It's the time of year to join together with friends and family and reflect on what's most important in our lives, that, of course, being football.

The NFL regular season is winding down, with the last week being all but meaningless now that the playoff matchups are set. Here are my picks.

AFC

Jacksonville at New England. New England by 7. New England has been the best team in the AFC down the stretch. Teams from Florida don't win at Foxboro in January, period.

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati. Pittsburgh by 3. They split in the regular season and I still don't believe Cincy is for real.

New England at Denver. New England by 3. An epic matchup between cold weather teams. I predict a 50% chance of snow and overtime.

Pittsburgh at Indianapolis. Indy by 7. Too many weapons for Pittsburgh to cope.

New England at Indianapolis. New England by 1. Peyton still can't win the big game. Tom and Adam can.

NFC

Carolina at New York Giants. Giants by 2. The Giants have played inconsistently this season but they will keep it together at home.

Washington at Tampa Bay. Tampa by 10. Yawn.

New York Giants at Seattle. Seattle by 7. The Giants played the 'Hawks to a draw last time (more or less). Seattle's fresh legs and home town verve will carry the day.

Tampa Bay at Chicago. Chicago by 7. Chicago is Urlacher's house. Also see comment above about teams from Florida. The only question: will Tampa score at all?

Chicago at Seattle. Seattle by 7. In Alexander we trust.

Super Bowl XL

New England vs. Seattle. Seattle by 1. My Boston friends will hate me, but this is the year that the torch is passed back to the NFC. It's up to Hasselback to prove he can lead his team to eternal glory.

Selected College Bowls

I am skipping all the "toilet" bowls featuring 6-5 teams. C'mon, a bowl game used to mean you finished well above .500. I'm also not putting a line on my bowl picks because the college game is too wacky to begin with.

Alamo Bowl - Michigan vs. Nebraska. Pick: Michigan. Michigan was overrated all season and finished below just ahead of Iowa (25) and Northwestern (unranked) in the Big Ten. But they are battle-tested from that competitive conference and will devour a flabby, pasty offering from the Big Twelve.

Holiday Bowl - Oregon vs. Oklahoma. Pick: Oregon. Oregon deserved a BCS bid and got screwed. They have something to prove, and Oklahoma will be the unfortunate victim of the Ducks' wroth.

Sun Bowl - Northwestern vs. UCLA. Pick: Northwestern. Brett Basanez is the most underrated passer in the college game. He has more YPG and the same completion percentage as Matt Leinart (and he's not surrounded by first round draft picks.) Moreover he can pull a victory out of places where the sun doesn't shine.

Fiesta Bowl - Ohio State vs. Notre Dame. Pick: Ohio State. This is the best matchup of the BCS. Ohio State is tough, tough, tough. Notre Dame will push them hard but fall short.

Sugar Bowl - West Virginia vs. Georgia. Pick: WV. Georgia isn't the same team without their starting QB.

Orange Bowl - Florida State vs. Penn State. Pick: Penn State. Somehow, the 'Noles backed into the BCS at 7-4. Despite their home field advantage, Joe will go old school on them and show them how things are done in the Big Ten.

Rose Bowl - Texas vs. USC. Pick: USC. This will hopefully be an entertaining game. When USC brings their A game, they score at will. Hard to beat that.

UPDATE: Fact checking shows that Michigan beat Northwestern and Iowa head-to-head so I guess you can't say they finished behind them in the Big Ten. But Michigan is still overrated.

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