Bowl Game Schedule 2014-15: Full Viewing Info and Key Storylines to Watch

One of the virtues of having so many bowl games is there is no shortage of storylines to keep track of in college football. You can come up with a long list of items for each matchup, so when you multiply that by 39, it becomes difficult to keep up with. 

Instead of trying to keep track of every storyline from every bowl game, it's easier to pinpoint the biggest points to which everyone will be paying attention. It's not easy to single out a few things in the midst of a bowl barrage, but that's what makes this such a special time for the sport. 

To help build your anticipation for what's going to happen this bowl season, here's a look at the remaining schedule and what you need to watch closely. 

2014-15 Bowl TV Schedule and Odds

Date	Bowl	Matchup (Spread)	Time (ET)	TV
Dec. 29	AutoZone Liberty Bowl	West Virginia (-3.5) vs. Texas A&M	2 p.m.	ESPN
Dec. 29	Russell Athletic Bowl	Clemson vs. Oklahoma (-3.5)	5:30 p.m.	ESPN
Dec. 29	AdvoCare Texas Bowl	Texas vs. Arkansas (-6)	9 p.m.	ESPN
Dec. 30	Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl	Notre Dame vs. LSU (-7)	3 p.m.	ESPN
Dec. 30	Belk Bowl	Louisville vs. Georgia (-6.5)	6:30 p.m.	ESPN
Dec. 30	Foster Farms Bowl	Maryland vs. Stanford (-14)	10 p.m.	ESPN
Dec. 31	Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl	Ole Miss vs. TCU (-3)	12:30 p.m.	ESPN
Dec. 31	VIZIO Fiesta Bowl	Boise State vs. Arizona (-3)	4 p.m.	ESPN
Dec. 31	Capital One Orange Bowl	Mississippi State (-7) vs. Georgia Tech	8 p.m.	ESPN
Jan. 1	Outback Bowl	Wisconsin vs. Auburn (-6.5)	12 p.m.	ESPN2
Jan. 1	Goodyear Cotton Bowl	Michigan State vs. Baylor (-2.5)	12:30 p.m.	ESPN
Jan. 1	Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl	Minnesota vs. Missouri (-5)	1 p.m.	ABC
Jan. 1	Rose Bowl Game	Oregon (-9) vs. Florida State	5 p.m.	ESPN
Jan. 1	Allstate Sugar Bowl	Alabama (-9) vs. Ohio State	8:30 p.m.	ESPN
Jan. 2	Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl	Pittsburgh (-3) vs. Houston	12 p.m.	ESPN
Jan. 2	TaxSlayer Bowl	Iowa vs. Tennessee (-3.5)	3:20 p.m.	ESPN
Jan. 2	Valero Alamo Bowl	Kansas State vs. UCLA (-1.5)	6:45 p.m.	ESPN
Jan. 2	Cactus Bowl	Oklahoma State vs.Washington (-5.5)	10:15 p.m.	ESPN
Jan. 3	Birmingham Bowl	Florida (-6.5) vs. East Carolina	1 p.m.	ESPN2
Jan. 4	GoDaddy Bowl	Toledo (-4) vs. Arkansas State	9 p.m.	ESPN
Jan. 12	College Football Championship Game	TBD	8:30 p.m.	ESPN

ESPN.com / Odds Shark

Odds via Odds Shark

Which Jameis Winston Will Show Up vs. Oregon?

One of the great mysteries of the 2014 college football season has been trying to figure out which Jameis Winston is going to show up on a given day. The last two games for Florida State's quarterback perfectly encapsulated this problem. 

In the regular-season finale against Florida, Winston was terrible. He threw four interceptions, going 12-of-24 for 125 yards in a 24-19 victory. Just when you think the Seminoles are in trouble, however, the 2013 Heisman winner comes back in the ACC Championship Game by going 21-of-30 for 309 yards and three touchdowns. 

Florida State can't get away with another performance from Winston like the one he had against Florida. The Seminoles are going up against their most formidable opponent since the Auburn Tigers in last year's BCS Championship Game when Oregon takes the field. 

Jimbo Fisher's team does catch a break against Oregon's defense. Star cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu suffered a knee injury during practice for the Rose Bowl, which ended his season. With him out, look for Rashad Greene to be targeted early and often until Oregon proves it has someone who can cover the star wideout. 

The Ducks have been as consistent as any team in the country on offense, scoring 40 or more points in 11 of 13 games. Marcus Mariota won the 2014 Heisman Trophy with 4,478 yards and 53 total touchdowns. Florida State's defense has given up a lot of points to mediocre teams, letting NC State to drop 41 on it. 

However, one area the Seminoles can boast about being better than Oregon is in close games. The Ducks don't play in many of them, while the Seminoles this year had seven games decided by six points or fewer. Expanding things out slightly, per FSU Gameday, Winston excels in tight games compared to Mariota:

No quarterback in the country has shown a better knack for blocking out all of the noise on and off the field than Winston. Whether he's able to do that against a dynamic Oregon team is another story. 

If there is a game in which Winston's inconsistencies will come back to haunt him, it is against an explosive offense like Oregon's. Of course, Florida State has been teetering on the edge all year and come out unscathed. 

Will OSU's Rushing Attack Succeed vs. Alabama?

Even though Cardale Jones got all of the attention for Ohio State's 59-0 victory over Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game, it was the Buckeyes' running game that set everything else up. Ezekiel Elliott went off with 220 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.

In fact, Elliott might be the unsung hero for Ohio State in 2014. J.T. Barrett was phenomenal when he was healthy and Jones certainly looked good against Wisconsin, but the sophomore running back has 1,402 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. 

ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit told Zac Ellis of Sports Illustated that Elliott reminds him a lot of another former Buckeyes star:

"

When J.T. Barrett started to establish himself as a threat running, and those four new offensive linemen started to get game reps, the combination of those two things opened up opportunities for Ezekiel Elliott to have the year that he’s had. By the end of the year, he started to be somewhat reminiscent to what we saw a year ago from Carlos Hyde.

"

Elliott's contributions will be more important than ever against Alabama in the College Football Playoff. Nick Saban's defense may give up big plays in the passing game on occasion, but they are always stout against the run, and that was no different in 2014. 

Diving deeper into the numbers, Alabama hasn't allowed one 100-yard rusher this season. The Crimson Tide led the nation with three rushing touchdowns allowed and tied for the second-fewest yards allowed per carry (2.8), per Yahoo Sports.

If Ohio State's running game isn't working like it did in the Big Ten Championship, that puts more pressure on Jones to make plays with his arm. Saban has no problems exploiting a young quarterback in a game in which the stakes can't get any higher.

Elliott has had great success running against Big Ten defenses, but he's going up against an entirely different animal in Alabama on New Year's Day. It's going to be hard for Ohio State to drum up any offense in this game.

Are Baylor and TCU In For A Letdown?

Looking away from the College Football Playoff, the two teams that were just outside the top four in the final rankings have business to handle. TCU has a showdown with Mississippi in the Peach Bowl, while Baylor has to tackle Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl. 

Even though the opposition is formidable, this can't feel like anything but a step down for both Big 12 teams, based on where they hoped to be after their final games. TCU and Baylor did everything they could to show the selection committee they were worthy of a spot, but the committee opted to take the easy way out by going with Ohio State.

Baylor head coach Art Briles addressed the topic of a letdown in the bowl game during a press conference after his team got left out of the playoff, via Kyle Austin of MLive.com:

"That's not an issue at all," Briles said. "Our guys want to play, they want to win, they want to represent. We can win 12 games. We can finish [as] a top-five team. For our seniors and our program, it's a huge, huge game."

Briles did a good job of spinning things, but there are plenty of past instances when superior teams have looked lackluster in bowl games. Last year, Alabama made Oklahoma look like a world-beater in the Sugar Bowl and prompted poll voters to make the Sooners a top-five team in the preseason rankings. 

TCU also went on the spin cycle after accepting an invite to the Peach Bowl. Athletic director Chris Del Conte told Carlos Mendez of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram that if "you had told me at the beginning of the year—11-1, Peach Bowl? I’m sold."

Of the two Big 12 teams, TCU seems more likely to come out flat in its game. Baylor has the advantage of playing a game close to home in Arlington, Texas. TCU is going into the heart of SEC territory against the nation's top-ranked scoring defense in Mississippi. 

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