Rating the Alamo Bowl: Arizona holds its ground against overwhelming firepower

Bowls: There are a lot of them. As a public service, the Doc is here to rank each game according to five crucial criteria, with help from the patron saint of the game in question. Today: The Alamo Bowl!

Teams. Arizona Wildcats (7-5) vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys (10-2).
Particulars. Dec. 28 (Today), 9:15 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Favorite: Oklahoma State (–5½)
Patron Saint: Lt. colonel William B. Travis, highest-ranking officer in the Texan Army present at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, where he was killed along with at least 182 fellow Texans at the age of twenty-six. Travis was a South Carolina native who spent his formative years in Alabama, but became a Lone Star icon with his doomed pledge "To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World" to "never surrender or retreat," which he did not.

• Locale. The Alamodome ("America's Favorite Square Dome") opened in 1993 with vague hopes of luring an NFL franchise to the Mission City, and : Besides the Alamo Bowl, the dome's regular tenants have included the San Antonio Spurs, an ill-fated CFL franchise, three Big 12 championship games, the annual Texas Football Classic to kick off the high school season and the prestigious U.S. Army All-American Bowl for the nation's top high school seniors.

The closest it's gotten to the NFL, though, is six preseason games and a three-game stint as emergency home to the New Orleans Saints after Hurricane Katrina, followed by a failed campaign to lure the franchise – owned by San Antonio mainstay Tom Benson – to the city.

    More 2010 Bowl Ratings
  • Dec. 17: New Mexico Bowl
  • Dec. 18: Humanitarian Bowl
  • Dec. 18: New Orleans Bowl
  • Dec. 22: Maaco Bowl Las Vegas
  • Dec. 23: Poinsettia Bowl
  • Dec. 24: Hawaii Bowl
  • Dec. 26: Little Caesars Bowl
  • Dec. 27: Independence Bowl
  • Dec. 28: Champs Sports Bowl
  • Dec. 29: Texas Bowl

• Tradition. The Alamo Bowl has been through four different title sponsors since 1993 but held fast to the basic "Alamo" theme and, until this year's Pac-10 incursion, to its trusty Big 12-Big Ten tie-in: The game was a solid Midwest-on-Midwest clash every year from 1995-2009, featuring at least one ranked team – and occasionally two – in 12 of 15 games over that span.

It's also featured a pair of soon-to-be Heisman winners (Charles Woodson, Eric Crouch) before they went on to headline national championship games as upperclassmen*, as well as future Heisman finalists/BCS heroes Drew Brees and Colt McCoy as a sophomore and redshirt freshman, respectively.

• Swag. The Alamo gift bag does players right on multiple levels, hitting them with the big-ticket electronics (a Microsoft Xbox 360 with Kinect; iPod Shuffle), the everyday niceties (a Fossil watch) and the sentimental keepsakes (a team panoramic photo). They throw in a pair of headphones and a $20 Game Stop gift card, too, which is about all a 19-year-old with a long offseason ahead of him can ask for.

• Sponsors, trophies and other ambiance. The weekend's "Minute to Win It" competitions included teammates engaged in a toilet paper-rolling race, the easiest trivia quiz ever and whatever this is, between Arizona linebacker Paul Vassallo and safety Joseph Perkins:

• This year's match-up. Oklahoma State brings in the face-melting stats you'd expect to accompany the nation's No. 1 total offense, but the only one number really stands out for Arizona: Four.

The Wildcats lost four straight to close the season after an impressive 7-1 start, yielding 36 points and 454 yards per game in the process against the best offenses they saw all season – and only Oregon (537 yards, 84 points against 'Zona on Nov. 26) can compare to the attack they'll see tonight against the Cowboys.

• Star power. Oklahoma State is the only the only offense in the nation with a top-10 passer (Brandon Weeden), top-10 rusher (Kendall Hunter) and top-10 receiver (Justin Blackmon), a rare feat that Cowboy fans should probably enjoy while they still have the chance: After tonight, Hunter's eligibility will expire, Blackmon will be eligible to jump to the NFL and whiz kid offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen will be on his way to West Virginia as the Mountaineers' head coach-in-waiting. The good news: Statistically speaking, their version of "going out with a bang" could be the equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb on the box score.

Final rating: out of five.
Even if Arizona struggles to keep pace, the Wildcats are going to put up more than enough points to keep it interesting past midnight.

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* Future Heisman winner Troy Smith was also slated to lead Ohio State in the Alamo Bowl as a sophomore in 2004, but was suspended from the game for, yes, allegedly accepting improper benefits.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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