Warren Evans, late friend, author, long-time travel guru for UVA fans, would be the man about town for Virginia Football’s 2025 bowl opponent: Missouri, Warren’s alma mater, in the Gator Bowl, on Saturday, Dec. 27.
Warren is one of a handful of people who I know was in the gym for the Virginia-Chaminade game.
Eight readers are popping at me mentioning ol’ Warren, god rest his soul.
The Gator Bowl is sponsored by TaxSlayer, a software company that hawks its wares to tax preparers.
The game is played in Jacksonville, which is in Florida, but the northernmost part.
First tier: win enough games to get into a bowl.
Second tier: win enough games to get into a bowl below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Third tier: win enough games to get a bowl in Florida.
Have to admit, I’m jealous that Georgia Tech, which lost three of its last four in the regular season to finish out of the ACC title race, gets the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando, against BYU.
Orlando is in Central Florida, so, south of Jacksonville, and it’s home to, among others, my sports-radio buddy, Mark Moses, whose stops on the radio dial included a stint in Charlottesville years ago.
Orlando, being south of Jacksonville, is also warmer than Jacksonville; an average high on Dec. 27 of 71 there, vs. 65 in Jacksonville.
Not to mention: you win the Pop-Tarts Bowl, you get to share a giant Pop-Tart with your teammates.
Win the Taxslayer Bowl, and you have to use your free software swag to do your parents’ taxes, like you’re in comm school, which, you’re not, though you should be.
Missouri (8-4, 4-4 SEC), for its part, is a fine opponent; played Oklahoma and Alabama, two CFP teams, tough in losses.
But Georgia Tech gets a BYU team that was just on the outside looking in as far as getting its own CFP berth, with an 11-2 record, both of its losses to Big 12 champ Texas Tech, which is in the CFP field.
ICYMI
Notre Dame snubbed: It wasn’t Miami, but rather Alabama, that took their spot
Who I’m also jealous of: obviously, JMU (12-1), the Sun Belt champ who was ranked 24th in the final CFP Top 25, but got a playoff bid because it won the Sun Belt, a joke of a conference, but a conference-in-good-standing nonetheless.
JMU’s bid earns the Sun Belt a $4 million payment from the CFP’s billion-dollar TV deal, which, when you divide it up, won’t do anything to keep JMU from fleecing its students for the privilege of going to a school that has an FBS program.
The JMU fanbase doesn’t even seem to care much about the CFP thing – officially, attendance for the Sun Belt title game, played at the 24,877-seat Bridgeforth Stadium on Friday night, was 19,836, but the TV shots showed a good bit more than 5,000 empties.
The coach, Bob Chesney, doesn’t appear to care much, either – Chesney is leaving for the job at UCLA once the playoff run is said and done.
JMU, seeded 11th in the 2025 CFP, is a 21.5-point road ‘dog at #6 seed Oregon in their Saturday, Dec. 20, first-round playoff game.
But hey, they’re there, where we all wanted Virginia (10-3), which finished 19th in the final CFP Top 25, but didn’t get an invite because of the 27-20 OT loss to Duke in last night’s ACC title game, to be.
Such is life.
ICYMI
Mistakes, early, late, doom Virginia, in 27-20 loss to Duke in ACC title game
Duke 27, ‘Hoos 20: Cardiac Cavs rally, force OT, but Duke scores, seals game with INT
Miami (10-2) snagged the last at-large CFP bid, as the 10th seed; the ‘Canes are four-point underdogs for their first-round playoff game at #7 seed Texas A&M (11-1).
The other ACC team in the final CFP Top 25 is the aforementioned Georgia Tech (9-3).
Duke (8-5), the ACC champ, was left out of the CFP – not good news for ACC Commish Jim Phillips there, that we played an ACC title game with a team that, in winning, kept us from getting a second playoff spot.
Gotta fix that, among many other things, there, Jimmy.
Duke is in the Wednesday, Dec. 31, Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, set to face Arizona State (8-4) from the Big 12.
The winner there gets, I sh*t you not, a Frosted Flakes bath.
Bowl games involving other teams of local/regional interest:
ODU (9-3) faces Jacksonville State (8-5) in the StaffDNA Cure Bowl. Curious about StaffDNA: those folks “connect healthcare professionals to the right jobs and healthcare organizations to the best candidates.”
How about that Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl between Penn State, preseason #2 nationally, and Clemson, preseason #4? It’s 6-6 vs. 7-5 now, but still.
Both Virginia and Virginia Tech played in multiple Independence Bowl games back when the Independence Bowl seemed to mean a little something. This year: it’s Coastal Carolina (6-6) vs. Louisiana Tech (7-5). Game sponsor: Radiance Technologies, which “provides space solutions and warfighter support to DoD and NASA customers.”
I’m joyed that Virginia didn’t get sent back to Charlotte for its bowl game. Nothing against Charlotte, which I enjoyed over the past several days, but, been there, done that. Plus: the ACC team in the game, Wake Forest (8-4), is stuck playing a 5-7 Mississippi State Plus: the bowl sponsor is Duke’s Mayo. (I hate mayonnaise.) And: the winning coach gets dunked by an oversized tub of mayo. Which is among my Top 3 Nightmares.
Did I mention: bowl games are stupid and pointless?
‘Hoos, knocked out of CFP, get invite to Gator Bowl
