As some of you may be aware, 2 members of the Sports Banter team are embarking on a trip to the USA at the end of the year. As a long time lover of US sport, it was a certainty that we would try to fit in a few games, whether it be NFL, NBA or NHL.

Unfortunately, the NBA has rather inconveniently found itself in a lockout – so no joy on that front.

With the NFL entering playoffs at that time of year, with no way of knowing when or where games would be, we looked to College Football. The Sugar Bowl kicks off on the 3rd of January in New Orleans, and I’m happy to report that high up in the nosebleed section, yours truly will be covering the game (or getting drunk).

I love US sport, and regularly watch College Football games on ESPN, however how their conferences and bowl games work has always been a bit of a mystery. In order the try to predict which teams we would be watching in the Sugar Bowl, I decided to undertake a bit of research. I arrived at several conclusions, one of which was that US sport is bloody confusing!!! There are a bunch of different conferences, umpteen bowl games, 5 major bowl games, and who knows what else!

As far as I can make out, there are 5 major bowl games, the Sugar Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl and the BCS Allstate Championship Game.

Someone, dont ask me who, decides who goes in to the BCS Allstate Championship Bowl, which is effectively the best two College Football teams in America – I believe there is a ranking system, although how this works, considering the thousand different conferences, I have no idea.

The Sugar Bowl pits the best team the the Southeastern Conference (SEC) against another at-large BCS team. Who or why, no idea. However, if the SEC Champions are selected to play in the BCS Allstate Championship Game, then a replacement is chosen, another at-large BCS team. History leads me to believe that if this happens, the second best SEC team would be chosen.

Seeing as one of side of the draw is a mystery, I decided to concentrate on the SEC side of things, seeing as this would be the home team anyway, that’s probably the bandwagon I’d be jumping on.

At the moment, it appears to me that the best two teams in the SEC are LSU and Alabama. These teams faced off against each other a few weeks ago, and LSU got up in a close game. My thoughts are that LSU will probably go through to the BCS Allstate Championship Game, leaving Alabama to be selected for the Sugar Bowl game. Georgia also appears to be a chance. So, with that in mind, go Crimson Tide!

As you can probably tell, I am hopelessly out of my depth here – so if anyone out there can give me a hand, please do, because I need help!