OPEN THREAD: HOLIDAY BOWL

"What if?" is a dangerous path to go down in college football, if only because the margins between agony and elation can be so slim. You can drive yourself crazy thinking about that pass interference penalty that should or shouldn't have been called, or that touchdown that looked like a fumble before the ball crossed the goal line, or that long, high field goal that you swear was inside the upright despite what the officials said. We're all guilty of what if from time-to-time, but you can't let it define the game for you.

Otherwise, you'll be driven to the brink of tears realizing that this Holiday Bowl could have been Bo Pelini vs. Ed Orgeron in a screaming, chest-thumping, tearaway pants-ripping battle. But it's not.

It's not.