Gildan New Mexico Bowl, December 17, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN
What it is: Literally the biggest sporting event of the year in New Mexico. And the return of COLLEGE FOOTBALL for a few more weeks.
The Sponsor: They make the blank shirts that screenprinters and others use. There is no way I'm creative enough to make that up.
The Teams: Temple and Wyoming
How Temple got here: With Steve Addazio as head coach, believe it or not. Only one of the Owls' four losses was by more than four points, and that includes a showdown with Penn State early in the season. And Temple won a road game against a BCS team -- to the extent that Maryland this year qualifies as a BCS team. The passing offense wasn't much (stop me if you've heard that somewhere before), but the running game was actually quite good; seventh in the nation, churning out almost 257 yards a game. And the defense was actually very stout by MAC standards.
How Wyoming got here: A very strong argument could be made for dumb luck. The Cowboys beat Weber State by three in one of the two FCS games they played this year; Bowling Green by one; San Diego State by three; and Colorado State by three. Losing three of those four games would have knocked Wyoming out of the ranks of bowl-eligible teams, and they would have had a hard time getting there as a six-win team if they had split them. Wyoming also has a solid rushing offense and a bad rushing defense, so there's a better-than-even chance we're done with this game in two and a half hours.
College football fans care because: COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK AGAIN. And it has MACtion.
SEC fans care because: Florida fans can reminisce about when their offense was just bad, as opposed to appallingly atrocious. The rest of us can always laugh if Addazio does something stupid.
Watch this game if...: You really can't resist watching one of the last few times that college football will be on the air this year.
The result: Temple 28, Wyoming 14