There are too many holiday haters out there. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, something else or none of those things, this is a great time of the year!

I love Christmas music, Christmas decorations, the Festival of Lights and everything associated with the post-Thanksgiving, pre-New Year’s excitement. Add into that loaded NBA schedules (including great Christmas Day games), college basketball and the start of bowl season, and you have yourself a great month.

There’s too much in this world that is worthy of being complained about, so this month we should all just try to relax, give thanks and enjoy what we have. That is, until our teams are playing in bowl games — then all bets are off.

Speaking of bowl games, here are your SDS Mailbag questions this week:

@Dobbe8:

What is the worst bowl game? My vote is for the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl, which is played on the CBS Sports Network in Tucson.

That’s definitely not an ideal bowl game to go to if you have literally any other options, but here’s how I’d rank the top five worst bowl games to go to:

  1. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl — Playing outside in Boise, Idaho, in December? No thank you.
  2. Quick Lane Bowl — A trip to Detroit to play in a domed stadium in front of what will surely be a lackluster crowd? Hard pass.
  3. NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl — It may be a weird bowl game at a less-than-ideal time, but at least Tucson is warm?
  4. Walk-On’s Independence Bowl — This is the bowl game Mizzou used to go to all the time. I’m sure Shreveport, La., is nice, but compared to the other bowl locations, I’d rather go almost anyplace else.
  5. Dollar General Bowl — No one wants to tell their grandkids they played in something called the “Dollar General Bowl.”

The coolest bowl, by far, is the Hawaii Bowl, and it’s no fair that Hawaii usually gets to play in it if the Rainbow Warriors are bowl-eligible. Spread the love, Hawaii!

BONUS: Dobbe nailed the Memphis -7 bet last weekend, but the blizzard in Pullman hurt him after he bet the over in the Apple Cup. This week, he tries to bounce back with some title-game picks (lines via MyBookie):

  • Northern Illinois vs. Buffalo (-4) — Buffalo has been putting up points and destroying teams all year.
  • UAB vs. Middle Tennessee (-1.5) — I keep winning on MTSU. They just got done stopping UAB, and they’ll do it again.
  • Alabama (-13.5) vs. Georgia — Bama hasn’t been challenged yet, and won’t be here. All of these three games will be blowouts.

Dobbe’s Locks season record: 11-8-1

Robert:

What was your most miserable gameday experience? Take into account game outcome, weather, personal injuries sustained, whether you were put into drunk jail, etc.

Robert here went to the Mizzou-Arkansas game last Friday, braving the cold, rainy conditions to watch Drew Lock and the Tigers rout the Razorbacks 38-0 in his final home game.

For me, I go back to my college days, when Mizzou was still in the Big 12, for my most miserable gameday experience. The date was Oct. 8, 2009, and quarterback Blaine Gabbert and my beloved Tigers were ranked No. 24 in the country and hosting No. 21 Nebraska — a team that had a star defensive lineman by the name of Ndamukong Suh.

It was a cold, rainy night, but the Tigers battled hard, carrying a 12-0 lead into the fourth quarter, making life a little easier for the soaked fans watching at Faurot Field. However, when Gabbert went down with a leg injury (courtesy of Suh), all hell broke loose.

An uninjured Blaine Gabbert. Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Much like this year’s collapse at South Carolina, the 2009 Tigers also had no clue how to handle the rain, watching Nebraska amass a ridiculous 27 fourth-quarter points (27!!!) en route to a demoralizing 27-12 victory.

Walking back to the dorms after that game was miserable, and I think it took me a few days to get completely dry. Oh, and the Tigers also lost their next two games, for good measure.

Thanks for making me relive that day, Robert.

(P.S. I was also supposed to go to the Cal-Stanford game a couple of weeks ago, but it got postponed because of smoke from the devastating wildfires in the area. That was not exactly a gameday experience, but it was still pretty miserable.)

@Topper_Fan:

Which SEC teams do you see heading into next season with momentum?

Obviously, this isn’t an easy question to answer without having seen how the bowl games go, but there are three teams that stand out to me (excluding Alabama and Georgia, both of which have become powerhouse programs and will have momentum no matter what happens in the next few weeks).

First is LSU. The Tigers blew expectations out of the water this year, and if not for a controversial seven-overtime loss to Texas A&M, they’d be playing in a bowl game with a chance at 11 wins. They get Joe Burrow back next year and are putting together a solid recruiting class, so look for Ed Orgeron and the Tigers to be a strong team once again in 2019.

Second, interestingly enough, is Texas A&M. The Aggies battled top teams well and picked up some big wins in Jimbo Fisher’s first year at the helm of the program. He has an elite recruiting class coming in and returns a number of key players, including QB Kellen Mond.

Last, but not least, is Florida. The Gators experienced a fantastic turnaround under Dan Mullen in his first year at the helm. Yes, they got thumped by Georgia, but no one expected them to be this good this early. There’s plenty to like about the way Mullen handled this year’s team.

(Tennessee also has plenty to be excited about, but the way the Vols ended the regular season is cause for concern, as is the change to a new offensive coordinator. Mizzou has momentum, too, but landing Clemson transfer QB Kelly Bryant needs to happen or the Tigers will have a big question mark at quarterback.)

@HagansAvenue:

If Alabama wins out, are they the best college football team ever? (Legit question, but also a jinx. Go Dawgs!)

The Crimson Tide has won every single game this year by at least three touchdowns, so that definitely puts them in the mix. I’m only 28, so I’m not qualified to speak on some of the teams of yesteryear (Nebraska’s dominant teams, the Notre Dame squads of legend, etc.), but I feel confident in saying this year’s Alabama team would mop the floor with any of those teams.

To me, they’re competing with a Miami team that went 12-0 in 2001. That team featured players like QB Ken Dorsey, WR Andre Johnson, TE Jeremy Shockey, DB Ed Reed, OL Bryant McKinnie and LB Jonathan Vilma, among others.

Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

That team’s top three rushers were Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee and Frank Gore. The fourth? Najeh Davenport, who also went on to a successful NFL career, particularly with my Green Bay Packers. To me, that team is the gold standard that Alabama is trying to live up to, but even those Hurricanes only managed to beat an unranked Boston College on the road by a score of 18-7. They also struggled at Virginia Tech, squeezing out a 26-24 victory.

If Alabama wins every game from here on out (the Tide would need three wins to clinch another title) by at least two touchdowns, I’d feel comfortable calling them the best college team of all time.

@SChinni12:

What five bowl matchups would you most want to see if rankings and bowl affiliations weren’t a thing? Extra points for cool locations.

Great question. There’s too much bureaucracy and playing favorites in the way bowls are divvied up currently.

  1. Alabama vs. UCF in the Peach Bowl — Put them close (ish) to each fanbase and let them do battle. Watch the Crimson Tide beat the Knights by 30 points, and then we can put this whole 2017 title debate to rest.
  2. Texas A&M vs. Texas in the Texas Bowl — Oh, you can’t figure out how to make your schedules work in the regular season? Boom, now you’re playing in a bowl game in an area you both heavily recruit. All of a sudden a regular-season matchup doesn’t seem so bad, right?
  3. Washington State vs. Oklahoma in the Hawaii Bowl — Send both of these teams on a great trip out to Hawaii and let the fireworks fly. Could this game reach 150 points in regulation? Probably. Would it be a lot of fun to watch? Absolutely.
  4. Georgia vs. Clemson in the Cotton Bowl — These two teams recently signed contracts to play in 2024, 2029 and 2030, but who wants to wait that long? These teams are elite now, and this would be a great way to see who’s better. Both teams would probably lose to Alabama, so let them play for second place instead!
  5. Mizzou vs. Oregon in the Rose Bowl — A trip to Los Angeles (Pasadena, to be precise) would be great for both of these teams. Then, we’d get to see QBs Drew Lock and Justin Herbert square off with one of the most prestigious trophies in sports on the line. The bonus is that whichever team wins, that’s which quarterback is the first one taken in the 2019 NFL Draft.

Have questions for the SDS Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com to be included in next week’s column!