Bowls: There are a lot of them. As a public service, the Doc is here to rank each game according to five crucial criteria, with help from the patron saint of the game in question. Today: The GoDaddy.com Bowl! Teams. Miami (Ohio) RedHawks (9-4) vs. Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (6-6).
Particulars. Today, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Favorite: Middle Tennessee (–2)
Patron Saint: Current Arkansas special teams coach John L. Smith, who personified the entrepreneurial spirit of the game in 2002 (when it was still known as the GMAC Bowl) by secretly accepting the head coaching job at Michigan State just hours before leading Louisville against Marshall. Word of their coach's impending departure spread throughout the Cardinal sideline as Marshall built a 17-0 lead in the first half, and broke on national television at halftime. The Herd went on to win, 38-15. "The whole sideline knew," said Louisville quarterback Dave Ragone. "I tried to put some water on the fire, but it was hard to regroup."
• Locale. Mobile's Ladd-Peebles Stadium opened in 1948, making it one of the few active bowl venues that existed prior to 1960. Bear Bryant's first game as Alabama head coach, a 13-3 loss to LSU in 1958, was in Mobile, and various local colleges and high schools come through every year for rivalry games and the like. But it didn't get its first permanent tenant until 2009, when the fledgling South Alabama football program got off the ground against a series of junior colleges and military academies. With no on-campus stadium in the works, the Jaguars will remain in Ladd-Peebles for the foreseeable future.
• Dec. 17: New Mexico Bowl
• Dec. 18: Humanitarian Bowl
• Dec. 18: New Orleans Bowl
• Dec. 21: Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl
• Dec. 22: Maaco Bowl Las Vegas
• Dec. 23: Poinsettia Bowl
• Dec. 24: Hawaii Bowl
• Dec. 26: Little Caesars Bowl
• Dec. 27: Independence Bowl
• Dec. 28: Champs Sports Bowl
• Dec. 29: Texas Bowl
• Dec. 29: Alamo Bowl
• Dec. 30: Pinstripe Bowl
• Dec. 30: Music City Bowl
• Dec. 30: Holiday Bowl
• Dec. 31: Sun Bowl
• Dec. 31: Liberty Bowl
• Dec. 31: Chick-Fil-A Bowl
• Tradition. The Mobile Alabama/GMAC Bowl was host to the final college games of both LaDainian Tomlinson (2000) and Ben Roethlisberger (2003) and has also featured DeAngelo Williams (2004), Dan LeFevour (2009) and a handful of other All-Americans over the last decade. But it will forever be remembered for Marshall's legendary, 64-61 shootout win over East Carolina in 2001, easily the highest-scoring bowl game in NCAA history. At the time, it was also the largest bowl comeback, with the Thundering Herd thundering back from a 38-8 deficit at the half to tie the game at 51 with seven seconds remaining in regulation – then blowing the extra point to win, sending it into overtime. It took two extra frames before ECU finally misfired with a field goal in the second OT, opening the door for the Herd to finish the shootout with the winning touchdown pass from Byron Leftwich to Josh Davis.
Yes, the teams combined for 125 points and 1,141 total yards – 576 of them via Letwich's right arm – but the defenses had their say: East Carolina's early lead was sparked by an interception return and a fumble return for the Pirates' first two touchdowns, and Marshall's counterpunch included a pair of pick-sixes in a 28-point third quarter.
• Swag. Depending on their multimedia abilities, players should be satisfied with one of the higher-end gifts of the postseason, a Nikon S70 touchscreen camera, which usually goes for about $300. There's also a watch and a leather luggage bag. And, you know, a commemorative football is nice, too.
• Sponsors, trophies and other ambiance. Television viewers should expect even more than the usual saturation of those ubiquitous GoDaddy.com ads, usually featuring NASCAR babe Danica Patrick and/or another of the Go Daddy Girls in a suggestive, pseudo porn scene that encourages viewers to visit the website to see the full, "banned" versions. Here they are. The only people who "banned" them from television work for the GoDaddy marketing team.
• This year's match-up. Miami-Middle Tennessee is one of three Sun Belt-MAC showdowns of this bowl season, and the Sun Belt took both of the first two in the New Orleans Bowl and the Little Caesars Bowl, respectively. Add the fact that the RedHawks are coming in with an interim coach, and you get the Blue Raiders as narrow favorites despite finishing a full three games back in the win-loss column.
At least Miami has a hook: The RedHawks finished the season on a five-game winning streak and took the MAC championship in dramatic fashion, sealing the title of Most Improved Team nationally from 2009 (1-11) to 2010 (9-4). Middle Tennessee, on the other hand, was only 5-3 in the Sun Belt, served as 1-11 Memphis' only victim of the season and only made it to 6-6 with a pair of one-point wins over Western Kentucky and Florida International down the stretch.
• Star power. Middle Tennessee quarterback Dwight Dasher, reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year after leading the Blue Raiders to the first 10-win season in SBC history in 2009, sat out the first four games of the season due to suspension and hasn't been much better since his return to the field: The Blue Raiders are just 4-4 with their would-be star in the starting lineup, and with 14 interceptions to just six touchdowns, Dasher closed his senior season as the least efficient passer in the conference among regular starters. Last year, he set a bowl record for quarterbacks with 201 yards rushing in a New Orleans Bowl win over Southern Miss, but if Dasher still qualifies as the "most dangerous player on the field," the distinction applies to both teams.
Final rating: out of five.
General rule of thumb: If it's a game you wouldn't consider watching on a random Tuesday night in October, it's a bad bowl game. At this point in the season, this is probably the worst.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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