Belk Bowl Preview

Matchup: Louisville vs NC State. Bowl organizers should hope the versions of these teams from the second half of the season show up. If its the first half versions, this will be the worst bowl game of the season. Both teams were awful in September, bad in October and legit in November.

Matchup Pedigree: Hmmm. NC State is on the underachievers list with its in-state rival North Carolina. The Wolfpack should be better than it is most years. Louisville, despite its power conference foray in the Big East of the last few years was left out of the new power structure (no way the Big East is retaining a BCS bid with Syracuse, West Virginia and Pittsburgh gone). What's left is what was always there for Louisville: one of the leaders of the mid-major All-Stars.

Locale: Pretty good. Charlotte is a growing city and the stadium is nice NFL fare. No headlines to be grabbed, but no insults to be lobbed either.

Entertainment Value: Yikes. These teams are built on defense. Nobody watches bowl games before the BCS for defensive struggles.

Corporate Nonsense: Egads!What the heck is Belk doing sponsoring a nationally televised bowl game. Now those of us who don't live in the South have something else to mock since we can't actually go to a Belk store. For the rest of you, Belk is still mockable because it is one of the worst department stores in existence. For that matter, what is Belk thinking sponsoring any sporting event? Its audience (upscale department store that skews more female) and the bowl game audience (men who don't want to be seen in a department store) just don't mix. Other than the game being played down the street from HQ, there is no good reason for this (then again, this game, while in a decent place with some decent matchups over the years has always had odd corporate sponsorship such as Continental Tires and Meineke Car Care).

Bowl Pedigree: Underwhelming. This game is stuck with a middling ACC vs middling Big East tie in every year. It works regionally, but nobody outside of the Carolinas and Virginias ever cares.

Game Prediction: I can explain why Louisville improved (it fired offensive coordinator Mike Sanford in season). I have no idea why NC State improved (other than getting to play Clemson in its annual meltdown game). Given that, go with the teams that;s improvement can be explained.

Louisville 24, NC State 17

Should you watch: If you've followed my advice to avoid the last few bowl games, YES. If not, I can't help you anyway, but you people really should get a life. The last week other than a couple of games has been a steaming pile of dung.