 8-4 (5-3) 2nd MAC East |
GILDAN NEW MEXICO BOWL University Stadium Albuquerque, New Mexico 1:00pm CST TV: ESPN |
 8-4 (5-2) 3rd Mountain West |
The first of 35 bowl games between today and the BCS championship game on January 9th starts shortly. We'll do a brief rundown and pick 'em poll for every game.
The Owls and Cowboys come into this contest with identical 8-4 records, though it's hard to gauge much merely by looking at their schedules. On the whole, it looks like Wyoming played a tougher slate, but they were absolutely blown out of the water by Nebraska, Utah State and Boise State and had a respectable loss to TCU. Their best win was against 8-4 San Diego State. Temple on the other hand had their head handed to them by Toledo, but lost close to Penn State, Bowling Green, and Ohio. Temple's best win was against 6-6 Ball State. Temple clearly played weak competition, but they have the 7th best rushing attack in the country amassing 256 yard per game on the ground. Their passing attack is a dismal 117th and their defense is holding teams to an average of 14 points per game. Wyoming is basically middle of the pack in everything except for rushing, where they rank a respectable 32nd with 185 yards per game. Temple comes into the game a seven point favorite. If Wyoming can't stop the Owls on the ground, it could get ugly as Temple won big in seven of their eight victories.