Ranking the non-playoff New Year’s Six games by watchability
The 2018 New Year’s Six is out in the fold. What games should you be watching?
With the most of the bowl games filled and slated, it’s time to take a look at the whole field and not just the Playoff games. New Year’s Day, and the days leading up to it, once again look terrific. The New Year’s Six has all the spotlight again, led by two premier Playoff semifinal matchups. But, what about the rest of the bunch?
The other four games in this year’s New Year’s Six don’t look too shabby, either. The Cotton Bowl has two blue bloods of the sport. The Peach Bowl has an upstart team looking to finish unbeaten against a powerhouse from the SEC. The Fiesta Bowl pits a solid Pac-12 team against one from the Big Ten with one of the most electrifying players in the sport. And the Orange Bowl sees the Big Ten runner-up against the hometown team.
All in all, you can’t get much more exciting than that given the scope of things. It’s really a pretty stout slate from top to bottom. What games should you be watching, though? (Besides all of them.
Of course, you’ll watch all of them) Here are our rankings on watchability.
4. Orange Bowl
Why You Should Watch: The Miami Hurricanes are back in the Orange Bowl. The ‘Canes last played in the event back on January 1, 2004. To say it’s been a while would be underselling it. To put it in perspective, the following teams have played in the Orange Bowl since Miami’s last appearance:
- Penn State
- Louisville
- Wake Forest
- Kansas
- Cincinnati
- Iowa
- Georgia Tech (2x)
- Northern Illinois
- Mississippi State
- Stanford
- West Virginia
Clemson has made multiple appearances, as has Oklahoma, Florida State and Virginia Tech, among many others. It’s been a long time, and Miami fans will finally be able to celebrate the fact that their team is playing on New Year’s Day. Plus: The Turnover Chain! It might be handed out a lot due to shaky QB play on the other side of the ball. It’s a distinct possibility that we’ll see the chain and see it often.
The Hurricanes have to face Wisconsin in Miami. The Badgers have made playing on New Year’s Day almost an annual expectancy. The Big Ten runner-ups have a stout defense and a great run game, as always. Jonathan Taylor is one of the best freshman running backs in the entire country, not just the Big Ten. Plus, where are you going to find two mascots like Sebastian and Bucky?
Why It’s Ranked Here: Both Miami and Wisconsin fell short of their goals, as they were each runner ups in their conference title games. The Hurricanes have certainly been a lot of fun this year. But, Wisconsin sometimes can be a chore to watch. Alex Hornibrook is a solid quarterback, but this won’t be quite the QB duel between he and Malik Rosier. No disrespect or anything. It’s just there are better matchups above.