Bowl Season '08: Fiesta Bowl LiveBlog

FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

Strangely, despite both programs being big names, highly successful and loaded with talent, this game is being perceived mainly as a "money" match for the Fiesta Bowl. Not a match-up particularly desired by fans, but chosen because of how well both fans travel and the potential strength of the ratings.

Why? Well, mainly it is because of the Big Ten team everyone is tired of seeing blown out in the BCS Championship game. This is the sixth BCS bowl in the last seven years for the Buckeyes. Ohio State may have won three straight BCS bowls prior to the last two blowouts (including the national championship), but those were some fierce beatdowns in the biggest games.

The other side has a Texas team (and fans) that feels this is not the game they should be playing, against a team they shouldn't be playing. They feel they should be in that other game that will be played on Wednesday. Even if they were not going to the BCS Championship game, shouldn't the Longhorns be playing a team like Utah or Alabama or even USC? Teams that are (or were) making their own claims at being left out of the national championship equation.

Well, it's one of the last games of the college football season. It's still a big game. If Texas wants to have any standing in the "unfairness" of the system, they need to win this game. Ohio State is looking to gain some measure of redemption.

Join us around 8 pm EST for the Fiesta Bowl LiveBlog.