A Matchup between two teams who met in their first bowl game!

Later tonight on January 1, #12 (BCS) Cincinnati Bearcats take on the #19 (BCS) Virginia Tech Hokies in the FedEx Orange Bowl. For the Bearcats, it's their first BCS Bowl and their tenth bowl game in school history. For Virginia Tech, it's their second straight BCS bowl game (they lost the 2008 Orange Bowl to the Kansas Jayhawks).

Two ironic things about this matchup:

1. Cincinnati and Virginia Tech were opponents in the very first bowl game for both teams, the 1947 Sun Bowl.

2. This BCS matchup between #12 and #19 is actually lower than the matchup featured in the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl, #9 Boise State vs. #11 TCU (won by TCU).

While this matchup isn't as highly regarded as some of the other BCS matchups (like Penn State vs. USC, Ohio State vs. Texas, and Florida vs. Oklahoma), this should be an interesting matchup because neither team faced very strong schedules, so they should be fairly well-matched.

For Cincinnati, their schedule didn't include many strong opponents, with arguably their best victory being that over #20 West Virginia (who wasn't nearly as strong as they were during the 2007-2008 season). They beat some weaker teams such as Miami (Ohio), Akron, and Marshall but also fell to a relatively weak team in UConn 40-16 (though Cincy did lose their quarterback to numbness in his non-throwing hand). The one game of note in their schedule was a 52-26 loss to current #1 Oklahoma in the first week of their season (where they lost their first quarterback to injury).

As mentioned above, this is Cincy's first BCS bowl game in school history.

For Virginia Tech, this was considered to be a rebuilding year for them, having lost 12 starters from last year to the NFL Draft. Va. Tech lost early on to relatively weak East Carolina University, plus endured a 4-game losing streak that nearly prevented them from reaching the ACC Title Game, where they went on to beat Boston College for the second straight season. That win against Boston College or against Georgia Tech might be Va. Tech's best victory (and Georgia Tech just got crushed by LSU the other day 38-3, and LSU isn't the championship team they were a year ago), so again, Va. Tech's resume isn't all that impressive either.

The other bad trend that Va. Tech is going up against is the recent lack of success ACC teams have had in BCS bowl games, going 1-10. Additionally, Virginia Tech has not won a BCS bowl game since 1995 when they upset Texas in the 1995 Sugar Bowl, losing all 4 appearances in BCS bowl games since, including the aforementioned 2008 Orange Bowl to Kansas.

Therefore, I think this game will be a close one, no more than a 10-14 point margin of victory. I think either side could come out on top, but being that I like "Cinderella stories" and think that Cincy is not facing that strong of an opponent, I don't think their lack of experience will hinder them as much as say, Penn State, who is taking on USC. I think Cincy comes out on top of Va. Tech 28-24.