EDITOR'S NOTE 3:38PM: Whether you like USC or not, it's nice to see the Pac-10 continue to lay the smackdown on the rest of the country in bowl games.  4-0, with USC looking solid against Penn State so far.

Happy New Year to everybody.  I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Year's Eve.

Although we're all NFL fans, New Year's Day is best reserved for college football.  One of the funnest aspects of bowl season is getting to see matchups you rarely get.  We get Penn State versus USC in a traditional Rose Bowl matchup.  We get South Carolina versus Iowa, featuring the Ole Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier, against Iowa's Kirk Ferentz.  Rumor has it that the Cleveland Browns are going to make a "huge" offer to Scott Piolo that would include full organizational control and apparently the chance to bring in Ferentz as his head coach.

If you're not into college football, there's plenty here and across the country to keep you interested.  For hockey fans (and those that are just curious), the Chicago Blackhawks face the Detroit Red Wings in the 2009 NHL Winter Classic.  What's intriguing about this game is that it will be played outdoors at Wrigley Field.  We do have a Blackhawks blogger, but our Cubs blogger actually lives in Chicago and has been posting pictures of the transformation of Wrigley Field.  Head over to Bleed Cubbie Blue to check some of them out.

If you're not interested in hockey or college football, I'm sure there are plenty of television marathons to check out.  Additionally, we'll have some fresh content for you here at Niners Nation.  Thanks to the power of scheduling posts, we can set up a post for tomorrow and not worry about getting it up then when we're nice and hung over.  Florida Danny has been posting statistical analyses all season long and will wrap things with a bow, with a look forward to 2009.  That will go up at 12:00pm pacific time.  We'll have continued statistical analysis during the offseason and we welcome any suggestions for areas that some advanced stats can shed light on.

With that, I leave you the slate of games to check out today.  Happy New Year to everyone.

Outback Bowl: Iowa Hawkeyes vs. South Carolina Gamecocks, 8:00am PT/11:00am ET, ESPN

Capital One Bowl: Georgia Bulldogs vs. Michigan State Spartans, 10:00am PT/1:00pm ET, ABC

Gator Bowl: Nebraska Cornhuskers vs. Clemson Tigers, 10:00am PT/1:00pm ET, CBS

Rose Bowl: Penn State Nittany Lions vs. USC Trojans, 1:30pm PT/4:30pm ET, ABC

Orange Bowl: Cincinnati Bearcats vs. Virginia Tech Hokies, 5:30pm PT/8:30pm ET, FOX

NHL Winter Classic: Chicago Blackhawks vs. Detroit Red Wings, Wrigley Field, 10:00am PT/1:00pm PT, NBC

And don't forget to get your predictions in for this weekend's NFL divisional playoff games.  Anybody who registers at the site is welcome to participate, even if you did not take part in the regular season contest.  For the postseason free-for-all, the top 2 finishers will get prizes.