šŸˆ 23/24 College Bowl Season

Football
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Kind of slowing down for the end of the year. So yea Iā€™m watching the Famous Toastery Bowl between Western Kentucky and Old Dominion and yes Iā€™m gambling again.

Famous Toastery Bowl Western Kentucky vs. ODU
Midway through the first ODU up 14-0. Iā€™m taking ODU -14.5 and the over 58.

12/19 Scooters Coffee Frisco Bowl UTSA -11 vs. Marshall
I would not be surprised to see both head coaches plying their trade elsewhere in the next season or two. But for now, itā€™s the Coffee Bowl. I like the Roadrunners to strut their stuff. Line opened at UTSA -8.5 and is growing wouldnā€™t take it if it jumps a bit more.

12/21 Syracuse vs. South Florida Over 57
Cuse has a new QB and a new head coach, neither will be working on Thursday. QB Will Shrader is out with an injury and perusing NFL ambitions. These are the limitations that make bowl games awful for gambling. I do think the Orange stick to their identity of playing up-tempo and I expect the Bulls to follow along.

Over 57

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Western Kentucky with an incredible comeback, just converted a 4th and goal from the 15 to tie the game at 35 with 19 seconds left.

They were down 28-0 at one point in the 1st half.

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You know itā€™s an important bowl game when ESPN bumps it over to ESPN2 in overtime for an NFL pregame show haha. I get it but damn.

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They punish fans for their own shitty scheduling practices.

Will never understand why these games arenā€™t staggered by networks to have more time allotted given how often they go over. Worst case is you go under and just cut in-studio to three guys who fill time by talking about the game and some upcoming bowls.

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Epic comeback they looked like a totally different 2nd half team.

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Are we sure Huff is a good coach? If he really the nxt big thing? His stock has dropped in my eyes this season.

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Will be interesting to see if this is just a bad season or not.

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How bout UTSA coming through with the cover last night? Bowl Season am I right?

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Chad Penningtonā€™s kidā€¦ When did I become my fatherā€¦

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Had the exact same convo with a buddy via text last night. I cannot be that old

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Picks for bowl games happening prior to January 1. Weā€™re making picks here on little more than hunches. There were some games I liked that I shied away from because teams had unusually large or important defections after the regular season, but the truth is that every team has been hurt to some degree by the transfer portal and draft preparations.

Complete bowl names added by popular demand:

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: JMU -1 vs. Air Force Air Force really slumped down the stretch, and although ā€œseveral notable (JMU) players have entered the transfer portal, rumor has it most of them, if not all, will be availableā€. huh? Whatever - Iā€™ll go with that.

SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: Utah vs. Northwestern over 42 Northwestern has to be fired up to be in a bowl after the Fitzgerald fiasco to start the season. Utah loses quite a bit for the bowl game on the defensive side, but I trust Whittingham to have them ready. NW was involved in 3 or 4 high scoring games during the season including the last week of the season against Illinois. I donā€™t need much here, just a little offense.

Camellia Bowl: Northern Illinois +2.5 vs. Arkansas State When NIU out-rushes its foes, itā€™s 6-0. When its opponents run for more yardage, the Huskies are 0-6. Arkansas State is 120th in the nation against the run. Iā€™ll take the points.

Direct TV Holiday Bowl: Louisville -7.5 vs. USC Louisville is going to find the going a lot easier against USCā€™s defense than it did against FSUā€™s. Major offensive attrition for the Trojans. From what I can tell, no Louisville players have announced plans to opt out of the bowl game.

Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl: Rutgers +1.5 vs. Miami Iā€™ll take Miami to blow it somehow.

Pop-Tarts Bowl: NC State +2.5 vs. Kansas State Iā€™ll take strong defense and Brennanā€™s last hurrah for the win.

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Penn State under 48.5 Ole Miss hasnā€™t racked up the points against the better defenses this season. Penn Stateā€™s defense qualifies as a good one.

Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl: Notre Dame -6 vs. Oregon State Attrition on both sides here, but Notre Dame has been really solid this year winning and covering the games it was supposed to.

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Few more weekend picks.

Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl UCF -4.5 vs. Ga. Tech
The news continues to get worst for the ACC. The Rablin Wreck were better than I thought and kudos for making it to a bowl game. But I like UCF essentially playing in a home game down the I-4.

76 Birmingham Bowl Troy -7.5 vs. Duke
This is one of those games where in the past I have cleaned up on them. The Blue Devils had a helluva season, but they have been gutted by coaches leaving and the transfer portal. Thereā€™s enough turnover and moving parts that I struggle to believe that a bunch of 20 year olds are psychā€™d to play in Birmingham on Dec 23. Also Duke is not great without Riley at QB. Yet another nail in the ACCā€™s coffin.
Troy -7.5

Camellia Bowl Arkansas St. -2.5 vs. NIU
I like Butch Jones as a coach and I like what he is building in Jonesboro. I think he takes full advantage of extra practice time with his program.
Arkansas St. -2.5

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl JMU vs. Air Force Over 40.5
Iā€™m with my guy @5sheff on this one. Air Force stumbled down the stretch but still strung together a solid season. JMU was a College Gameday experience away from a truly magical season. I think this could be one of the more exciting Group of 5 games to watch this season. I also like the over here. 40.5 is not a lot and while there may be limited possessions, I think JMU can put up enough points to make up for any that Air Force leaves on the board.
Over 40.5

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I love that you are committed to calling each bowl game by its ludicrous full name.
The Camellia Bowl is the one that sounds like an old fashioned, non-corporate-sponsored bowl game from the 1980s (e.g. Bluebonnet Bowl, Tangerine Bowl).

I think you are probably good with Troy. I wanted to think Duke could cover the 7.5 points, but the more I looked at it and saw their defections, the more I couldnā€™t pull the trigger.

UCF and Georgia Tech are both teams I cannot get a good feel for. No idea what either team does with that one.

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I was actually going to request that you call each bowl by its full ludicrous name, as thatā€™s half the fun of bowl season. Ha ha!

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The names are so absurd I couldnā€™t help it.

Thatā€™s exactly my thought on Duke. With all the defections, where the team was on sept 30 and where they are now I donā€™t see them showing up to play.

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I get the sponsors who are local tourism boards trying to get more people to visit and I get CPG companies trying to sell more product. I even get D2C service companies trying to get more people to think about them.

I donā€™t get companies like Lockheed sponsoring a bowl game or buying commercial time. Like, is Lockheed sponsoring the Armed Forces bowl going to get anyone to buy an F35? Or a Trident missle?

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I went to Army - Air Force in West Point in mid-2000s. Where weā€™d have ā€œPepsiā€ or ā€œVirginia Lotteryā€ ads on the scoreboard, etc. they had ā€œLockheedā€ and ā€œRaytheonā€ etc.

I canā€™t remember if it was the same at Navy, but my brain was mostly frozen from the cold and terrible football

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It might get someone to buy some stock in them? Or to want to work at Lockheed? General PR/good vibes creation is probably a thing for them too. And that marketing budget ainā€™t gonna justify itself without putting a little work into it.

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I always wondered about the US Postal Service sponsoring a Tour de France team.

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This Cuse-USF game is so weird. Cuse having to play their TE at QB and theyā€™re getting demolished.

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