USA Today Experts Not High On A Tech Victory In The Liberty Bowl

This one is a bit of a stumper to me.

The Game

8-4 Texas Tech is playing 6-6 Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl on December 27th. While both teams are losing players to opts outs and the transfer portal, Arkansas is hemorrhaging. We covered this aspect of the game before, but it's crazy that few think that it's going to matter. It's actually kind of stunning and it makes me wonder if the "experts" at USA Today are even paying attention.

The Panel

USA Today put together a panel of six "experts to sort through all of the bowl games and make their picks, and in the Liberty Bowl, the critics were evenly split, 3-3, on Texas Tech and Arkansas. Maybe I'm just a fan of the home team, but it seemed like Texas Tech got better as the season wrapped up, while Arkansas got worse. Put Arkansas' defections together with thier lack of momentum and one would think we might even be looking at a Tech blowout of the Razorbacks.

Some Good News

Now before I come down on USA Today too hard, they did have something very positive to say about the game itself. The newspaper ranked the 35 bowl games from "best to worst" and the Liberty Bowl came in as the 9th best game to watch or it's "entertainment potential". Truth be told, bowl games are really about exposure and the more people that watch the game, the better. Sometimes even a loss can help build brand identity and awareness for a school. Let's just hope Texas Tech makes a great impression on everyone watching the game.