No, it isn't the Rose Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl or the Orange Bowl, but the novelty of a bowl game will never wear off for me. There's the new venue -- El Paso, Texas -- but more interestingly there's a new opponent. (And after four straight Big Ten bowl game opponents, we finally get a new conference.)
Sometimes a team's schedule of results tells you all you need to know about its season, but in the case of Stanford's Sun Bowl opponents, the North Carolina Tarheels, it only raises questions. After an understandable opening week loss to Georgia, they righted the ship with four straight wins, capping the streak with a 37-35 road win over #12 Florida State. But how did they follow that up with a blowout home loss to Virginia Tech? They rebounded from that disappointment with a road win over #16 Miami and then two more victories over Virginia and Georgia Tech to bring their record to 7-2 and climb to #17 in the CFP rankings -- but how did they lose to the worst team in the ACC (Duke) the following Saturday? Two weeks after that humbling loss, they finished their regular season with another surprising loss, this time to rival NC State. I'm thinking the Sun Bowl will bring them another loss. I've got it at Stanford 27, North Carolina 17.
So yes, it's been a confusing season for the Tarheels. I don't have the answers to any of these questions, so I reached out to someone who might -- Zack Pearson from KeepingItHeel.com. (You can check out my answers to his Cardinal questions over at his site.) Anyway, here's Zack...