Poinsettia Bowl 2008: The Best of the Rest

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
(9) Boise State (12-0) v. (11) TCU (10-2)
8:00 PM ET, December 23, 2008
Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, CA

The strangest sponsor in modern bowl history

San Diego County Credit Union sponsors the second and youngest of SD’s bowl games. Even more odd is the fact that SDCCU has sponsored the game from its inception in 2005. The origins of the SDCCU, as posted on the organization’s website:

“Originally chartered in 1938 as San Diego County Employees Credit Union, SDCCU® was formed to provide for the financial needs of local county government employees. During the 1970's, SDCCU expanded its membership to include all San Diegans and today, is open to everyone living or working in San Diego, Riverside and Orange Counties.”

The rationale the not-for-profit, member-owned institution gives from sponsoring a bowl game: being connected to the San Diego Community and supporting causes close to its members. Personally, I would have thought that credit union members might enjoy it more if they got an additional 0.25% knocked of their mortgage interest rate, but hey, maybe people really just would rather have you sponsor a bowl game instead. Go figure.

Why this Bowl is ill-conceived

It’s not. The game has a tie-in with the Pac-10 for the sixth place team in 2009, and would have had the seventh Pac-10 team if only the conference could have mustered more than 5 bowl-eligible teams this year. On the other hand, they did get Boise State instead. Good tradeoff for fans I’d say. Only other potential criticism of the game is that it is the second bowl within a week in San Diego. I doubt this will be a problem. The Holiday Bowl is one the best non-New Year’s Day or Post-New Year’s Day Bowl Games around. The SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl provides a great opportunity to add a second-tier bowl to the city, which usually has great Southern California weather around Christmas time. And while the game will generally be a second-tier bowl, in the opinion of this blogger we’ve got the best matchup outside the BCS this year in this one.

Will this be a Bowl in 2009-2010?

Yes. Especially if they can get #9 and #11 every year. Last year’s game between Utah and Navy also cement this one as one of the better low-level bowl games.

Why this matchup should never be played

Absolutely no reason on earth. In fact, I’d rather watch these two teams duke it out in Tempe on January 5 in the Fiesta Bowl. Much more interesting that watching another overrated Ohio State team get destroyed by a much better, more talented team from outside the Rust Belt.

Why this will be a great game

Boise State is attempting to go undefeated from the second time in the last three seasons. TCU lost twice, but those losses were both against teams in BCS games, and both came on the road (at Oklahoma in September – TCU kept the margin closer than anyone else all year outside of Texas and Oklahoma State; and at Utah, 13-10, on November 6). And TCU beat BYU down 32-7 late in the year. TCU’s defense allowed an average of 10.9 points per game this year, and the Horned Frogs come in with a very balanced attack, averaging 215 rushing yards and just a hair over 200 yards passing per game.

On the Boise side, Kellen Moore’s success as a freshman quarterback deserves far more attention that it’s gotten to date. I’ll stick my neck out on this one and say that Chris Petersen has his program rolling just as well as any other top 10 program in the nation. Now, obviously, BSU has different player pools to recruit from than the Floridas and the Oklahomas, but nonetheless, they’ve compiled a real impressive record the past three years, and with a freshman throwing for 25 TD’s and 3,264 yards, look to be in great shape for the next few years (no wonder Petersen wouldn’t consider leaving BSU for UW). And remember Ian Johnson tearing up Oklahoma’s D in Tempe two years ago? Well, he’s still around as well. Plus, the Bronco defense allows a massive 12.3 points per game.

An Informed Prediction Certain to be Incorrect

This one’s a tough one to pick. TCU played much tougher competition throughout the course of the season, but BSU did beat down Oregon on the road at Autzen. Really, what we’ve got in this one is two teams who deserved much better out of the bowl system. And for advocates of a playoff, myself included, any system would HAVE to be designed to let both of these two teams into the action. With that said, I think coaching makes the difference in this one. Chris Petersen will get to the point where he could have any job in the world of college football should he want it. There are good reasons for that. Petersen’s coaching pushes the Broncos over the finish line in a classic clash of would-be titans. Boise State 30, TCU 28.