I caught a cold earlier this week, and it’s about to knock me out. Creativity has been down the past few days as a result. No matter, though, because that makes this a good day for me to exert the grunt work necessary to throw together my NCAA football bowl picks contest. This is brand new and open to anyone who’d like to participate. It works just like the regular season contest did, except it’s a one-shot deal. We’re playing purely for pride unless someone wants to donate a prize because I’m a poor bastard with nothing material to offer. Click the jump for details.

It’s easy to play. Just look over the schedule below and determine which games you think the odds makers are wrong about, then enter your picks into the comments section of this post. For example:

“I’ll take the odds except for X bowl, Y bowl, and Z bowl.”

Odds came from Covers and were accurate as of Dec. 10 at 4:15 p.m. EDT. The deadline for all entries is Dec. 21. at 7 p.m. EDT, though if you want to pick against odds for the New Orleans Bowl you’ll need to have at least that pick in by Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. EDT. Otherwise, you’ll be given credit for taking odds in that game.

BOWL SCHEDULE

Date Bowl Matchup Odds
Dec. 14 New Orleans Southern Miss vs. North Texas Southern Miss by 5
Dec. 21 Champs Sports Syracuse vs. Georgia Tech Georgia Tech by 5
Dec. 22 GMAC Bowling Green vs. Memphis Bowling Green by 4.5
Dec. 23 Fort Worth Marshall vs. Cincinnati Cincinnati by 2
  Las Vegas UCLA vs. Wyoming UCLA by 12
Dec. 24 Hawaii Hawaii vs. UAB Hawaii by 3.5
Dec. 27 MPC Computers Virginia vs. Fresno St. Virginia by 5.5
  Motor City Connecticut vs. Toledo Toledo by 3.5
Dec. 28 Independence Iowa St. vs. Miami (OH) Miami (OH) by 3
  Insight Notre Dame vs. Oregon St. Oregon St. by 3.5
Dec. 29 Houston Texas-El Paso vs. Colorado Colorado by 3
  Alamo Oklahoma St. vs. Ohio St. Oklahoma St. by 2
Dec. 30 Continental Tire Boston College vs. North Carolina North Carolina by 3
  Emerald New Mexico vs. Navy New Mexico by 2
  Holiday Texas Tech vs. California California by 11.5
  Silicon Valley Classic Northern Illinois vs. Troy Northern Illinois by 1
Dec. 31 Music City Alabama vs. Minnesota Alabama by 3.5
  Sun Arizona St. vs. Purdue Purdue by 7
  Liberty Boise St. vs. Louisville Louisville by 14
  Peach Florida vs. Miami (FL) Miami by 2.5
Jan. 1 Cotton Texas A&M vs. Tennessee Texas A&M by 3
  Outback Georgia vs. Wisconsin Georgia by 7
  Gator Florida St. vs. West Virginia Florida St. by 8
  Capital One Iowa vs. LSU LSU by 7
  Rose Michigan vs. Texas Texas by 5.5
  Fiesta Pittsburgh vs. Utah Utah by 16.5
Jan. 3 Sugar Virginia Tech vs. Auburn Auburn by 7
  Orange Oklahoma vs. USC USC by 3

UPDATE: Had forgotten to enter the spread for the Alamo Bowl. Fixed.