Watch the Early Bowl Games or Not?: Hint: Oregon State-BYU Is Worth Seeing

What goes better with the holidays and parties than Chex Mix? And since everybody and his brother related to a bowl game has a corporate sponsor, we're going to give Chex Mix some love in this preview, because calling it party mix or pub mix isn't quite the same.

Here's your quick guide to the pre-Christmas bowl games, with previews of the Dec. 26-31 games and New Year's and beyond games to follow. The rating system is simple, the picks are probably reckless and don't concern the spread at all.

Rating / Description

Party time! / Invite the neighbors, make a batch of Chex Mix and settle in... this is a good one.

Grab a bowl / Definitely worth watching with a bowl of Chex Mix and your favorite beverage

Worth a handful / Check in and see what's happening

Just a pretzel / If you've got nothing better to do, check the score

New Mexico Bowl

Fresno State vs. Wyoming

Dec. 19 – 1:30 p.m. PT

ESPN

The Bulldogs feature running back Ryan Matthews who can score from any distance at any time and reached pay dirt 17 times this season—and he missed two games with injury. As usual, Fresno played it's anybody, anytime, anywhere non-conference schedule but played both Cincinnati and Wisconsin tough and respectably. The Bulldogs overcame a 1-3 start to win eight games. Meanwhile, Wyoming got to the six wins required for a bowl game by limping past San Diego State, Weber State, Colorado State and Florida Atlantic... and got shut out by Colorado. Ugly. First year coach Dave Christensen got enough breaks in his direction to get to a bowl game, but Fresno should be the better team and enjoy this trip to Albuquerque more than it did last year.

Pick: Fresno

Rating: Just a pretzel

St. Petersburg Bowl – Presented by Beef'O'Brady's

Rutgers vs. Central Florida

Dec. 19 – 5 p.m. PT

ESPN

If you thought magicJack was an odd bowl sponsor, well they're gone and Beef'O'Brady's is in for year two of the St. Petersburg Bowl. And look out, this is the Scarlet Knights against the Knights. How can that not be a good matchup? Well, despite combining for 16 wins (eight each), there is just one quality victory between these two teams. South Florida topped then-No. 15 Houston in November. Despite having six games on the ESPN family of networks, Rutgers didn't make much noise in the Big East. So somehow, the bowl game wedged onto a baseball field in a dome sponsored by an Irish sounding bar that doesn't have a very Irish menu seems appropriate.

Pick: Rutgers?

Rating: Just a pretzel (and only if you're actually in an Irish Pub)

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Southern Miss vs. Middle Tennessee State

Dec. 20 – 5:30 p.m. PT

ESPN

Middle Tennessee closed the season on a six-game win streak and earned its second bowl berth since joining the bowl subdivision in 1999, while Southern Miss is making its eighth straight bowl game. A wave of season-ending injuries hit both sides of the ball for USM and dampened a promising season after a 3-0 start and a victory over Virginia. Very quietly, Southern Miss has built a consistent program, having reached a bowl game in 12 of the last 13 seasons. Scoring should be plentiful (and I'm not talking about anything that fans might get into on Bourbon Street) as both teams average over 32 points per game.

Pick: Southern Miss

Rating: Have a handful and keep the clicker handy for Sunday Night Football

MAACO Las Vegas Bowl

Oregon State vs. BYU

Dec. 22 – 5 p.m. PT

ESPN

They changed the sponsor but they don't have the title right yet. This game has become the BYU Invitational as the Cougars will play in Sin City for the fifth straight year. This year's foe: Oregon State, which had its Rose Bowl hopes dashed by the dreaded Ducks. The Beavers can't hang their heads because this is the only matchup of Top 25 teams before Christmas. Come prepared, or Max Hall will have a field day. If you're going to plan to see one of the early bowl games, this is your matchup. BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall has some added incentive as he played for Oregon State, too. Watch for OSU's Rodgers brothers, first-team all-Pac-10 Quarterback Sean Canfield plus BYU's Hall and Harvey Unga.

Pick: BYU (it would be OSU coach Mike Riley's first loss in a bowl game at OSU, but I have a hard time seeing the Beavers get up enough to handle a quality foe like BYU given the Rose Bowl letdown)

Rating: Grab a bowl of Chex Mix. Definitely worth watching.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl

Utah vs. California

Dec. 23 – 5 p.m. PT

ESPN

These two teams played Oregon at Autzen in back-to-back weeks, with the Ducks posting a 31-24 win over the Utes and drubbing Cal 42-3 in one of the worst losses ever for a team ranked in the top ten. When Cal lost, it lost in spectacularly ugly fashion, margins of 39, 27, 17 and 32 points. Utah has won eight straight bowl games including last year's blow out of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and has 58 wins in the last six seasons.

Pick: Utah

Rating: Worth a handful of Chex Mix

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl

Nevada vs. SMU

Dec. 24 – 5 p.m. PT

ESPN

Former Hawaii coach June Jones returns to Aloha Stadium with an SMU club that he has rapidly turned around. The Mustangs won just two games in 2007 and 2008—combined. This is SMU's first bowl game since NCAA sanctions shut down the program in the 1980s but it's far from a finished product in Dallas as the Mustangs had rather inexplicable losses to Washington State and Marshall. Nevada started the season at 0-3 including a shut out at Notre Dame that had some speculating Chris Ault was on the hot seat in Reno. Nevada is simply loaded on offense and piled up points, scoring 63 on UNLV, 70 on Idaho, 62 on San Jose State and 63 on New Mexico State. Colin Kaepernick threw for 1,700 yards and ran for another 1,000 with Luke Lipincott and Vai Taua both rushing for more than 1,000 yards as well.

Pick: Nevada

Rating: It's Christmas Eve. Just a pretzel.

Disclaimer: I've got no relationship with General Mills or Chex Mix. I'm just having fun here. If you can't have a sense of humor about things, read someone else's drivel.