Here's what has been rattling around my head through the weekend, and especially the past night.

We'll be a little quick with the football section because I want to talk basketball after last night.

FOOTBALL THOUGHTS

1. I don't love an Iowa matchup, but the Music City Bowl is a fun spot.

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While Iowa is historically a good program, the Hawkeyes just aren't very fun. They're not the same awful offense as last year when they went 10-4 without scoring 23 points in their final nine games.

They put up 29 against Maryland two weeks ago, 42 against Wisconsin four weeks ago, 40 against Northwestern (meh, it's Northwestern) and 40 against Washington (also meh this year, the Huskies lost so much from last year's CFP runner-up roster.

But even against those meh opponents, 40 points in three Big 10 games is still very impressive offensively. The problem is, most of that production came from Iowa's primary running back. The Hawkeyes totaled almost 4,000 total yards - they'll pass that for the season in the bowl game unless Mizzou's defense can hold them to 21 total yards or fewer - with 2,398 of those coming on the ground and 1,537 of those coming from Kaleb Johnson.

What a matchup! The Mizzou defense that has struggled with the run against a running back who has totaled more than a third of his team's total yards!

Except Johnson is opting out to get ready for the NFL Draft.

So the Hawkeyes, who scored 29 rushing touchdowns with 21 coming from Johnson, are without the key factor to their offense and they're without original starting quarterback Cade McNamara who went to the portal and hasn't played in weeks. Neither backup quarterback has had impressive numbers even though the Iowa offense put up points without McNamara, that's because Johnson was carrying the load. Without him, this matchup looks a lot worse.

I like Nashville, I think my girlfriend is going to come with me and we'll do New Years there, so the trip itself should be great, but I was definitely hoping for Michigan if Music City was the outcome just for the brand.

2. I know the first few years of this run probably don't feel great when looking back, but five consecutive bowl bids is nothing to shrug at.

This matchup gets to be the game that wasn't from December 2020. Obviously both teams are very different, but that bid started a run the Tigers have continued since.

I'm sure 5-5 in 2020 and 6-7 in both 2021 and 2022 don't feel great. That's reasonable, but five consecutive bowl bids is special.

Coming into the year, the 15th longest streak in college football was six consecutive from Louisville. The Cardinals are heading to No. 7 to face ...

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