With match-ups such as Kansas and Houston in the Fort Worth Bowl and Memphis and Akron in the Motor City Bowl, many ISU students aren’t anxiously gearing up for many of this season’s bowl games.

Why would ISU students care about these games?

With the inaugural intramural NCAA Bowl Pick-Em contest, however, the outcome of these games can mean the difference between an intramural championship and feeling like the starting quarterback of 0-12 New Mexico State.

Linda Marticke, program coordinator for ISU recreation services, said she expects at least 200 students and faculty to enter the contest.

“It’s very easy to enter online,” she said. “It only takes five minutes.”

To compete in the contest, entrants select a winner for each of the 28 Division-I bowl games. The competitors who select the most correct games win an intramural champion T-shirt. In the case of a tie, each entrant selects a total score for the Rose Bowl and whomever is closest wins. T-shirts will be awarded to the top three male and top three female finishers.

The online entry form will be set up with links to information about the teams competing in each bowl game. Marticke said this will allow people to do some research before they pick a winner for each game.

A first for ISU intramurals, the Bowl Pick-Em contest will allow students to go online to keep track of their progress and check the overall standings after each bowl game.

Matt Michel, junior in finance, said he is looking forward to the increased online interactivity.

“The online stuff sounds pretty neat,” he said.

The online component of the contest is being developed by a team from ISU Information Technology Services.

“The programming is actually pretty routine stuff. It’s similar to how you would keep track of a pick-em contest on paper,” said Jeff Sorensen, systems analyst for Academic Information Technologies.

Sorenson said the work isn’t out of the ordinary for his team, which develops the computer components for many intramurals.

It has not yet been decided if the intramural NCAA March Madness basketball bracket challenge contest will also run under this system, but Marticke and Sorenson are hopeful.

“We aren’t ruling it out, but it would be much more complicated,” Marticke said.

As for bowl predictions, Marticke said she believes that Texas will defeat the USC in the Rose Bowl to win the national championship.

“I want Texas to win, but [USC running back] Reggie Bush is phenomenal,” she said.

Regarding Iowa State’s chances, Marticke said she believes Texas Christian will provide a stiff challenge for the Cyclones in the Houston Bowl.

“I think we’ll be the underdog,” she said.

“I hope we win, but it will be a tough game for us,” Michel said.

Registration for the contest is open through Dec. 19. All entries must been done online at the ISU recreation services Web site, www.recservices.iastate.edu.