Trevonics: The First Day of the Rest of the Season

By Trev Alberts
formerly of ESPN.com

Cease with the downwardly trending visitors, kid! There's new and improved football games to be had, now in a shiny exhibitional bowl format! Time to get back into the swing of things and bring the Trevonics to the next level, spreading my gospel of righteous prognosticating beatdowns to the world one marginally rated mid-week clash at a time. Bring in the festive scoreboard, now adorned with various nondenominational decorations commemorating the winter's seasonal holidays:

Season-to-date:
Straight Up: 85-32
Against the Spread: 64-50-2

Bowl Season:
Straight Up: 0-0
Against the Spread: 0-0-0-0

I added the extra zero there because I think the NCAA has added overtime losses to the scoring tables, just like the NHL. I'll have to look into it a little more, but I'll err to the side of caution. I don't want to be behind the times like when no one told me that "The OC" (Don't call it that-IO) wasn't cool anymore, but now it is, but not really.

Anyway, onto "the great-uncle-with-a-penchant-for-bookmaking-of-them-all", the first step on this most wonderful winter wagering festival, the....the....where the hell is that sponsor...













Wait. Really? COME ON! I mean, I know making fun of bowl sponsors is hack, but even Northern Illinois and TCU deserve a better sponsor than this. San Diego? There's like a million better ideas for sponsors than a fuddy-duddy credit union. They're not even a bank, although I'm not really sure what the difference is, but I'll leave my prejudice intact. Back to the subject at hand, here's a few sponsorship suggestions for next year's, next next year's, Poinsettia Bowl:

• Sycuan- San Diego's premier Indian hotel-casino. If you're going to be the first bowl game, why not remind everyone of the reason for the season?
• The U.S. Navy-If Army can have the HS All-American Leming Bowl, and the Armed Services already have a generally sponsored bowl, why not give a tip of the cap to the thousands of San Diego's resident seamen?
• Petco-They already have their name on the Padres' sweet MLB stadium, and you could even hold the game there!
• Pacific Life- I know they have the Emerald Bowl, but their logo is a whale! I can't think of a better mascot for a bowl game in "Sahn Diahgo".

Now for the pick: Northern Illinois (+12) vs. TCU (800et ESPN2)

The Germans have kicked off the season right with this deceptively complex opening line. At first look, I'm thinking that this will be a low scoring game, controlled on the ground, with a healthy dose of the Garrett Wolfe show. However, as EDSBS' Solon points out, TCU has stepped it up down the stretch with a wider, spread-tastic offense to complement their trademark stingy defense. The Horned Frogs are superb against the run, and well...that's what the Huskies do. To further thwart the contrarians out there, TCU has a spiffy pass D too, and they should considering the esprit de corps of the Mountain West. If I had Utah, BYU, and some crazy Nevada teams in my conference, I would run my ship the same way. But, my pick is still the Huskies for a few reasons. The first of which is Garrett Wolfe's last game, and he will be determined to put on a show. Secondly, I don't think even a team as stout as the Frogs have had to face a relentless ground attack from the likes of the Utes and UNLV. Lastly, you can't walk into this game assuming TCU is going to load up on Wolfe and not get burned. NIU has had about a month to cobble together a decent passing game to keep the heat out of the box. Outside of that, I still have to split the pick.

Trev's pick: Northern Illinois to cover, TCU to win.

Trev Alberts is not a professional bookmaker. He does, however, wager Pixy Stix with Bloo.