December is a month filled with friends, family, feasts, and football. The hours you’re allotted for watching meaningless college football bowl games in stadiums you’ve never heard of sponsored by companies you’ll never use always seems to decline as we age. Thankfully, we here at Bet The Board will do the heavy lifting highlighting the viewing of our top 10 must see TV non-New Year’s 6 bowl games – and one game you shouldn’t watch under any circumstance.
(10) 12/17: Houston vs San Diego St (Las Vegas Bowl – Las Vegas, NV)
Line: Houston -3
It’s rare there’s NFL talent on the field this early in bowl season. However DL Ed Oliver (Houston) will be a first round pick assuming his career heads in its current trajectory while SDSU boats a running back named Donnel Pumphrey that reminds scouts of Darren Sproles. Pumphrey will finish his career as college football’s all time leading rusher with a strong effort in Vegas surpassing former Wisconsin great Ron Dayne. The Vegas Bowl is notorious for lack of focus and given the way Houston finished the season with a slew of off field headaches we can only wonder if they’ll see the game as an actual reward or instead relish the all expense paid trip to Vegas.
(9) 12/17: Appalachian State vs Toledo (Camelia Bowl – Montgomery, AL)
Line: Toledo -1
This isn’t the sexiest match-up for the casual college football fan but offers a sneaky good match-up. Appalachian State put a scare into Tennessee way back in week 1 meanwhile Toledo participated in the most exciting Friday Night game of the season; a 55-52 shootout in Provo against BYU. Both teams have an outstanding group of 5 running backs. Kareem Hunt (1355 yards) and Jalin Moore (1367 yards) are both capable of putting on a show when toting the rock. The Sun Belt and Mac aren’t exactly highly viewed leagues but this game has all the pieces to be a good old fashioned slobberknocker between two top-tier Group of 5 programs.
(8) 12/29: Arkansas vs Virginia Tech (Belk Bowl – Charlotte, NC)
Line: Virginia Tech -6.5
The Belk Bowl is home to the worst bad beat in college football bowl history. Just ask our friend Scott Van Pelt who uses the finish between Duke and Cincinnati as lead in material for his bad beats segment. Arkansas limped to the finish; struggling to keep opposing rushing attacks in check all season but Virginia Tech doesn’t fall in that class. Justin Fuente did great things during his first season in Blacksburg; putting a Hokie program that had lost it’s way under retiring Frank Beamer back on track. Jerod Evans is poised to make a major leap into college football’s top tier of dual threat quarterbacks; a big performance to close the season against SEC opposition might have some talking dark horse Heisman candidate in 2017.
(7) 12/23: La Tech vs Navy (Armed Forces Bowl – Ft Worth, TX)
No Line
Assuming Navy has a healthy quarterback after playing Army this weekend the contrasting styles on display here could create track meet football. Louisiana Tech hasn’t shown the ability to stop anyone on defense but for as bad as they’ve been Navy might be worse, especially when it comes to third downs. This game comes down to what team has the ball last meaning you’ll be able to count on plenty of big plays, blown coverage, and 50+ yard touchdown plays. The guys to watch are Tech’s WR tandem of Trent Taylor and Carlos Henderson that have combined for 27 touchdowns and just shy of 3,000 receiving yards.
(6) 12/30: Stanford vs North Carolina (Sun Bowl – El Paso, TX)
Line: Stanford -3
If there’s a coach less afraid than Larry Fedora to bring a team bowling without proper preparation we haven’t found him. North Carolina was helpless last year against a Baylor side that didn’t even bring a viable quarterback to the game. Since their mid-season struggles Stanford found their stride rattling off a quiet 9 win season. When it comes to NFL talent UNC boasts a player in Mitch Trubisky that might end up being the first quarterback taken in the draft while Stanford’s stud RB Christian McCaffery (1603 rushing yards) should find plenty of space to operate against a porous Tar Heel run defense.
(5) 12/20: Memphis vs Western Kentucky (Boca Bowl – Boca Raton, FL)
Line: Western Kentucky -6
Points, points, points, and more points. Did I mention points? This will be the single highest bowl total posted meaning if books hang anything short of 90 they’re doing themselves a major disservice. The one issue working against the Hilltoppers is head coach Jeff Brohm’s decision to leave Western Kentucky for Purdue. Regardless, the WKU machine won’t have any problems scoring on a Memphis stop unit that loves surrendering big plays. However, don’t sleep on Tigers QB Riley Ferguson and his penchant for the big play gun slinging capabilities in a good old fashioned shootout.
(4) 1/2: Florida vs Iowa (Outback Bowl – Tampa FL)
Line: Florida -2
We struggled putting this game in the top 5 given the surplus of question marks. Florida is no stranger to mailing in bowl games (see last year’s effort against Michigan) which makes us think they show some heart and desire this time around. Nothing about Iowa is sexy or electric but the Hawkeyes are emblematic of Big Ten smash mouth football. Inter-conference showdowns between second tier SEC / Big Ten teams always makes for compelling football meaning there’s no reason to think differently in this instance.
(3) 12/28: WVU vs Miami (Russel Athletic Bowl – Orlando, FL)
Line: Miami -3
This game pits two college football programs that have long-standing traditions of relevance, even sharing a former conference affiliation in the Big East’s hey day. Skyler Howard vs Brad Kaaya should be one of the post season’s most underrated quarterback battles. Both sides possess electric playmakers in space known to give opposing defensive coordinators absolute fits. However, it boils down to two coaches seeking to take their respective programs from top 25 relevance into perennial top 10 status with fan bases thirsting for conference titles.
(2) 12/29: Colorado vs Oklahoma St (Alamo Bowl – San Antonio, TX)
Line: Colorado -3
When you haven’t been to the postseason since 2007 even a trip to the Alamo is cause for celebration. Colorado finally broke through in the PAC 12 coming up one game short of being crowned conference champions. We know everyone will be quick to jump on their performance against Washington but you can’t help but wonder how much more competitive that game is if Sefo Liufau doesn’t injure his foot. Oklahoma State is another program hell-bent on closing their season on a high note after last year’s Sugar Bowl blood bath. Mike Gundy continues to flirt with other programs looking for leverage with the OSU administration, but the mullet donning head coach should be careful what he wishes for there. The match-up to watch will be Mason Rudolph (OSU) against the CU secondary known to make life very difficult on opposing quarterbacks.
(1) 12/31: LSU vs Louisville (Citrus Bowl – Orlando, FL)
Line: LSU -3
You couldn’t ask for a better heavyweight bowl match-up outside of the New Year’s 6 then what we’ll see here. Heisman winner to be Lamar Jackson faces the stiffest test defensively that he will have seen all year in the LSU defensive front. That might keep him up at night considering how often the elusive runner was sacked behind the line of scrimmage in season ending losses to Houston and Kentucky. Louisville’s defense, one of the more unheralded units most of the season, imploded down the stretch. The perfect cure-all for that is a one-dimensional LSU offense looking to rely on a downhill running game behind their two-headed monster (assuming Fournette plays). This is a match-up of heavyweight programs that had extended stays inside Vegas’ top ten this season and a game that very easily could have meant a lot more with just a few bounces. There’s nothing wrong with a playoff appetizer including the electric Lamar Jackson facing off against the stingy Tigers defense.
12/26: Maryland vs BC (Quick Lane Bowl – Detroit, MI)
TRUST US DON”T WATCH THIS HORROR SHOW!!! Setting the O/U for attendance on this game at 7.5 but you’ll need to lay a price to go under that number.
