Everyone give yourself a round of applause—we survived the regular season! Now there’s nothing to left to do except fret about bowl placements and see who wins their Conference Championship Game. The last week featured some excitement around our great nation. Iowa officially sent Nebraska on a coaching hunt, Miami took a shotgun to their own foot and Central Florida snuck out a thriller against South Florida. And that was all just on Friday! By the time we got ramped up on Saturday, Ohio State had stretched their streak of whooping Michigan to six years. In the afternoon, I honestly have no idea what happened. Iowa State and their fans had their hearts ripped out, shown to them and then set on fire at midfield. I pretty much blacked everything else out. As for the night games, I watched LSU win and Notre Dame tumble to Stanford. But again, my spirits were crushed and I wasn’t super into it. Now let’s talk championships and drinks!
Breakfast of Champions
Championship week kicks off Friday night with the Pac-12 Championship between Stanford and USC. This has been a fun game for a while, and Stanford will be looking for revenge after an early season beating from the Trojans. To follow up that fun, we get some fun Group of 5 matchups on Saturday morning. The AAC (Memphis and Central Florida), MAC (Akron and Toledo) and Conference USA (North Texas against Lane Kiffin and his Owls) all show down at 11 AM CT. It’s gonna be a whole bucket of fun before we even reach lunch time.
What You’ll Need: Jameson Irish Whiskey, butterscotch schnapps, orange juice
Known traditionally as simply a “breakfast shot”, this is a delightful drink and is a great way to kick off the morning. Simply fill a shot glass half way with Jameson and the other half with Butterscotch schnapps. In a separate small cup, throw in a small amount of orange juice. Shoot the shot, chase with the orange juice! (Can also be all combined into one cup and over ice if you’d like to enjoy it that way.)
Playoff Punch
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As we inch closer to noon, the Big XII Championship kicks off with Oklahoma and TCU battling, yet again this year, to see who the best team to lose to Iowa State was this year. TCU, like Stanford, is looking for payback for a loss less than a month ago. At 3:00, we get to see the SEC Championship go down. Auburn has fought their way in to take on Georgia to solidify a spot in the Playoff.
What You’ll Need: cherry vodka, watermelon vodka or pucker, pineapple juice
In your ice-filled Championship Weekend chalice, add in equal parts of cherry vodka and watermelon vodka/pucker. The pucker option might give it a little more flavor, but will end up sweeter because, well, sugar. Next, top off with pineapple juice! (Optional extra step: Maybe add some grenadine for a bit more flavor, but again, a little sweeter.)
Vegas Bomb
The end of the night contains a lot of action to keep track of. Fresno State and Boise State showdown in the Mountain West Championship and this should be a hell of a game. Boise State is favored and fresh off a loss to these very same Bulldogs. Shortly after this game kicks, so do the Big Ten (Wisconsin and Ohio State) and ACC (Clemson and Miami) Championships. These are two matchups featuring four teams all inside the top eight in the current rankings. This has every ingredient to be chippy, wild and a ton of fun. Scenarios exist for all four teams to work their way into the playoffs, but step one of all of those equations is to go out and win.
What You’ll Need: Crown Royal, peach schnapps, Red Bull
This is just a large shot, so use a small plastic up and mix one part Crown Royal, one part peach schnapps and two parts Red Bull (can substitute Sprite for Red Bull). Clearly the mixtures are completely up to you, but I’m trying to not kill you like Ted did to me at the UNI game to kick off the year. But I learned from Ted that there’s no way to celebrate a great victory like a nice Vegas Bomb!
Tailgate Beer of the Week!
This has been the easiest pick for a beverage all year. You win, you’re a champ. You celebrate championships with champagne, so we’re doing the “Champagne of Beers!” High Life might get a bad rap because of it being a Miller product, but it’s honestly about the only one that I can enjoy. It’s simple and easy to drink and doesn’t taste like you just scooped it out of a Port-a-Potty (looking at you, Miller Lite).
That’s my championship weekend rundown for everyone. I hope you all enjoyed and I hope you’ll all give these a shot (so to speak). If you have a team still in the running this weekend, I hope you wake up on Sunday buying conference champion apparel. As always, be safe and we’ll be back before you know it! Go win that hardware!
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