Mitch Picks the Valero Alamo Bowl: Missouri Vs. Northwestern

The Valero Alamo Bowl: The Alamodome, San Antonio, TX

Missouri (9-4) vs. Northwestern (9-3)

Monday Dec. 29, 2008; 8 EST

The Line: Northwestern + 12 1/2

Overview

While on paper this matchup may not seem to be that attractive, I really think this may be one of the better matchups of the entire bowl season. While being in this game is a big disappointment for Missouri, for Northwestern it's far above where many people expected them to be.

Northwestern got off to a very fast start this year and went with it. The Wildcats were competitive in just about all of their games, and turnovers are what really cost them.

In Pat Fitzgerald they have one of the best young Head Coaches in the game today, and nothing defines his spirit more than the effort his team put forth against Minnesota, when depleted by injuries they beat a bowl-bound Golden Gopher squad on the road. If Northwestern wants to have a shot in this one, they will need to avoid turnovers.

This season didn't develop the way Tiger fans had hoped. This was a season that started with National Championship hopes for the team and Heisman Trophy hopes for QB Chase Daniel, but it ends with a trip to the Alamo Bowl and Chase Daniel not even getting invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony and really not even being considered one of the top three QBs in his conference.

Missouri still has plenty of firepower and is a very good team and just played on this same field just a few weeks ago in the Big 12 Title Game loss against Oklahoma.

The rest of Mitch's Alamo Bowl pick against the spread.