Penn State Nittany Lions vs Texas A&M Aggies, Alamo Bowl, San Antonio, TX

Penn St. -5.5
I marked this game as a 5-star in my mind when they released the Bowl Schedule. Nothing has occurred to make me change my mind. There are some suspensions on the PSU team that could influence the game, but at the end of the day the reasons I liked PSU from the get-go haven’t changed so neither has the ranking of this game. No team seems to prepare as well as Penn St., and as there is something to be said for being there before; PSU has certainly been there before. A&M meanwhile is not going to be retaining their staff so there isn’t much to be played for on the Aggies side of things. I am going big on the Lions.

New England Patriots @ New York Giants

Giants +13
This is the last game that New England can F up and still be considered great. After this, any loss will put New England in the same category of 30 other teams, losers. That is going to make the Pats a little more tight than they may usually be, which isn’t very tight at all. But at this level, all factors count. The Giants on the other hand lose nothing by losing this game and that should allow them to approach the game without their usual tightness. I do believe this game will be well played by both teams and the Patriots haven’t been covering lines of late. I am not loving the Giants, because I know the Giants. But I do like them enough to put 3-stars on them..

Isn’t it amazing how Boston and New York seem to play each other in epic games? The truth is, Red Sox – Yankees is so big and has been so hyped that it just seems like these two cities’ teams are always meeting up. That doesn’t do much to quell the marketing-conspiracy theorists out there. But if the leagues are actually able to orchestrate the best possible Marketing game, then my hats off to them, because that would be damn tough to pull off.