by Mitch Light (@AthlonMitch on Twitter)

Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas
Texas A&M (6–6) vs. Northwestern (6–6)
Date: Dec. 31 at 12 noon ET
Location: Reliant Stadium, Houston, Texas

-by Braden Gall (follow at @BradenGall)

Insight Bowl
Oklahoma (9-3) vs. Iowa (7-5)
Date: Dec. 30 at 10 p.m. ET
Location: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Ariz.

-by Braden Gall (follow at @BradenGall)

Pinstripe Bowl
Rutgers (8-4) vs. Iowa State (6-6)
Date: Dec. 30 at 3:20 p.m. ET
Location: Yankee Stadium, New York City, N.Y.

By Steven Lassan (@AthlonSteven on Twitter)

Holiday Bowl
Texas (7–5) vs. California (7–5)
Date: Dec. 28, 2011 at 8 p.m. ET
Location: Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, Calif.

by Mark Ross

AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl
Missouri (7-5) vs. North Carolina (7-5)
Date: Dec. 26 at 5 p.m. ET
Location: Independence Stadium, Shreveport, La.

Bowl season kicks off on Saturday, Dec. 17 in Albuquerque and ends on Jan. 9 in New Orleans with the BCS Championship. With 35 games on the docket, there's plenty of options to keep college fans interested over the next month.

Athlon's editors offer their predictions for all 35 games with a slight twist. The picks were made with confidence points, 1 being the least and 35 being the most. 

The six editors were split on the Rose Bowl, but all are picking Alabama to knock off LSU in the national championship. 

The BCS is wrapping up its 14th season of action and Athlon has dissected the numbers and reviewed the tapes of all six BCS conferences in order to rank the best each league has had to offer. Which Oklahoma team was the best of the decade? Which Florida team was the toughest to stop? How do you rank the Florida State teams of the late 90s? Which Miami team was the best? How about those loaded USC teams? Alabama vs. Auburn?

Putting together an All-America team is never easy and that’s certainly the case in 2011. Several players didn’t make the cut on Athlon’s All-America team, but that doesn’t take anything away from the season they had.

On defense, sorting out the best of the best in the linebacking corps and in the secondary was difficult. On the other side of the ball, Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon was an easy selection at one receiver spot, but the other was a close call between Western Michigan’s Jordan White, USC’s Robert Woods and Baylor’s Kendall Wright.

There were many great coaching jobs around college football this season, and the Coach of the Year selection is always a tough decision. Les Miles of LSU was the only coach in the country to go undefeated, and he did it against a tough schedule.