Over a month after winning the national championship, I've got to admit, it's still something that crosses my mind on a daily basis. I've watched the replay five or six times and it's still a constant talking point among friends. I ran into two friends last night (one Alabama fan and one LSU fan) that I haven't seen since before January 9th and the game accounted for about 75% of the conversation. In one recent discussion of the game, it occurred to me that my dad has experienced nine national championship as an adult. Anybody reading this site would certainly have a minimum memory of two (though I suppose there could be new fans that didn't really care in 2009), quite a few will remember three and a lot of you will have memories of four or more. I thought it'd be interesting to see how many national championships you all actually remember us winning when it happened. Feel free to chime in with your favorite one of the bunch below.

01: Einstürzende Neubauten - "Lets Do It A Dada"

02: TV on the Radio - "Shout Me Out"

03: Rodrigo y Gabriela - "Savitri"

04: Skrillex - "With You, Friends (Long Drive)"

05: Bassnectar - "Cozza Frenzy"

06: PJ Harvey - "No Girl So Sweet"

07: Phish - "Kill Devil Falls"

08: John Adams - "Nixon in China: News Has a Kind of Mystery"

09: DeVotchKa - "Sunshine"

10: Einstürzende Neubauten - "Wo Sind Meine Schuhe?"

Asking which championship you prefer is kind of like asking if your left lung or right lung is your favorite, but I think it's still a fun question to pose. There are a lot of pros for both, which we will briefly look at below:

2009: This championship has a lot going for it in terms of history. It was Alabama's first national championship in 17 years, which needless to say went a long way in restoring dignity and stability to a program that had gone through two sex scandals, four losing seasons, general mediocrity and had seen a revolving door installed in the head coach's office since 1992. Another big plus to the 2009 championship is that we finally got a win against Texas. We're still a dismal 1-7-1 against them all-time, but we won it when it really mattered.

Another big plus for 2009? Mark Ingram winning the Heisman Trophy. We've all been guilty of saying "We don't care about the Heisman at Alabama, we care about national championships." While I've said that many times myself, and ultimately believe it to be true, we all cared A LOT about him winning that trophy. I know I did, as did the bar full of Alabama fans where I watched that erupted when Ingram's name was announced from the podium.

Last, and certainly not least, it's that we went undefeated. 14-0. SEC Championship. National Championship. We had dramatic wins over rivals Tennessee and Auburn that required blocked kicks and last second heroics. We finally defeated Tebow and did it in a thoroughly convincing fashion. It was also our first appearance in the Rose Bowl since the 1945 season. We were finally able to truly sing, "Remember the Rose Bowl we'll win..."

2011: It's funny what a difference a couple of years can make. By the start of the 2011, Nick Saban had the program firing on all cylinders. The team was 36-5 in the last three years and had a national championship, conference championship and two division titles under its belt. We'd gone from wandering in the desert under Shula, Franchione and DuBose to being led into the promised land by Nick Saban. At the 2009 championship celebration Saban famously uttered, "This is not the end. This is the beginning." It was a great thing to say at a victory celebration and while we all knew the potential was there for it to be true, we couldn't say for certain that it would ever prove to be true in terms of actually winning another championship.

Despite an early season QB controversy, things looked bright early on when sophomore QB AJ McCarron led the team to victory in a massive first road test as a starter against Penn State in Happy Valley. A really solid Arkansas was thoroughly dismantled in the SEC opener and the blowouts just kept on coming with a 28 point victory over Florida in The Swamp, a shutout of Vanderbilt (aided by some early season footAIDS) and an absolute humiliation of Ole Miss. Despite a sluggish first half against Tennessee, the 31 point margin of victory is what will be remembered when this season is looked back upon by future generations. And then came THAT game. A defensive grind in Tuscaloosa between the #1 and #2 teams in the country. It ended 6-6 in regulation. A disastrous overtime possession later and Alabama falls from #2 after losing 9-6 at home in overtime to now #1 LSU. The team that dismantled anyone and everyone was now on the outside looking in. "Damn. It's going to be the best one loss, no trophy winning team ever," a lot of people said.

And then the unthinkable happened: undefeated teams started dropping like flies: Oregon, Stanford, Boise State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State. We were granted a new lease on life largely in part to disastrous place kicking. We became fans for a day of Texas Tech, Oregon, USC, Iowa State, Baylor, TCU and others. Alabama didn't sit idly by and mope after the loss. They kept churning out wins: a lackluster win on the road at Mississippi State avoided a hangover loss and a struggle with I-AA Georgia Southern and their triple option set things up for us to go into Auburn with one loss. Alabama absolutely dominated on The Plains, but Auburn hung around longer than they should have due to a kickoff returned for a TD and another easy TD off of an Alabama turnover deep in Crimson Tide territory. In the end though, Alabama blew them out of the water and retribution was theirs for the 2010 loss and the "NEVER AGAIN" motto rang true.

Through a dramatic string of losses and extremely nerve-wracking voting process regarding the various polls that factor into the BCS formula, Alabama was selected as the #2 team in the country and would face LSU for the BCS national championship in New Orleans. We had to endure all sorts of garbage from the media: "Does Alabama belong since they already played LSU?" Other fans cried foul and cursed the SEC. Mike Gundy acted like a spoiled child instead of with the dignity of a millionaire leading an emerging BCS power. The backlash against Alabama saw Trent Richardson's Heisman hopes dashed. He was leading in the polls and then he was a distant third after Alabama was chosen over Oklahoma State to play LSU.

So, while the 2011 season wasn't as perfect and storybook as 2009, it had way more drama about whether we would even be in the game or not...and when we were selected, we had to endure insult after insult about being selected. The team answered in the best fashion imaginable: a resounding 21-0 beatdown of the #1 and only undefeated team in the country. We had our redemption, we shushed the naysayers.

Lastly, and certainly not least, never has a football season held such importance for the state of Alabama given the events of April 27th. Hundreds of Alabamians (and 50+ from Tuscaloosa alone) lost their lives that day. The state was battered, bloodied and limping and it seemed as if things would never be normal again. Even taking the field on September 3rd against Kent State went a long way towards normalizing life in Alabama again. Football was back, things would get better.

2011 was all about redemption. Losing against LSU and never giving up. Clawing your way back into position to win. And of course, having a city and a state whose spirits were down lifted by a bunch of guys playing a game. Mother Nature may have won the battle that day in April, but our spirits as a people certainly won the war. January 9th was merely our victory party as a people, something the people of New Orleans sadly understand all too well themselves.

Two championships, two compelling stories. Which was more satisfying for you?

You know the rules: iPod, iTunes, Zune, WinAmp, etc...put it on random and list the first 10 things that pop up. Happy Friday and see some of y'all in Tuscaloosa tomorrow.

Enjoy the greatest interview ever, skip the weird unplugged version of the song and then watch what it's supposed to sound like in the video below this one:

01: Soundgarden - "Fell on Black Days"
02: Sonic Youth - "Kissability"
03: St. Vincent - "Apocalypse Song
04: Woven Hand - "Ain't No Sunshine"
05: The Lemonheads - "Left for Dead"
06: Ladytron - "Tomorrow"
07: Steve Reich - "Music for 18 Musicians"
08: PJ Harvey - "A Perfect Day Elise"
09: Chris Thile & Michael Daves - "Your Running Wild"
10: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "The Mercy Seat"

We were into The Alabama Shakes back when they played at Egan's.

As we near the one year anniversary of the horrific tornadoes that ripped through Alabama on April 27, 2011 it's important to remember that there is still much work to be done in getting the impacted areas back on their feet. A drive down 15th Street in Tuscaloosa (and other parts of the city) is a sober reminder that we still have a long way to go. Thankfully, the good folks at WellThatsCool.com and The Tuscaloosa Arts Council recognize that the need is still great and have sprung into action to create a spectacular event that will hopefully raise a trainload of cash to build a Habitat for Humanity house and let you have a heck of a good time in the process. (For those of you unaware, Well That's Cool is run by RBR's very own Chinese Dentist...aka @bohicks, gameday bartender at Egan's and overall Tuscaloosa entertainment guru.)

TUSCALOOSA GET UP is a charity concert that will take place at the historic Bama Theatre in Tuscaloosa on Friday, March 23rd and will feature musicians from across the state:

The Dexateens from Tuscaloosa are a well known force of nature to anyone who spent their college years at The Capstone (and far beyond Tuscaloosa for that matter)

Alabama Shakes from Athens are on a meteoric rise to fame garnering accolades from nearly every critic, publication and blog in 2011 and many have tapped them as "one to watch" in 2012. Basically, you'll be paying big bucks to see them sooner than later.

Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires from Birmingham round out the bill with their soulful Southern rock.

Tickets for the all ages event are $15 or $50 for a VIP ticket. Those can be purchased HERE.

Doubtlessly, many of you are sitting there at your computer saying, "Well Nico, that does look like a rocking good time, but I live in California (or Chicago or _______ place that isn't close to Tuscaloosa) and can't realistically make that show." No worries friends, you can participate in this event too. While you may not be able to come to the show and have your eardrums pummeled, you can still help TUSCALOOSA GET UP by making a fully tax-deductible donation to help make "The House that Music Built" a reality. The goal is to raise $15,000. We have so many readers at RBR that we ought to be able to meet that ourselves. If 1,500 of you give $10 we can make it a reality today. If 3,000 of you can pony up $5, it can be done in no time flat. Seriously y'all, let's light this thing up and meet the goal. Do it in celebration of the national championship if nothing else. Let's make that tornado's ass quit and rebuild!

You can make a tax deductible donation to the even HERE. If you can't make a donation, please retweet this or reblog or post it on Facebook or email it around to get the word out.

ROLL TIDE and we'll see y'all on March 23rd.

The annual Big East vs. ACC yawn-fest. Vote on who you think will win and chime in with why.

Hectic day, real life, etc. Enjoy the open thread and chime in with comments about who you chose and why. Will get the RBR vote record up at some point.

Here's what we'll hear from the announcers all night: Andrew Luck is amazing, Oklahoma State got screwed. Yawn.

Go Trees. If Iowa State can do it, anybody can.

Two incredibly potent offfenses will clash in this year's Rose Bowl. Oregon is 3rd nationally in scoring and Wisconsin is 5th. The two take incredibly different approaches though. Wisconsin is the prototype corn-fed bunch of Midwestern bruisers and Oregon utilizes undersized speedsters so it'll be interesting to see these two contrasting styles clash. I'd say Oregon's two losses are more respectable (LSU and USC) as opposed to Wisconsin's losses to Michigan State and Ohio State. We know the offenses are thoroughly talented so this is likely to come down to which defense can better slow the other down.

Most years, people would be looking forward to this game like few others. A few short years ago, this was the national championship game. Now it's two teams mired in mediocrity and controversy. Ohio State is reeling from the late departure of Jim Tressel who "resigned" in May after being caught red handed for habitually lying to the NCAA. Florida is reeling from the mess left by Urban Meyer who resigned and then changed his mind to coach one more year only to resign again. Meyer took one whole year off before surfacing again to be announced as the new head coach of Ohio State. They really deserve each other and I hope they both fail miserably. We got this thread up a bit late so we'll allow you to place your vote during the first 20 minutes or so of the game.

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 10-5 (.667) (at least when these were typed up)

Oklahoma did their normal bed poop despite the really high preseason expectations. Losing to Oklahoma State and Baylor were acceptable, but Texas Tech? Iowa lost to Iowa State and Minnesota, which is incredibly pathetic. I imagine the Sooners roll, unless Big Game Bob lives up to his name.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 10-5 (.667)

Finally, an SEC bowl game. I mark the beginning of true bowl season with the first SEC bowl game and it's finally here. Mississippi State had a rough year this year despite their going to a bowl game. Their two conference wins were Ole Miss and Kentucky, which I'm pretty sure just about any FBS school could manage and then they beat up on a bunch of also rans from non-AQ conferences. Wake Forest actually beat some teams with a pulse and finished up with a winning conference record and beat a ranked team along the way. That being said, WF is in the ACC so that might not mean all that much.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 10-4 (.714)

Oklahoma State. Lolz.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 10-4 (.714)

This is likely to be another game with a gaudy final scoreline (not as gaudy as Baylor vs Washington, but gaudy.) Tulsa finished the regular season 8-4 with their losses coming to Oklahoma, Boise State, Oklahoma State and Houston. There's certainly no shame in any of those losses, though they were beaten pretty soundly in all of them. Despite all of the hype surrounding Houston, Tulsa was still in a position to win their division on the last day of the regular season as the two teams squared off in a contest of conference undefeateds. BYU is in their first year of their experiment as an independent. Though they've put together a 9-3 record, it's come against pretty weak competition. Tulsa is a two point favorite.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 8-4 (.667)

Whoah! What is this we have here? Two teams with winning records in their conference? Unreal. Never thought I'd see it based on the first ten days or so of bowl season. And let's not forget the Robert Griffin III love-fest we'll hear tonight. Mark Ingram and Cam N**ton both broke the bowl curse that often hangs over the teams of Heisman winners. Can RG3 keep the streak going? This will be interesting if for no other reason than that.

Considering how bad Washington was under Ty Willingham (0-12 in his last season) the fact that Steve Sarkisian has put them in bowl games in back to back years after a barely sub-.500 first year speaks volumes to his turnaround of the Washington program. Can Baylor come out and play and not believe the hype that they're somehow super special for going 9-3? (Even if they are Baylor.) Vote and chime in with your reasons below.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 8-4 (.750)

The bowl might not be epic and the current teams might not be elite, but at least we're finally getting to a place in bowl season where the names are top notch. Florida State was a sexy early season pick to be in national title contention, but that came to a grinding halt after they dropped three of their first five games. They righted the ship eventually though and won six of their last seven including a win over archrival Florida to finish the regular season. They're fourth in the nation in scoring defense only allowing 15.2 points per contest. Lou Holtz was, of course, touting the virtues of Notre Dame football on TV last night and more or less guaranteed that they'd win, which of course means Florida State should have this in the bag. Florida State is a 3.5 point favorite.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 7-4 (.636)

Running kind of behind today so I'm not going to go into any detail here. I'm pretty much just getting the graphics up so y'all can vote. Two teams with identical records both overall and in-conference. Neither have any impressive wins. Cal beat a 7-5 Utah and a 6-6 Arizona State whereas Texas beat 6-6 Texas A&M and 6-6 Iowa State. They had a common opponent (UCLA) that Texas beat and Cal lost to. They both got slaughtered by a couple of teams. Vote and chime in with your rationale below.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 6-4 (.600)

8-4 (7-1) 2nd MAC West

Military Bowl RFK Stadium Washington, DC 3:30 pm CST TV: ESPN

7-5 (3-4) 5th Mountain West

Combined, these two teams are averaging about 77 points a game and are allowing about 58 points per game. If the averages hold up we ought to see a final scoreline in the range of 38-29. So, I hope you hate defense. Toledo's offense has been insanely prolific. Their four losses came at the hands of Ohio State, Boise State, Syracuse and eventual MAC Champion Northern Illinois. Boise is the only one that blew them out of the water, so that's a pretty respectable set of losses for a MAC squad. So respectable in fact that Illinois poached Toledo's head coach and will be led in the bowl game by offensive coordinator turned interim head coach turned head coach Matt Campbell. Air Force beat a whole lot of nobody on the way to a 7-5 record and fifth place Mountain West finish including two FCS teams. Toledo is a 3.5 point favorite.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 6-3 (.667)

7-5 (5-2) T-1st Big East

Belk Bowl Bank of America Stadium Charlotte, NC 7:00 pm CST TV: ESPN

7-5 (4-4) 4th ACC Atlantic

Though Louisville is playing in the lowly Belk Bowl on a Tuesday night in December, they're Big East Co-champions along with Cincinnati and West Virginia. All three of those teams finished 5-2 in conference and had 1-1 records against each other so West Virginia proceeded to the BCS as the highest ranked among them (per Big East tiebreaker rules) while the other two went to play in bowls more appropriate for Big East teams. Louisville started the season off badly going 2-4 and losing to the likes of Florida International and Marshall (Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl represent!) they managed to turn it where they went 5-1 over the last half of the season. Their offense isn't very good, but the defense has help opponents to an average of 19.2 points per game and that's what's allowed them to hang around and be conference co-champions. Their worst loss was by 9 points to Cincinnati. Their best win was against West Virginia.

NC State, on the other hand had their heads handed to them a couple of times courtesy of Cincinnati and Florida State (they lost by 30 and 34 respectively.) Despite losing Russell Wilson to Wisconsin, QB Mike Glennon has stepped in and thrown 28 TD passes this season (though he's also tossed 11 INTs.) Statistically speaking, NC State is pretty middle of the pack in major offensive and defensive categories save rushing where they're a dismal 107th. The Wolfpack's best win was over Clemson. NC State is a 1.5 point favorite.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 5-3 (.625)

7-5 (5-3) 3rd MAC West

Little Caesar's Bowl Ford Field Detroit, MI 3:30 pm CST TV: ESPN

6-6 (4-4) 3rd Big Ten Leaders

This game is every SEC fan's nightmare: a middle of the pack Big Ten team against a middle of the pack MAC team. When looking at the two teams' overall statistics, the one that stands out the most is that Western Michigan scores a lot of points (35.6 ppg.) Their offense is pass heavy to say the least as they rank 8th in the nation in passing yards per game and 86th in rushing yards per game. Despite all of the yardage through the air and all of the points, the Broncos didn't manage to beat anybody with a pulse. Six of their seven wins came against teams with losing records (including I-AA Nicholls State). Their best win came against 6-6 Ball State. Western Michigan has lost six straight games to Big Ten opponents.

Purdue put together a decent record by recent Purdue standards this season. They finished .500 overall and in conference play and even managed to beat Ohio State. Sure, beating the Buckeyes this year isn't like beating them in recent years, but you know Ohio State has more talent and should win just by showing up and beating them is no small accomplishment for a team like Purdue. Statistically speaking, Purdue is pretty middle of the road though they have a slightly above average rushing attack and a slightly below average passing attack. Purdue is a three point favorite.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 4-3.

7-5 (5-4) 5th Big XII

Independence Bowl Independence Stadium Shreveport, LA 4:00 pm CST TV: ESPN2

7-5 (3-5) 4th ACC Coastal

I hate the Big XII with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns and would normally cheer for North Carolina in this contest, but Missouri briefly helped put the Big XII Conference's existence in jeopardy, so I've got to pull for them in this one. No guarantees on this in the future though seeing as I love watching our rivals fail miserably (6-6 Florida, back to back losing seasons for Tennessee lol.) That being said, I hope Missouri wins eleventy bajillion to zero and chants "SEC! SEC ! SEC!" all night despite me hating that chant.

My irrational hatreds aside, neither team has done anything particularly impressive, unless you count beating Iowa State as impressive (ZING!) North Carolina beat four BCS conference teams that are bowl bound and Missouri beat three. Aside from an early season loss to Arizona State, every team Missouri lost to had at least nine wins, so they've at least been measured against solid(ish) competition. I'm going to give Missouri the edge here as they actually have a head coach and are looking to impress their new conference whereas North Carolina is looking ahead to their future under Larry Fedora and is probably a bit unorganized. Additionally, Missouri finished with three straight wins and North Carolina has stumbled badly in the final half of the season.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

7-5 (5-2) 3rd WAC

Hawaii Bowl Aloha Stadium Honolulu, HI 7:00 pm CST TV: ESPN

11-2 (6-2) C-USA Champion

ed. We invited Southern Miss fan and friend of RBR Landon Howell to do the write-up for tonight's Hawaii Bowl. Hope you all are enjoying time with family & friends and days off of work.

Thanks to Nico for inviting me to scribble in your space. You can find me on Twitter @landonhowell.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

11-1 (6-1) 2nd Mountain West #7

Las Vegas Bowl Sam Boyd Stadium Las Vegas, NV 7:00 pm CST TV: ESPN

6-6 (4-5) 4th Pac-12 South

Not gonna lie, it must suck to be Boise State (and by extension a Boise State fan.) Win all of your games and you get to be in the homecoming court, lose one game and you're relegated to playing a .500 Pac-12 team on a Thursday night. But hey, Thursdays are what they do in Boise so maybe it's better this way. With the way undefeated teams were dropping off during November, all Boise had to do was continue to beat up on their 99.5% cupcake schedule and things would sort themselves out. A poorly kicked 39 yard field goal attempt put Boise in Las Vegas in December rather than New Orleans in January. Be prepared for this to be a Kellen Moore lovefest on the broadcast. Moore is the winningest QB in college football history and there's not a whole lot of interesting story line surrounding 6-6 Arizona State other than the fact that they let dead man walking Dennis Erickson coach the game.

Current Bowl Records by Conference:

10-2 (7-0) Mountain West Champion #18

Poinsettia Bowl Qualcomm Stadium San Diego, CA 7:00 pm CST TV: ESPN

8-4 (6-1) WAC Champion

This is the first game of the bowl season to pit two conference champions against each other. It's also the first bowl game to feature a ranked team.

What an odd year for TCU. A year after going 13-0 with a Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin as the cherry on top, an Andy Dalton-less TCU figured to suffer a bit of a dip, but here they are again as Mountain West champions. Their annual tough game against Utah was replaced by their annual tough game against Boise State and they came out on top once again undefeated in conference play. Their two losses included a dramatic, close loss to Baylor (who turned out to be not so bad themselves) and an overtime loss to SMU that included one of the year's best coaching meltdowns. TCU was slated to head to the Big East after this season, but once Texas A&M and Missouri defected from the Big XII to the SEC, the Big XII came a courtin' to Ft. Worth and snagged the Horned Frogs for themselves. TCU would've likely run roughshod over the Big East, but will now likely find themselves suffering the same growing pains as Utah experienced in the Pac-12 this year.

TCU scores a lot of points (41.7 per game) and their defense allows around 21 points per game, meaning they blow a lot of teams out of the water. Besides their loss to Hawai'i, Louisiana Tech's other three losses are games that you would expect a WAC team to lose even if they are the WAC champion: Mississippi State, Houston, and Southern Miss. They took Mississippi State to overtime and lost by two to Southern Miss. Even high octane Houston only scraped out a 35-34 victory that required a 21-0 fourth quarter to finally put the Bulldogs away. Credit Louisiana Tech for not giving up on the season and going on to win the WAC seeing as they were 1-4 after their first five games. Going on a 7-0 run after a start like that is certainly commendable. La Tech's defense holds opponents to an average of 22.5 points per game, so the two defenses in this contest have performed similarly. The Bulldog offense isn't nearly as potent though as it manages around 30 points per game and is only the 70th best rushing team in the country. TCU is a 10.5 point favorite, the largest margin we've seen in any bowl game so far.

Okay, so the Panda Bear album either scared everyone to death or nobody feels like talking music. Regardless, we press on. Next up is one of my favorite bands, TV on the Radio, who you may know from their previous work of being my avatar:

Back in 2006, they had a successful single with the track WOLF LIKE ME, which is one of the finer rock tracks of the decade. They've been in a constant state of evolution since then changing and refining their sound. The walls of noise and swirling static has been replaced by a quieter, more focused songwriting (like in "Will Do") that is still just weird enough to where you're constantly discovering new things in it, but is tighter and more focused enough to where even people that don't like this kind of music might actually find themselves liking it. It's not all mellow though, they still show that they have plenty of fire on tracks like "Repetition." This is one that took a bit of time to grow on me, but now it's one I return to constantly. Now on to the music...

"WILL DO"

"REPETITION"

"CAFFEINATED CONCIOUSNESS"

"SECOND SONG"

8-4 (5-3) 4th Sun Belt

Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl Tropicana Field St. Petersburg, FL 7:00 pm CST TV: ESPN

6-6 (5-3) 2nd C-USA East

Here's a fun fact about the participants of the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl: both of these teams beat Louisville (gotta love that Big East auto bid.) In Florida International's case, it was easily their best win of the year. Marshall, however, also knocked off 11-2 Southern Miss who they finished behind in the C-USA East. FIU is a four point favorite in this contest (what's gotten into you Sun Belt?). FIU AD Pete Garcia has the money quote leading up to this game:

"At 8-4, we don't only have the best record in FIU history, we have the best record in the state of Florida."

Enjoy that amazing LOL for a minute. Sure, they're playing crappy Sun Belt teams, but they have a better record than Florida, FSU and Miami. Times is good to be an FIU fan. Enjoy it while you can y'all.

Oddly enough, FIU has the 16th best scoring defense in the country with their defense giving up 19.4 points per game. Their four losses were to the three teams ahead of them in the Sun Belt (Arkansas State, Western Kentucky and Louisiana-Lafayette) and Duke. It's a minor miracle Marshall is in a bowl period. They needed an overtime win over East Carolina to get bowl eligible in their last game. Statistically, they aren't very good: 74th in passing offense, 92nd in rushing offense, 98th scoring offense and 84th scoring defense. 6-6 is good enough for a bowl these days though, so there you go.

We of course love football here at RBR, but if you've spent more than five minutes around here you've also figured out that we listen to a ton of music and talk about it a lot too. In addition to writing up previews of all 34 non-Bama bowl games, I'm going to spend a brief bit of time letting you all know about some of my favorite albums of 2011 over the next 10 days or so. I'll probably put up one or two of these a day so you can sample a wide variety of what 2011 had to offer up musically. First up, Panda Bear's Tomboy.

There's almost no way on earth this album could live up to the expectations people had for it. Noah Lennox has maintained a stellar career both as a solo artist (as Panda Bear) and as one of the driving forces behind Animal Collective. His previous solo album, Person Pitch, was ranked by Pitchfork as the #9 album of the decade ranging from 2000-2009 and the last Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavillion, came in at #14 on that same list. No pressure Noah, no pressure at all.

The album encapsulates so many moods that it's tempting to just put YouTube clips of all 11 tracks on here and let you sort through them for yourself. Songs range from the hypnotically and gloriously repetitious "everything and the kitchen sink" aesthetic of "Slow Motion" to the churning minimalism of "Alsatian Darn" to the cathedral hymn-esque "Benfica" to the tripped out "Friendship Bracelet."

And for those of you that ask, no, not all of these selections will be this "weird," but this guy is our contemporary version of Brian Wilson and these are the "Pet Sounds" of today. In the near future people will appreciate these even more than they do now. On to a couple of tracks....

"Slow Motion"

"Alsatian Darn"

"Benfica"

"Friendship Bracelet"

8-4 (4-3) 4th Mountain West

New Orleans Bowl Superdome New Orleans, LA 8:00 pm CST TV: ESPN

8-4 (6-2) 3rd Sun Belt

San Diego State and Louisiana-Lafayette both come into this game with 8-4 records. SDSU has the nation's 28th ranked rushing attack with just under 200 yards per game. Ronnie Hillman, their featured back has averaged 138 yards per game this year and has rushed for 19 touchdowns. They're pretty much middle of the pack in passing yards, scoring offense and scoring defense. Louisiana-Lafayette comes into the game with the 32nd ranked scoring offense at 32.3 points per game despite having the 86th ranked rushing offense and the 40th ranked passing offense. Their defense isn't too stellar either in that they allow nearly 30 points per game. SDSU is a six point favorite and you'd think it would be greater if this weren't essentially a home game for Louisiana-Lafayette.

This is the last game of the weekend. The next game will be Florida International vs. Marshall on Tuesday the 20th.

9-4 (6-2) 1st MAC East

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Bronco Stadium Boise, Idaho 4:30 pm CST TV: ESPN

7-5 (5-2) 2nd WAC

After Utah State nearly upset Auburn in their season opener, I imagine most Bama fans will be voting the Aggies with this one despite them only being a one point favorite. Ohio finished second in the MAC after losing the conference title game to Northern Illinois by a score of 23-20. Ohio's best win was over Temple. As mentioned before, Utah State nearly got one of the upsets of the year after losing at the last minute to Auburn in Auburn. The Aggies completely slaughtered Wyoming 63-19 for their best win. Utah State has a strong ground game, a weak air attack and a middling defense. Ohio's offense is more balanced and their defense stronger, but it looks like everyone likes the WAC #2 over the MAC #2.