"DE-FENSE!"

For millions of Americans, the holiday season isn’t only a magical time because of the standard stocking stuffers and gingerbread houses, but also because it means college football bowl season is here (!!!!).

Unless you’re a die-hard football fan or your team is playing in one of these games, you probably won’t have the time to tune into some of the smaller bowl games such as the Beef ‘O’ Bradys’ St. Petersburg Bowl (yup, this is an actual name of a bowl game). But for everyone else (and yes, I mean everyone – from the dedicated college football fan to the dedicated Saturday tailgater), the big bowl games are fun and exciting to watch.

Here is a quick guide to the biggest bowl games this season, and the deets you need to know while watching each. So grab a couple friends and a couple beers (optional) and park yourself on the couch. It’s time to go “bowling”!

Be honest, what else do you have to do over winter break?

Rose Bowl (January 1, 5:00 ET on ESPN)
Who: TCU Horned Frogs (3) v. Wisconsin Badgers (5)
What to know: The third-ranked Horned Frogs (intimidating right?) will take on the fifth-ranked Badgers in the Rose Bowl, the historical New Years day game held in Pasadena. TCU offense is led by quarterback Andy Dalton who is coming off a successful senior season, and their much-hyped defense is number one in the nation for holding their opponents to the fewest points. TCU will be playing with a lot of emotion; they finished the season undefeated and feel as though they should be playing for the national championship.

Wisconsin offense is led by quarterback Scott Tolzien and three standout running backs. Badger linemen Gabe Carimi and John Moffitt were just named all-American first team and will provide a note-worthy match up with the TCU defensive line.
Fun Facts: The Rosebowl is known as the ‘Granddaddy of Them All’ because it is the oldest and formerly most prestigious game… Wisconsin has scored over 70 points in three of its wins this season… This is the first ever Rosebowl for TCU.

Fiesta Bowl (January 1, 8:30 ET on EPSN)
Who: Connecticut Huskies v. Oklahoma Sooners (7)
What to know: This will be an emotionally charged game for both teams. Last season, UConn star Jasper Howard was tragically murdered on campus. Oklahoma will also come out fired up; they are 1-3 in their last four bowl appearances. The Huskies are the champions of the Big East, which is arguably one of the weakest conferences in the country. UConn tailback Jordan Todman is second in the nation in rushing and could be a key factor considering Oklahoma has struggled stopping runs this season. Oklahoma is coached by legendary Bob Stoops and their high-powered offense is led by sophomore QB Landry Jones, running back Demarco Murray, and receiver Ryan Broyles.
Fun Facts: Many analysts don’t think UConn’s 8-4 record (with two losses to inferior teams) merits them a spot in this game… Sooners are the heavy favorites.

Orange Bowl (January 3, 8:30 ET on ESPN)
Who: Stanford Cardinal (4) v. Virginia Tech Hokies (13)
What to know: This will be a battle between two hard-nosed football teams. Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh has taken Stanford from one of the worst teams in the Pac 10 to nearly playing for the National Championship. Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck was a Heisman trophy runner-up (award given to the best college football player in the country) and is expected to be the first pick in the NFL draft. In other news, sports journalists have way too much fun coming up with headlines that incorporate “Luck” or “Lucky.” Expect to hear play-on-words with this name inevitably before, during and after the game.

Virginia Tech suffered two tough losses in first two games of the season, but then rallied and have come back to win 11 straight. Keep an eye out for Ryan Williams, David Wilson and Darren Evans, the three dynamic running backs for the Hokies.
Fun Facts: ESPN’s Monday Night Football crew is calling the game… Stanford’s last bowl victory was in 1996 (in more relatable terms, the last time Stanford won a bowl game, Miley Cyrus was 4 years old!)… Ready to feel bad about yourself? Stanford’s Owen Marecic starts on both offense and defense and is a human biology major with a near perfect GPA… It is the Stanford Cardinal, not Cardinals (no ‘s’!)

Sugar Bowl (January 4, 8:30 ET, ESPN)
Who: Ohio State Buckeyes (6) v. Arkansas Razorbacks (8)
What to know: This game features two of college football’s most popular teams, two well respected coaches, two star quarterbacks, and will undoubtedly intensify the bitter rivalry between the Big 10 and the SEC. Look out for Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, the leader of the explosive Ohio State offense, to spend just as much time running the ball as he does passing it. Ohio State’s versatile offense may give them a slight advantage. Arkansas will rely on quarterback Ryan Mallet and running back Knile Davis, and will enjoy huge turnout of loyal fans who will travel to New Orleans for the game.
Fun Facts: Mallet began his college career at Michigan (Ohio State’s biggest rival) before transferring… Ohio State has a 0-9 record against SEC teams in the post season and such struggles have prompted claims of an “SEC curse.”

BCS National Championship Game (January 10, 8:30 ET on ESPN)
Who: Oregon Ducks (2) v. Auburn (1)
What to know: Both teams have high-powered offenses and this game is expected to be a quick-paced and high scoring one. Oregon is averaging 49.3 points per game and stars running back LaMichael James and receiver Jeff Maehl. Oregon defense is solid too and has recorded 20 interceptions this year. Heisman winner Cam Newton is the physical and moral leader for Auburn. Auburn defense has struggled defending against the passing game, and this weakness could be their downfall if it goes uncorrected.
Fun Facts: Neither team has played for the National Championship before… Auburn (then called Alabama Polytechnic Institute) was named national champion in 1957, but was ineligible to play in a bowl game… If the name Casey Matthews (Oregon lineman) sounds familiar, it’s because his grandfather, dad, and uncle have played in the NFL and his brother Clay is currently on the Green Bay Packers.

Our hats go off to the UConn women’s basketball team for winning their 89th consecutive game! This latest win makes these talented ladies the winningest team in NCAA basketball history, topping the 88-game winning streak set in the 1970s by the UCLA men’s basketball team.

It’s important to recognize an achievement this major, yet these girls are kicking butt, stealing records and getting very little media attention for it. This wining streak started a full two years ago and it’s taken that long to get any sort of national attention.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers says:

“…If it was the UConn men’s program, we would be talking about it every day, and that’s part of it. What [the UConn women are] doing is extraordinary and amazing.”

We agree, still, even after the team’s tremendous accomplishment, no one is talking about how the team is dripping with talented athletes, but rather how it is nothing like men’s basketball and shouldn’t be compared to it. Many sports writers feel that women’s basketball is far inferior to men’s basketball, asking whether the female team should even be compared to the UCLA men’s basketball team. They go on about how men and women are very different “just like apples and oranges” and blah blah blah, pointing out the differences between men’s and women’s basketball to make their point:

Men’s basketballs are larger (by around an inch), but are not heavier.
There is a 5 second rule if the defender gets within 6 feet for men and 3 feet for women. (Wouldn’t 3 feet be more difficult?).
Women have 30 seconds to hit the rim before giving up the ball while men have 35 seconds.
Men must be advanced past the half-court line within 10 seconds of getting the ball while women have no time limit.
“Men will always attempt to plow through things with athleticism and skill, while women tend to analyze a situation and come up with a response.” (Uh, is that really a difference in the actual sport? Or has someone been watching too many rom-coms?)

Nay sayers claim they aren’t being sexist, then turn around and call women’s basketball a joke. And it’s offensive. How is a talented women’s team winning 89 games against worthy opponents any different than a men’s team doing the same thing? Even if someone can claim that men are more aggressive, inherently stronger and faster than women, these women are still beating teams on the same skill level as them.

I could not even dream of doing what UConn has done and I’m confident in saying that neither could the sports writers who keep writing this kind of stuff.  I’m not sure who came up with this idea that men are better athletes than women but it’s a little outdated, don’t you think? The UConn women’s basketall team has proved itself, winning consecutive games for two years, and they deserve to be recognized and celebrated for all of their hard work.

Welcome back to

This week we deviate from our typical Rival Rundown in two ways. First, we’ll be covering a (women’s!) basketball rivalry, as the athletic calendar moves into a new season. Second, this rivalry–between the University of Connecticut and the University of Tennessee–has been canceled! Though lauded by Sports Illustrated as one of the most intense rivalries in any sport this decade, in 2007, officials at Tennessee mysteriously elected not to renew their contract to schedule any further seasonal games against UConn.  What makes this rivalry, apart from its shocking termination, unique? Read on to find out!

Quick Facts

UConn: Public land-grant research institution in Storrs, CT with 17,000 undergraduates. Founded in 1881.
Tennessee: Public research institution in Knoxville, TN with 21,000 undergraduates. Founded in 1794.

1. Women’s Basketball Record

UConn: 13-9
Tennessee: 9-13

Three credits to: UConn

2. Coaching Caché

UConn: In Geno Auriemma’s 24-year tenure as head coach of the Lady Huskies, he has transformed the team, which formerly had but one winning season, to 6-time national champions with three perfect seasons and 32 Big East conference titles.
Tennessee: Pat Summitt has been honored for many achievements in her 30-year career, most notably as the all-time winningest basketball coach–of either men or women–in NCAA history.

Three credits to: Tennessee. All-time winningest > three perfect seasons.

3. Fun Facts

UConn: In 2004, UConn became the first and only college to win NCAA titles in both men’s and women’s basketball in the same year.
Tennessee: Nicknamed the Volunteers (or Vols for short), the UT mascot references the state namesake and its historical tradition for residents’ volunteering for service in major American wars.

Three credits to:  UConn. Can your school top that?

4. Ass-Kicking Alumni

UConn: Meg Ryan (attended), Moby (attended),  Rebecca Lobo
Tennessee: Al Gore, Peyton Manning,  Pat Summitt

Three credits to:   Tennessee. Can’t argue with this one!

5. Acceptance Rate Agony

UConn: 54.5%
Tennessee: 64.8%

Three credits to:  UConn

And the diploma goes to: UConn squeaks by to win this rundown. Stay tuned through this season to see if these heated rivals will face one another in March Madness!

[Every week, CC and John bring you some of the weirdest, funniest, saddest things he hears on his college campus. Join the Overheard revolution!Leave your own overheard convos in the comments or send ‘em over!]

(Heard from physics students walking behind me.)
Guy 1: So the senior design engineer says, hey, that’s a mismatched transistor! The deficient fusion constants differed from the manufacturing!
(General laughter.)
Guy 2: Oh, naw, man, you told it wrong. You messed it up.

(From a reader: Two girls, talking earnestly in a shopping center.)
Girl 1: Yeah, I know, that’s like… the worst fish to be, if you were a fish.
Girl 2: Yeah, like I would never want to be that fish. Literally.

(Two guys on a bench.)
Guy 1: You can’t just push people over because they’re poor!
Guy 2: Why not? I think that’s a great reason!

(Guy, enthusiastically dancing.)
Guy: Wow! We save so much time by droppin’ G’s!

(Students arguing before a class.)
Girl: I mean… you can’t ignore it, Mark Hamill was the most important culture figure of the 1970s. He was like the president of culture.
Guy: He was more important than Mozart.

(Girl, lecturing guy.)
Girl: No, your parents can’t move to Japan. Your parents are both over six feet tall.

(Sociology class.)
Professor: Where does object value come from? Nowhere. We fetishize commodities. We lick telephones.
(The telephone rings.)
Professor: Hello? Hello. No, this is a class at UConn. Okay. Okay, Bye.
(Hangs up.)
Professor: Someone was looking for their dog named Mike.

(Two guys in the hallway.)
Guy: I’ve got my really boring friend coming over in ten minutes. Can I drink a bunch of your beer?

(Guy and girl talking.)
Girl: I feel fat.
Guy: Yeah, you’re fat. You’re so fat. You sleep with giants.

(Folks in the dining hall.)
Girl: Why do you keep socks in your pocket?
Guy: My mom always yelled at me whenever my socks fell out of my pocket.

(Girl and a guy arguing.)
Guy: C’mon. Been carrying the tension in my shoulders for weeks now.
Girl: No! I’m not giving you a back rub! Your shoulders aren’t hairy enough!

(Girl, holding out a fistful of dollars.)
Girl: I want some kind of spiced, roasted nut. I want some nuts. I want some hot, hot nuts.

Once you get past the fact that the NCAA Selection Committee made the mistake of not including some of the best teams that could have been this year’s Cinderella (Arizona State instead of St. Mary’s? come on), the board actually came up with a pretty good draw. And for the next 2 weeks, I will be fully immersing myself in the insanity and awesomeness that is the most exciting sporting event of the year: March Madness.

The best conference in the country (and maybe in history) is hands-down the Big East. 3 out of the 4 number 1 seeds are from the Big East: UConn, Louisville, and Pitt. Even Barack Obama believes in the dominance of this conference, since his bracket that he filled out on Wednesday (live on ESPN! what a cool prez) shows it filling half of his Elite Eight. Although Obama didn’t have our lovely school in his Final Four, Coach K isn’t worried.

And he shouldn’t be worried either. Thursday was the big first day of the NCAA tournament, and the big seeds shined just like they were predicted to. During lunch I heard the big news of #1-seeded UNC ripping Radford to shreds in the South, winning 101-58 (42 points too many, in my opinion). The other #1-seeded UConn also came out with a deafening roar, with the Huskies winning 103-47 against Chattanooga. #2 Memphis (who I have going to the Final Four) won as well, and of course the almighty Blue Devils beat Binghamton (ha, no chance at all).

The upsets were few, but pretty significant. Both the #10′s beat both the #7′s: Maryland showed they earned their spot in the draw by crushing California, while Michigan just got by Clemson (serves them right for beating Duke once in a fluke). Editor’s Note: GO BLUE!

#12 Western Kentucky beat #5 Illinois in a shocker, which definitely messed some of my friend’s brackets up and led to some name-calling on FB statuses (but with a “hilltopper” as mascot, they’re kinda asking for it). #9 Texas A&M beat #8 Brigham Young, which was expected, but the one non-upset that got me most upset (because it ruined my otherwise perfect bracket) was #6 UCLA squeezing by #11 VA Commonwealth! The score was 65-64, in a real nail-biter of a game (seriously, you should see my nails).

Oh well, 15 out of 16 – that ain’t bad. Watching the madness ensue on our flat-screen tv in the common room – that ain’t bad. Having Super G on our team – that’s the total opposite of bad. Now, if only Ty Lawson from UNC never comes back from sitting-out due to his injury…well, that’ll just be the icing on the cake.

In 2008′s least shocking expose, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution dredged the sweat-stained pit of college academics and came up with, essentially, a national “dumb jock” joke.

Hating on athletes is pretty standard practice for the squishy intellectual set, probably because we’ve got a few bones to pick about getting stuffed in lockers and picked last for dodgeball. (As an aside, has anyone actually been stuffed into a locker in the past thirty years? The jocks these days just steal our iPods.)

But, whether we hear it from major newspapers or the bottom of locker no. 104, the news is the same: at the corner of college athletics and college admissions, something is gravely ill.

At the University of Georgia, the average football SAT was 949, which is 239 points behind the average for an undergraduate student at Georgia — and 79 points behind Tech’s football average. The Bulldogs’ average high school GPA was 2.77, or 45th out of 53 teams for which football GPAs were available. Their SAT average ranked them 22nd.

Nationwide, coaches who would never offer a scholarship to a player who was 6 inches shorter or half a second slower than other prospects routinely recruit players whose standardized test scores suggest they’re at a competitive disadvantage in the classroom.

For every school that had football and men’s basketball SAT data available, team members averaged hundreds of points lower than the general student body. And the best average football SAT score in the nation – 1058 at Georgia Tech – would barely be acceptable in your average liberal arts school candidate.

So what’s the problem here? Sure, UConn’s basketball department loved to rep 3.8-toting hoops star Emeka Okafor, but it’s silly to expect the average college athelete to devote the same level of energy to their schoolwork as a more mundane student, right? High-profile athletics takes passion, dedication and time, and if college teams want to compete, they have to make sacrifices.

But this begs the question: why do colleges want to compete so badly? Obvious answer – big athletics equals big money (UConn knows about that, too). Money can translate into high-profile academic gains, and so the admittance of lower-scoring students might just be a pill colleges have to swallow.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t really help the diligent students who get shoved out of their first-pick school because another, academically inferior candidate happened to have a good passing arm. And arguing that minority athletes tend to graduate more often than non-minority athletes, as Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt insists, doesn’t hold any water – honestly, what message does that send to minority students? You can succeed in the biased, loaded world of mainstream academia, but only if you Be Like Mike?

And what do those sacrifices mean for the college world as a whole? Ultimately, I don’t think lowering academic standards to boost athletic ones is a fair trade for the American educational system. The former president of the University of Florida complains that “We go out on the field and get beaten by people we couldn’t admit.” Well, as Americans, we’re gonna go out into the world and get beaten by the people we wouldn’t admit – bright, creative, well-educated individuals who would have found their college spots taken by athletes, and entire departments of geniuses who got their funding cut because they couldn’t sell Gatorade.

Athletics can’t be responsible for our national brain drain alone, but they’re sure not helping.

I dunno. Am I pulling a Merlin, complaining pointlessly about “games-mania”? Is this just the dodgeball welts talking? I’m not hating on athletics, and I’m sure that the average college philosophy (or my very own English, even) department isn’t very useful on the world stage, either. But with numbers like these coming out – though I know that SATs can be way off the mark – is it time for a cultural re-focusing? Help me out, here.