Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of  joining my Distant Replay’s long time customer, and good friend Hunt Archbold, at the Georgia Tech-Wake Forest football game.  He knows very much about sports, and that game was a good way of soaking in his knowledge.  Today I had the pleasure of sharing libations and College Bowl banter at one of his (and soon to be one of mine!) favorite watering holes, Mr. C’s in downtown Atlanta.  I knew I had to post a blog today about those very Bowls, and found Hunt’s insight inspiring.  So inspiring was his slanted angle on these games, that I decided to steal them for myself!!   So after a few spicy Bloody Mary’s, and a few shots of Patron, I cajoled Hunt into signing an imaginary “release,” wherein he agreed to allow me the use of his words, in which you are now about to enjoy.   So that’s enough of my yackin’ -  check out these pearls of wisdom:

Hi folks, Lil’ Grunt here. No rants about religion, war or politics this week. Just bowl winners so you can win your office pool and take home the big bucks. Don’t bother with the rationale concerning these guaranteed locks. Just have faith and understand that this is what I do, and I do it for you.

NEW MEXICO BOWL: Wyoming-Fresno State. Fresno and the surrounding area produces about 60 percent of the world’s raisins, and raisins keep you regular, right? PICK: Fresno State

ST. PETERSBURG BOWL: Central Florida-Rutgers. Two teams named Knights, but I’ll take the golden ones over those of scarlet, because frankly, I don’t give a damn. PICK: Central Florida

NEW ORLEANS BOWL: Middle Tennessee State-Southern Mississippi. Former Golden Eagle punter Ray Guy should be in the NFL Hall of Fame; plus, he won a Super Bowl with the Raiders at the Superdome. PICK: Southern Miss

LAS VEGAS BOWL: BYU-Oregon State. Old Brigham Young had 55 wives, about the same number of mistresses Tiger Woods has. PICK: Oregon State

POINSETTIA BOWL: Utah-California. My sweet little nephews live in San Diego. PICK: California

HAWAII BOWL: SMU-Nevada: Aloha, June Jones. Mustangs in a bowl for the first time in a quarter of a century. PICK: Nevada

LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA BOWL: Ohio-Marshall. We are Marshall, but they are Ohio, with the most haunted college campus in the country. Boo! PICK: Ohio

MEINEKE CAR CARE BOWL: North Carolina-Pittsburgh. Tar Heels found their mascot because some fullback in 1922 ran like a battering ram. But neither had a mustache. PICK: Pittsburgh

EMERALD BOWL: Boston College-USC. What a gem of a clunker this is. PICK: USC

MUSIC CITY BOWL: Kentucky-Clemson. Sure, they’ve got thoroughbreds, but did you know the Bluegrass State is also home to the highest per capita number of deer and turkey in the United States? PICK: Clemson

INDEPENDENCE BOWL: Texas A&M-Georgia. The first live, play-by-play broadcast of a college football game occurred at A&M’s Kyle Field in November 1921. PICK: Georgia

CHAMPS SPORTS BOWL: Wisconsin-Miami (Fla.). They say Paul Bunyan, who as an infant needed three storks to deliver him, is buried in Wisconsin’s Rib Mountain. PICK: Miami

HUMANITARIAN BOWL: Bowling Green-Idaho. The dude who back in the 1920s gave Bowling Green its nickname wrote: “Like the athlete, the falcon is a bird that goes through a long period of training before battle.” Sure, just like Michael Vick. PICK: Bowling Green

TEXAS BOWL: Navy-Missouri. Always liked Tim Conway (and Ernest

Borgnine) in “McHale’s Navy.” Dorf, not so much. PICK: Missouri

HOLIDAY BOWL: Nebraska-Arizona. Before they became the Cornhuskers, Nebraska used such nicknames as Bugeaters and Mankilling Mastodons. PICK: Arizona

ARMED FORCES BOWL: Air Force-Houston. Love me some Phi Slamma Jamma, but the name of this contest tells me the fix is in here. PICK: Air Force

SUN BOWL: Stanford-Oklahoma. Like Curly McLain sings, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.” There’ll be much sunlight in El Paso. PICK: Oklahoma

INSIGHT BOWL: Iowa State-Minnesota. The Golden Gophers are from the Big Ten, but the Love Boat’s Gopher (Fred Gandy) served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa. PICK: Iowa

CHICK FIL-A BOWL: Tennessee-Virginia Tech. It’s the Peach Bowl. And it always will be. PICK: Virginia Tech

OUTBACK BOWL: Northwestern-Auburn. Aubie is one of just three collegiate mascots in the Mascot Hall of Fame. Whee! Let’s roll Toomer’s Corner. PICK: Auburn

GATOR BOWL: Florida State-West Virginia. Gonna be some crying at this one for Bobby. PICK: Florida State

CAPITAL ONE BOWL: LSU-Penn State. Pete Maravich is still the men’s college basketball all-time Division I leading scorer with 3,667 points. And he only played three seasons and didn’t have benefit of a three-point line! PICK: Penn State

ROSE BOWL: Ohio State-Oregon. “Animal House” was filmed on UO’s campus. May I have 10,000 marbles please? PICK: Oregon

SUGAR BOWL: Cincinnati-Florida. Of the 18 documented fatal alligator attacks in the U.S. since 1948, 17 have occurred in Florida (and Tim Tebow cried for them all). PICK: Florida

INTERNATIONAL BOWL: Northern Illinois-South Florida. Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson and Krusty the Clown, is a UNI graduate. PICK: South Florida

PAPA JOHN’S BOWL: Connecticut-South Carolina. Connecticut has the highest per-capita income, Human Development Index and median household income in the country. PICK: South Carolina

COTTON BOWL: Mississippi-Oklahoma State. Archie Manning’s uniform number, 18, is the official speed limit on the Ole Miss campus. PICK: Oklahoma State

LIBERTY BOWL: Arkansas-East Carolina. The estimated population of 4 million feral hogs causes an estimated $800 million of property damage a year in the U.S. PICK: Arkansas

ALAMO BOWL: Michigan State-Texas Tech. The Alamo doesn’t have a basement. Can you say adobe? PICK: Texas Tech

FIESTA BOWL: Boise State-TCU. The “horn” of the horned frogs is a curious

triangular prolongation of the edge of the upper eyelid. It is not hard nor sharp, as it is only a flap of skin. PICK: TCU

ORANGE BOWL: Iowa-Georgia Tech. In 1855, Iowa became the first public university in the United States to admit men and women on an equal basis. PICK: Georgia Tech

GMAC BOWL: Troy-Central Michigan. Troy, Ala., is where I first tasted the mixture of vodka and Coke. Boy, was that bad. And so is this game, with Horns-Bama just a day away. PICK: Central Michigan

BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Texas-Alabama. According to the Nielsen Company, adults in Austin read and contribute to blogs more than those in any other U.S. metropolitan area. Wonder what they’d have to say about this? PICK: Texas

Happy times … and oh, wait, maybe I should’ve done these against the Vegas line, as well.