BCS Bowl Predictions: Which BCS Bowl Is Most Likely to Go Completely Off-Script?

College football bowl games are some of the trickiest sports events to try to forecast because there are simply so many different variables that go into a bowl game.

It’s impossible to predict how a team’s attitude, effort and preparation will affect their ultimate performance in the postseason, but usually when you’re dealing with upper-echelon teams in BCS bowls, the games are less about whether or not the teams will be emotionally invested in the bowl or not, and more about how the two teams ultimately match up on the field.

This year’s five BCS bowl games are all shaping up to be entertaining affairs.

In the BCS National Championship Game, we of course have the rematch of the “Game of the Century” between LSU and Alabama. In the first meeting of the season between these two teams, we saw an all-out defensive slug-fest, as the two offenses, mainly the quarterbacks, struggled to handle the ferocity and the overall speed of each opposing defense.

The low-scoring 9-6 result that we saw in the first game is why many folks around the country have been grumbling about the rematch, but you have to believe that there probably won’t just be a touchdown scored in this one, there should actually be a few, and the chances of seeing another single-digit showdown aren’t exactly all that great.

If you happen to be a fan of offensive football, and you’re worried about seeing a largely defensive showdown in the championship game, have no fear, there's expected to be plenty of offensive output in the other four BCS bowl games.

In the Sugar Bowl, you’ve got two two teams that a lot of people aren’t really all that thrilled to see in a BCS bowl game—Michigan and Virginia Tech, but this one actually has the chance to be a lot of fun, if Michigan QB Denard Robinson and Virginia Tech QB Logan Thomas, two early 2012 Heisman contenders, can both bring their A-games.

In the Orange Bowl, you’ve got two more of college football’s budding star quarterbacks, Clemson’s Tajh Boyd and West Virginia’s Geno Smith, who will be leading two potentially explosive offenses in what should turn out to be a high-scoring offensive duel.

High-scoring offensive duels are exactly what everyone is expecting in both the Rose Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl.

Out in Pasadena, there will be the backfield tag-team match between Oregon QB Darron Thomas and RB LaMichael James against Wisconsin QB Russell Wilson and RB Montee Ball.

Both the Badgers and the Ducks rank in the Top 10 nationally in scoring offense, and you would have to expect that the scoreboard operator will be busy all game long on Jan. 2.

The Fiesta Bowl is shaping up to be the biggest offensive showdown of them all, though, as we’ll get to see two of the top quarterbacks in college football, Stanford’s Andrew Luck and Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden, battle it out in the desert.

Las Vegas has installed an over/under of 74 for the Weeden-Luck showdown in the Fiesta Bowl and an over/under of 72 for the Thomas-James vs. Wilson-Ball tag-team battle, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of those games actually turns out to be a little more low-scoring than people are anticipating.

You’ve got four respectable defenses that for a month will have heard all about how they’re going to get carved up on the big stage, and something tells me that you’re going to see the defenses in the Rose Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl actually step up and play with some pride.

While I doubt we’ll see a “Game of the Century” field-goal type of battle in each game, I will say that I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if neither of the four teams cracks over 30 points.