College Football: 5 most interesting bowl games

5. Alamo Bowl — No. 13 Stanford vs. No. 15 TCU

Stanford and TCU entered championship weekend with dreams of pulling off upsets to win their respective conference titles. Both teams were in play for a New Year’s Six bowl appearance if they won the Pac-12 and Big 12 respectively. Instead, losses drove them out of the discussion. The New Year’s Six’s loss, though, is the Alamo Bowl’s gain.

This will be the first time that Stanford has ever appeared in the contest. The Cardinal have never been to San Antonio before, either to play bowl games or for regular-season contests against recently-created program UTSA. They had the opportunity for several first, and it was the Alamo Bowl that ultimately won out.

TCU, on the other hand, played one of the wackiest bowl games in recent memory at this venue two years ago. The Horned Frogs fell behind 31-0 to Oregon in the first half, then stormed back in the second half to tie things up and send the game to overtime. It took three overtimes before TCU scored a touchdown and then stopped the Ducks to cap the largest comeback in a bowl game in college football history.

The losing finalists of their respective conferences have met twice before, with TCU winning over Jim Harbaugh-coached Cardinal teams in 2007 and 2008 while they were still a member of the Mountain West.