Previewing The BCS Games, Part One: The Orange Bowl

As most of you will agree, this is probably one of the worst BCS games in the history of the system.  The only people who will watch it are Bearcat fans, Hokie fans, and college football fanatics.  As I have learned from Lisa Horne's article, some tickets for this game are selling at one dollar.  Impressive.

This match-up pits Big East powerhouse Cincinnati (11-2) up against ACC Champion Virginia Tech (9-4).  If the BCS didn't have tie-ins, this game would most likely be Texas Tech (11-1) against Boise State (12-0), which I must admit, would be a very interesting match-up.  However, due to conference tie-ins, we are stuck with this boring game.

If anyone can make lemonade out of oranges, they would be considered Bearcat or Hokie fans.  Now that we're done talking about how bad this game is, let's get to the actual game.

Cincinnati has had very impressive wins over Pittsburgh and West Virginia, and narrowly escaped powerhouse Hawaii in their final game of the season.  They were also completely destroyed by Connecticut and Oklahoma.  Cincinnati plays in the amazingly awful conference of the Big East, where they are all overrated and don't really play football.

Virginia Tech had impressive wins over North Carolina, Georgia Tech, and Boston College in the ACC Championship game.  They were defeated by East Carolina, Boston College, Florida State, and Miami (FL).

Virginia Tech, between three quarterbacks, has a total of 6 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.  Basically, all this team is able to do is run the ball, and play decent defense.  That's how they win games.  I expect that they will again try to run the ball and play good defense in this match-up against the Bearcats.

Cincinnati, on the other hand, is a more balanced team who runs and passes well. Between three quarterbacks, they have 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, which is pretty impressive compared to Virginia Tech.  Cincinnati also has a very dangerous weapon, wide receiver Marshwan Gilyard.  He has 74 receptions and 10 receiving touchdowns, and in my opinion is by far their best weapon and the X-Factor in this game.

Now, to put it all together:

Rushing: Virginia Tech gets a slight edge.

Passing: Cincinnati gets the edge.

Receiving: Cincinnati gets the edge.

Defense: Virginia Tech gets the edge.

Special Teams: Virginia Tech gets the edge.

Coaching: I was going to say Beamer Ball, but its really close between the two so I'll go with a tie here.

Scoring Ability: Cincinnati gets the edge.

There we go.  According to the stats and who has the edge, Cincinnati holds a slight lead over Virginia Tech.  Now, let's check my prediction.

Prediction: Cincinnati 31, Virginia Tech 16.

And there you have it.  Stay tuned for Part Two-The Sugar Bowl!