Bowl picks: Holy Toledo, what a finish

Beyond Golf — 29 December 2014 by Bob Sherwin

There’s a lot of drama left in the football season, from the NFL playoffs to the National Championship Game Jan. 12, but they have to go a long way to match the excitement generated in the golferswest.com bowl game prediction competition.

Kirby Arnold, seemingly out of the running 10 games ago when he trailed leader Jim Street by four games, has won all three games that he differed from The Street. He now trails Jim by just one game with two games remaining. Street is at 22-15 while Arnold is 21-16.

And Kirby can tie for the championship Sunday night. Arnold has picked Arkansas State in the GoDaddy Bowl while Street has Toledo. They both picked Oregon to win the national title. Toledo may be carrying the championship trophy onto the field.

However, there’s more.

Bob Sherwin also needed to run the table on the games he differed from Jim this past week. Thus far, he has. He picked both Ohio State and UCLA upsets to also pull within one game of Jim at 21-16. Also, Bob has a different selection in each of the final two games from Jim. He had Arkansas State and Ohio State.

Bob can win it all, but he can’t lose again. Jim now becomes the Rocket Man, as he simply needs Toledo to win Sunday night to claim the prestigious title.

(bold face CAP=winner)

Bob (21-17 Jim (23-15) Kirby (21-17)

R+L Carriers New Orleans/Dec. 20 LA-LAFAYETTE Nevada LA-LAFAYETTE

Gildan New Mexico/Dec. 20 UTAH ST. UTAH ST. UTAH ST.

Royal Purple Las Vegas/Dec. 20 Colo. St. UTAH UTAH

Famous Idaho Potato/Dec. 20 AIR FORCE AIR FORCE W. Mich.

Raycom Camellia/Dec. 20 B. GREEN B.GREEN B. GREEN

Miami Beach/Dec. 22 BYU MEMPHIS MEMPHIS

Boca Raton/Dec. 23 MARSHALL MARSHALL N. Illinois

San Diego County CU Poinsettia/Dec. 23 S.D. St. NAVY S.D. St.

Popeyes Bahamas/Dec. 24 W. KENTUCKY W. KENTUCKY C. Mich.

Hawaii/Dec. 24 Fresno RICE RICE

Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas/Dec. 26 LA. TECH LA. TECH LA. TECH

Quick Lane/Dec. 26 RUTGERS N. Carolina N. Carolina

Bitcoin St. Petersburg/Dec. 26 UCF UCF UCF (N.C. ST.)

Military/Dec. 27 Cincy Cincy Cincy (VA. TECH)

New Era Pinstripe/Dec. 27 BC BC BC (PENN ST.)

Duck Commander Independence/Dec. 27 Miami S. CAROLINA S. CAROLINA

Hyundai Sun/Dec. 27 ASU ASU ASU

National University Holiday/Dec. 27 USC USC USC

AutoZone Liberty/Dec. 29 W. Va. W. Va. TEXAS A&M

Russell Athletic/Dec. 29 CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSON

AdvoCare V100 Texas/Dec. 29 ARKANSAS ARKANSAS ARKANSAS

Franklin Am-Music City/Dec. 30 LSU LSU LSU (ND)

Belk/Dec. 30 GEORGIA GEORGIA GEORGIA

Foster Farms/Dec. 30 STANFORD STANFORD STANFORD

Chick-fil-A Peach/Dec. 31 TCU TCU TCU

VIZIO Fiesta/Dec. 31 Arizona Arizona Arizona (BOISE ST.)

Capital One Orange/Dec. 31 Miss. St. Miss. St. Miss. St. (GA. TECH)

Outback/Jan. 1 WISCONSIN Auburn Auburn

Goodyear Cotton/Jan. 1 Baylor MICH. ST. Baylor

Buffalo Wings Citrus/Jan.1 MISSOURI MISSOURI MISSOURI

Rose/Jan. 1 OREGON OREGON OREGON

Allstate Sugar/Jan. 1 OHIO ST. Alabama Alabama

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces/Jan. 2 HOUSTON HOUSTON HOUSTON

TaxSlayer/Jan. 2 Iowa Iowa TENNESSEE

Valero Alamo/Jan. 2 UCLA Kansas St. Kansas St.

TicketCity Cactus/Jan. 2 Wash. Wash. Wash. (OKLA. ST.)

Birmingham/Jan. 3 E. Carolina E. Carolina FLORIDA

Go Daddy.com/Jan. 4 Arkansas St. TOLEDO Arkansas St.

National Championship/Jan. 12 Ohio St. Oregon Oregon

About Author

Bob Sherwin

Bob grew up in Cleveland, an underdog city with perennial underdog teams, and that gave him an appreciation and an affinity for the grinders in golf, guys such as Rocco Mediate, Jhonattan Vegas and star-crossed John Daly. This is the 53rd year for Bob as a sportswriter, the first 34 working for newspapers throughout the west, Tucson (Daily Star), San Francisco (Examiner) and Seattle (Times), and the past 19 years as a freelancer. He has covered just about every sport, including golf tournaments, Tucson Open, Bing Crosby/AT&T Pro-Am, the 1998 PGA Championship, the 2010 U.S. Senior Open, the 2010 U.S. Amateur the 2015 U.S. Open and the annual Champions Tour Boeing Classic. He also writes articles for Cascade Golfer Magazine and Destination Golfer. For most of his 20 years at the Seattle Times his primary beat was the Mariners. He then picked up Washington men's basketball in the winter. He also was the beat writer for the Sonics, including 1996 when they played the Bulls for the NBA title. After a lifetime hacking on public courses, he finally gave in and joined a country club in 2011, Aldarra near Seattle. Despite (or perhaps because) of his 14 handicap, he won the 'Super Senior'' (65 and older) championship in 2017. He has a pair of aces – 37 years apart – and in 2009 came agonizingly close to his ultimate golf goal of scoring in the 70s when he finished with an even 80. He lives in Seattle.