Myrtle Beach Bowl: Kennesaw State vs. Western Michigan

Goddamn, they start these things early! Even in Bible Belt Conway, South Carolina, 11:00 am is an ungodly early hour to be attending a football on a Friday morning. I'm watching this one at home with the first cup of coffee still in my hand.

Part of the reason for my slow start was I was up late last night watching the Xbox Bowl become more interesting than it needed to be. Missouri State scored 21 points in the fourth and a game that had seemed like a lopsided, runaway win for Arkansas State up to that point wound up getting competitive. While it could be argued that a close game is more interesting, a blowout win is very comforting when you're down, 1-3. The answer to 24D in today's New York Times crossword puzzle ("bad place to be while gambling") is "in a deep hole," and that's exactly where I found yesterday. But last night, my pick, the Arkansas State Red Rockets, held on and won and now I've improved to 2-3, and if I run the board and sweep all three games today, I could be 5-3 by midnight. But I'm getting ahead of myself. One game at at time. 

I've been to Myrtle Beach many times because I had a client in Conway in the way-back years before I retired. I've visited the beach, but I'd never vacation there. Talk about Redneck Riviera! I've never before or since seen such a wonton display of corpulent obesity as all those rotund white bodies rolling around on the sand beneath the white glare of the unforgiving Sun. Pure horror show. Add to that all the hyperactive, ill-tempered children, the fast-food franchises bordering endless miles of road, the ever-present ticky-tack t-shirt and souvenir shops, and the ubiquitous Confederate flags, and it's hard not to be repulsed. Look, don't get me wrong - I love the South, it's been my home for some 45 years now, but just not . . . this.

Myrtle Beach Bowl - freaking out relocated Yankees since 2020.

The game will feature the Western Michigan Broncos (9-4) of the MAC against the Kennesaw State Owls (10-3), the CUSA champions making their first FBS bowl appearance. They've made the FCS playoffs in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 before moving up to the FBS last year, and then won their conference title in their second season. Kennesaw is a suburb of Atlanta, and a certain audience in Atlanta can't help but notice that seemingly every other dancer in the city's many strip clubs all say they are students at Kennesaw State. Maybe it's true, maybe it's a convenient cover story. I don't know, but people got to calling Kennesaw State, "Stripper U." Mind you, I bring this up not to slut-shame sex workers or adult entertainers but only to illustrate how surprising it is to Atlantans to see the Owls rack up a 10-3 record, win the CUSA championship, and playing in a certified bowl game.

The Broncos are four-point favorites and I'd be tempted to take those points if this were a hockey game (Western Michigan is ranked No. 7 nationally in the USCHO college-hockey rankings). But this ain't hockey and this ain't the frozen Midwest, so I'm taking the Owls as four-point underdogs. The Broncos may be the MAC champs, but I want to cheer for the local favorites and I think the odds makers may be overlooking the Owls' strengths.

Ominously, I've lost with my picks in the last two Myrtle Beach Bowls so my track record here's not good, but hey, third time's the charm, amirite?