Welcome to the 2012-2013 Bowl Blitz Invitational

Almost exactly one year ago, a wild idea was hatched here at STAT BOX STORIES to get people to volunteer to play EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 and report on every match-up of the college Bowl Season.  When that project started, there were no guarantees that it would be successful; when the BCS National Championship Game was played on January 9^th, 2012 between Alabama and LSU and all 35 Bowl Games had been successfully completed, it was an unexpected achievement.  The efforts of so many people who had nothing to gain from their participation but to say that they were part of something helped the Bowl Blitz Invitational become a project worth repeating, and it is now just about time for the sophomore year to start.

This year, the core goals remain the same: volunteers have been gathered, Bowl Games have been claimed, and gaming consoles around the country are booting up NCAA Football 13 to play the games and report the results.  Game statistics are being tracked in real-time, and as the real-life games are contested every play-through on the site will be matched up against those results to see which participant was able to most closely mirror reality.

One difference readers will notice is an emphasis on reporting each game as though it were an actual football game being contested; not just a video game played on an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.  Volunteers have been encouraged to report even more statistical tidbits than last year, building from the editorial template of ESPN.com’s college football game summaries to bring about a more consistent theme in the writing across this year’s 35 entries.  Along with this new format, the familiar box scores, scoring summaries, team statistics, and player statistics will be present, along with screenshot and video highlights captured both using the in-game tools offered by NCAA Football 13 as well as through more sophisticated avenues such as HD video recorders.

With increased development in the ability to track statistics as the games are played this year, readers can look forward to an even more robust series of entries after the BCS National Championship Game is played between Alabama and Notre Dame on January 7^th, 2013.  With statistics and statistical analysis such a large part of what inspired the creation of STAT BOX STORIES in the first place, the goal for the 2012-2013 Bowl Blitz Invitational is to improve upon every aspect of the statistical breakdowns offered in last year’s project.  For the next month and a half (and beyond), you won’t want to miss a single day of content as we celebrate college football and the 70 teams which have been invited to play a part in writing the story of the 2012-2013 Bowl Season.

The games begin this Saturday, December 15^th, with the Gildan New Mexico Bowl (Nevada versus Arizona) and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Toledo versus Utah State).  Our coverage here at STAT BOX STORIES for the Bowl Blitz Invitational begins Friday morning, December 14^th, with the posting of the write-up for the 2012 Gildan New Mexico Bowl.  Here is the rest of the content schedule (all entries will be uploaded by 8:00AM ET on the date specified):

Saturday, December 15^th

• Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Toledo versus Utah State)

Thursday, December 20^th

• San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl (BYU versus San Diego State)

Friday, December 21^st

• Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl (UCF versus Ball State)

Saturday, December 22^nd

• R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (East Carolina versus Louisiana-Lafayette)
• MAACO Bowl Las Vegas (Washington versus Boise State)

Monday, December 24^th

• Sheraton Hawai’I Bowl (Fresno State versus SMU)

Wednesday, December 26^th

• Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (Western Kentucky versus Central Michigan)

Thursday, December 27^th

• Military Bowl (San Jose State versus Bowling Green)
• Belk Bowl (Cincinnati versus Duke)
• Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl (Baylor versus UCLA)

Friday, December 28^th

• Advocare V100 Independence Bowl (Ohio versus Louisiana-Monroe)
• Russell Athletic Bowl (Rutgers versus Virginia Tech)
• Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas (Minnesota versus Texas Tech)

Saturday, December 29^th

• Armed Forces Bowl (Rice versus Air Force)
• Pinstripe Bowl (West Virginia versus Syracuse)
• Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (Navy versus Arizona State)
• Valero Alamo Bowl (Texas versus Oregon State)
• Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl (TCU versus Michigan State)

Monday, December 31^st

• Music City Bowl (NC State versus Vanderbilt)
• Hyundai Sun Bowl (USC versus Georgia Tech)
• AutoZone Liberty Bowl (Iowa State versus Tulsa)
• Chick-fil-A Bowl (LSU versus Clemson)

Tuesday, January 1^st

• TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl (Mississippi State versus Northwestern)
• Heart of Dallas Bowl (Purdue versus Oklahoma State)
• Outback Bowl (South Carolina versus Michigan)
• Capital One Bowl (Georgia versus Nebraska)
• Rose Bowl (Wisconsin versus Stanford)
• Discover Orange Bowl (Northern Illinois versus Florida State)

Wednesday, January 2^nd

• Allstate Sugar Bowl (Louisville versus Florida)

Thursday, January 3^rd

• Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Oregon versus Kansas State)

Friday, January 4^th

• AT&T Cotton Bowl (Texas A&M versus Oklahoma)

Saturday, January 5^th

• BBVA Compass Bowl (Pittsburgh versus Ole Miss)

Sunday, January 6^th

• GoDaddy.com Bowl (Kent State versus Arkansas State)

Monday, January 7^th

• Discover BCS National Championship Game (Alabama versus Notre Dame)

We sincerely hope that you are as excited as we are here at STAT BOX STORIES for the start of Bowl Season and the 2012-2013 Bowl Blitz Invitational; be sure to visit the “official” discussion thread at The Gaming Tailgate (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?6217-Introducing-the-2012-2013-Bowl-Blitz-Invitational) to follow along with the results as they are made available, and be sure to keep coming back to STAT BOX STORIES as the games get played!

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