The Ol’ Ballcoach demonstrates proper wrist technique for maximum efficiency in Bloomin’ Onion consumption. (AP)

The 2013 Outback Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Andy Staples’ game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? This is the Outback Bowl. It is not played in Australia. It used to be the Hall of Fame Bowl, but unlike most sponsorship changes, this one has improved the postseason landscape by introducing a fertile annual opportunity for Bloomin’ Onion jokes.

• Where will this game be played? Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, home field of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and USF Bulls.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN, with Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and Shannon Spake. The game will also be streamed on WatchESPN.

• Whom does it feature? Big Ten versus SEC.

• What about this year? An intriguing matchup between 10-2 South Carolina and 8-4 Michigan.

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#CommitToTheG #ThatIsProjectedOnTheWall twitter.com/CapitalOneBowl…

— Capital One Bowl (@CapitalOneBowl) December 31, 2012

The 2013  Capital One Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Ben Glicksman’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? This is the Citrus Bowl! The game that was the Citrus Bowl, and also the Tangerine Bowl, way more times than the Champs Sports Bowl, which is no longer the Champs Sports Bowl, was the Tangerine Bowl! It’s also played in the Citrus Bowl, which is all kinds of helpful. Thanks, Capital One Bowl. You’re a peach.

• Where will this game be played? Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando. (This stadium was also once called the Tangerine Bowl! Have you heard quite enough about citrus this postseason, gentle readers?)

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on ABC, with Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, Davis Pollack and Samantha Steele.

• Whom does it feature? The best teams from the Big Ten and SEC not playing in BCS games.

• What about this year? Division champs, ahoy! It’s No. 6 Georgia versus No. 23 Nebraska, for all the felted mouse ears.

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We can’t believe Rick Catlett said that either, girls. (AP)

The 2012 Gator Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Stewart Mandel’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? The Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl is one of only two current college football postseason contests named after a dot-com. Once sponsored by Outback Steakhouse, it is not the Outback Bowl. What an awkward and weird name to append to an old and proud postseason contest. Nonsense. What’s mightier than an alligator, except an alligator that can find you deductions on your return?

• Where will this game be played? Jacksonville’s EverBank Field, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail party game.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at noon ET on ESPN2 with Bob Wischusen, Danny Kanell and Allison Williams. The game will also be streamed on WatchESPN.

• Whom does it feature? SEC versus Big Ten.

• What about this year? Having the 9-3 Northwestern Wildcats and the 8-4 Mississippi State Bulldogs occupying the same bit of real estate has made for some memorable cross-cultural encounters this week:

“Hey! How are you? Looking forward to the game?”"CLANGA CLANGA CLANGA”"I see.”

— Tom McGrath (@TCMcG) December 31, 2012

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Ah, the first round of the Chick-fil-A Bowl milkshake combine, like the first robin of spring. (Paul Abell/Abell Images)

The 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Andy Staples’ game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? Many bowl games are played in the American South. Only one of them is dedicated to fried chicken, and only since 1998. We have never fully understood this. This year’s incarnation of the bowl even comes with a heapin’ side of poultry-themed sponsor betrayal! J’eggcuse, Monsieur Chapeau!

• Where will this game be played? Atlanta’s Georgia Dome, which also houses the Atlanta Falcons, Georgia State Panthers and the SEC championship game.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins this evening at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. Mike Patrick, Ed Cunningham and Jeannine Edwards are your scheduled announcers.

• Whom does it feature? The CFA Bowl has matched the ACC and SEC for almost two decades now.

• What about this year? SUSPICIOUSLY HIGH-ENTERTAINMENT MATCHUP FOR A DECEMBER BOWL GAME ALERT: Can the Georgia Dome contain the combined personality forces of LSU’s Les Miles and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney? We’re fixin’ to find out.

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What could be more patriotic than an upended bronze bell filled with reasonably-priced auto parts?

The 2012 Liberty Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Zac Ellis’ game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? This here’s the Liberty Bowl. Its logo is the Liberty Bell. The game is played in Memphis. Why is the logo not a pyramid? The Liberty Bowl originated in Philadelphia, and continues to honor its roots with a bell-shaped trophy and the Spirit of 1776 Award.

• Where will this game be played? Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, also home to the Memphis Tigers and, for one glorious season, the XFL’s Memphis Maniax. And some other teams. None with a name like Maniax.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN, with Mark Jones and Brock Huard in the booth and Jessica Mendoza on the sidelines.

• Whom does it feature? Current tie-ins are Conference USA and SEC.

• What about this year? In the interest of cozying up to the Big 12, bowl organizers selected 6-6 Iowa State to face 10-3 Tulsa. THAT IS A PRETTY DIFFERENT RECORD THIS IS GONNA BE A BLOWOUT. Check the regular-season schedule, dear reader: The Cyclones and Golden Hurricane met in Ames in Week 1, and Tulsa pulled the upset. ALL WEATHER MASCOTS BOWL WOOOOOOO. That’s probably a better sentiment.

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The 2012 Sun Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Ben Glicksman’s game preview.)

The Trojans have arrived in El Paso. Yup, that is Lane Kiffin sporting a sombrero. #USC #SunBowl twitter.com/USC_Athletics/…

— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) December 26, 2012

• What’s all this, then? Hail to the Sun Bowl, sure is a fun bowl! Ra! Ra! Ra! Ugh. Look, somebody has to be excited about the Sun Bowl.

• Where will this game be played? The Sun Bowl takes place within the Sun Bowl, a stadium in El Paso, Texas, used as a home base by the UTEP Miners.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET on CBS. This is your last chance this college football season to bask in the chortlings of Verne Lundquist.

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The Music City Bowl: There’s a trophy and everything! (AP)

The 2012 Music City Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Bill Trocchi’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? The game born in 1998 under sponsorship from American General Life & Accident is played very much on purpose, now in its third season of being called the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl. How can a city that shelters Taylor Swift dare to lay claim to “music” anything? Beef ‘O’ Brady’s claims to be known for its buffalo wings. The world is an uncertain place, and full of little mysteries.

• Where will this game be played? Nashville’s LP Field, home to the Tennessee Titans and Tennessee State Tigers.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at noon ET on ESPN, featuring the vocal talents of Carter Blackburn, Rod Gilmore and Jemele Hill. The game will also be streamed on WatchESPN.

• Whom does it feature? ACC versus SEC.

• What about this year? A six degrees of Debbie Yow matchup! The North Carolina State Wolfpack will face the hometown Vanderbilt Commodores.

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She’s no Paul the Psychic Octopus (RIP), but we can’t fault the Phoenix Zoo’s Sumatran tiger, Hadiah, in predicting the winner of the first Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. (AP)

The 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Zac Ellis’ game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? You may remember this game as the Copper Bowl, which is how it operated for its first eight years of existence before selling naming rights to Insight.com in 1996. Buffalo Wild Wings is in its first year as title sponsor. So is there a button that – STOP THAT RIGHT NOW. WE ARE ALREADY OVER THIS.

• Where will this game be played? Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., the home stadium for the Arizona State Sun Devils (and former home of the Fiesta Bowl).

• When is it on television? A fashionably late 10:15 p.m. ET on ESPN. The top-tier team of Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge share announcing duties, with Tom Rinaldi on the sidelines, presumably trailed by his trusty twinkly piano.

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HELMET FIGHT!! (AP)

The 2012 Valero Alamo Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Stewart Mandel’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? After a couple weeks of Beefo-come-lately bowls whose provenance might be described as “questionable,” we’re starting to break into the name-brand bowls. The Alamo has been around since 1993 and has featured at least one ranked team in 16-of-20 games since then (counting this year).

• Where will this game be played? The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. ET on ESPN. Sean McDonough and Chris Spielman are your announcers, with Quint Kessenich on sideline duty.

• Whom does it feature? Since 2010, the Alamo Bowl has pitted the Pac-12′s second-place team against the third choice from the Big 12.

• What about this year? The 9-3, 13th-ranked Oregon State Beavers are your Pac-12 representative, while the 8-4, 23rd-ranked Texas Longhorns rep the Big 12. That makes this the 2012-13 bowl season’s first occurrence of ranked-on-ranked action.

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Three years into this shindig and we’re still not producing football-shaped macaroni for the occasion? I’m sorry; I thought this was AMERICA.

The 2012 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. You might also be hungry, which unfortunately we cannot help you with. Maybe try Kraft. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Matt Dollinger’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? The 11th edition of That Bowl That’s Played in San Francisco, which began life in 2002 as the San Francisco Bowl and then spent a few years as the Emerald Bowl before acquiring its Kraft sponsorship (and hunger-fightin’ powers) in 2010.

• Where will this game be played? AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., home of your reigning World Series champion San Francisco Giants. That’s not a football team. No, it is not. So this game is held in a baseball stadium? Yup, with the south end zone along the first base line and both teams gathered on the same sideline. There’s a barrier separating them at the 50, presumably to prevent any signal-stealing, intersquad “I’m not touching you” battles or other unsportsmanlike conduct. Why are both these baseball-based football games occupying a single midday timeslot? So even when ESPN is on commercial break, you can see linebackers churning up basepaths on ESPN2? Seriously, we got nothing.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 4 p.m. ET. Dave Pasch and Brian Griese will be in the booth, with Jenn Brown on the sideline, presumably the one occupied by people.

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