There is a good chance my alma matter will be playing a bowl game (Outback Bowl) where the stadium is 5 minutes from my house...is it best to just buy the tickets now? Or do they give the best tickets to the colleges, and I should wait to see if I can get it through my alma matter somehow?

I would say donate a ton of money to your alma matter, and then you are a lock. Other than that best of luck through the bowl committee.

best seats are already locked away i do believe. the bowl will have an alotment for your alma mater, but it won't be the best seats. usually donors (i.e. business sponsors) of the individual bowls get the most desirable seats at the bowl.

The best way to get good seats at a college game is to be booster. For bowl games a percentage of the tickets go to each of the schools playing in them to be sold. That way there is an equilibrium point in the number of fans present for each team.
I don't know how it works for your university, but if you become a booster this late in the season you will more than liekly not get dibs on the good seats untill next year.

The tickets haven't went on sale yet but usually boosters get first dibs then season ticket holders then students and the rest are put up for public sale

Good luck trying to even get tickets if you don't get them from your university. There are some real scalpers out there right now trying to "sell" bowl tickets but those of us in the real world can't even touch them with a 10 foot pole (can you tell I've been looking).