" 

Georgia Tech is breaking all the rules that our newfangled offensive and defensive schemes developed by exploring the traditional option QB. Woody Hayes, Bear Bryant, and Bo Schembechler would be proud of this team, as they are "block and tackle" at its finest and would remind these legends of their beloved days in the military.

On the other side of the field, you have one of the best examples of the spread offense in college football today. It doesn't matter who is under center for the Bearcats because they execute the offense as efficiently as anyone. Zach Collaros has shown that his legs are as valuable as his arm, and Tony Pike's right arm has cut open defenses with the precision of the surgeon who put his left arm back together.

What will really make this game entertaining is what these teams lack on defense. The 3-4 defensive scheme that UC employs has shown some real kinks, and Josh Nesbitt and Jonathan Dwyer have been turning kinks into points all season.

That said, the 3-4 will put an additional set of eyes in the backfield to play assignment with the triple-option attack of the "Rambling Wreck." It still won't matter. Johnson has proven that he is the master of the in-game adjustment, and playing a team that runs the ball 40 times a game will slow your defense down to a crawl by the fourth quarter.

Georgia Tech's defensive inability has shown itself in several games this year, and it has been made obvious that a good offense can score a lot of points on them (see Miami, FSU, and second half of Clemson games). The Bearcat passing game is prolific on an average day, and the skill position athletes they have are artists in the realm of the acrobatic.

Besides the crowning of the BS Champion (not a typo), do not miss this game. It will be an epic battle between football tradition and its new nuances.