New Year's Eve Bowls Open Thread

Happy New Year's Eve. As much as New Year's Day is a traditional college football bonanza (though not as much as it once was), New Year's Eve is also a busy bowl day. Here is the schedule:

Arizona (7-5) and Boston College (7-5) get things started with a morning (Pacific Time) kickoff in the AdvoCare V100 (nee Independence) Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana. This game features two outstanding running backs in Arizona's Ka'Deem Carey (Pac-12 offensive player of the year and Doak Walker award finalist) and Boston College's Andre Williams (Doak Walker award winner and Heisman Trophy finalist). Carey rushed for 1,716 yards and 17 touchdowns this season and is riding a Pac-12 record streak of 15 consecutive 100-yard games. Meanwhile, Williams rushed for 2,102 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2013, posting the 16th 2,000-yard season in NCAA history.

While the AdvoCare V100 Bowl is still going on, the Hyundai Sun Bowl will kick off in El Paso, Texas. UCLA (9-3) takes on Virginia Tech (8-4) in this one, with the Bruins gunning for a 10-win season. SB Nation's Virginia Tech blog, Gobbler Country, gives us a history lesson on VT's bowl history and lets us know that the Hokies have not had much success against Pac-12 opponents.

The Hokies have never played the Bruins in football. They are 0-3 all-time against current Pac-12 teams and 0-3 against teams from the state of California. They are, however, 3-6 all-time in the state of Texas. Tech is 0-1 all-time in the Sun Bowl, losing to Cincinnati 18-6 in 1947, their first ever bowl game, but played it at Kidd Field, the adjacent stadium to Sun Bowl Stadium. They are 5-4 all-time in games played on Tuesdays and 5-1 on New Year's Eve all-time.

The bowl day concludes with an SEC/Conference USA matchup in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl and an ACC/SEC tilt in the Chick-Fil-A (nee Peach) Bowl. In the former, Rice (10-3) will add a bowl win to a season that saw the Owls win their first outright conference championship in 56 years. The Owls will have to do it against a Mississippi State (6-6) team that may have plenty of fans with cowbells wreaking havoc in the stadium.

As for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, the game features the feel-good story of once downtrodden Duke, which went 10-3 this season and made it to the ACC championship game. The Blue Devils will be opposed by last year's Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel, who will try to secure a ninth victory this season for Texas A&M (8-4).

This your New Year's Eve Bowl Games open thread. Enjoy the action and talk about it all right here.