College Football Handicapping Articles
Michigan vs. Florida Citrus Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/25/2015
Both of these schools badly needed a hero after years of crushingly-disappointing performances - at least from the perspective of their fans. Both had endured a rough coaching change in an attempt to replace a legend - Michigan had got it wrong twice. They were both once-proud programs that had gone nowhere in a hurry. It's still too soon to get too excited about things - it has just been one year - but both fan bases sure think that they have found that hero.
Northwestern vs. Tennessee Outback Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/25/2015
Even knowing that the Outback Bowl is an SEC-Big Ten contest when possible, you would have had to give me about 80 guesses before the season before I came up with this matchup. I expected very little from both teams, yet they won 18 games between them, and both did some very good things. Both come into this game off a five-game winning streak - Northwestern's is somewhat more impressive because they were underdogs three times, while Tennessee merely took care of business against outmatched opponents.
Penn State vs. Georgia TaxSlayer Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/25/2015
The TaxSlayer Bowl will always live in my mind as what it should forever be known as - the Gator Bowl. I hate nothing more than when bowl names are taken over by a sponsor - especially a sponsor with a name as painful as this one. It's the Gator Bowl and, as a Michigan fan this is a bowl I'll always remember fondly. It's not because of anything the Wolverines have done in the game. It's because in 1978 this was the game in which Woody Hayes ended his coaching career at Ohio State by hitting a Clemson player.
Florida State vs. Houston Peach Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/25/2015
The first of the major bowl games to be played on New Year's Day is a true David and Goliath tale. In one corner you have a truly elite team just a year removed from a national title. In the other corner you have a school most known lately for producing coaches who shine elsewhere - both Art Briles and Kevin Sumlin coached Houston.
Texas A&M vs. Louisville Music City Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/25/2015
Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin is a good reminder of how quickly things can change in college football. A couple of years ago he was the hottest coach in the sport. He was winning - games and a Heisman with a freshman - and was widely thought to be one of the best coaches in the sport. A departure for the NFL seemed inevitable at some point - and the only thing that could get in the way of his endless success in College Station.
Baylor vs. North Carolina Russell Athletic Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/25/2015
I guess I'm a traditionalist because one of my biggest pet peeves about bowl season - a time that I love like few others - is that bowl games like this one in which the name of the sponsor can't be ignored. It makes me grumpy and as likely as not to skip previewing the bowl - here's looking at you GoDaddy Bowl and Quick Lane Bowl. In matchups as intriguing as this one, though, I am forced to get over myself and go ahead with what really matters.
Auburn vs. Memphis Birmingham Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/25/2015
The Tigers are going to win this game. Of that I am certain. If you can find someone dumb enough that they will let you bet the Tigers then do it and be done with it. If only it were that easy, though. The problem, of course, is that the Tigers are also certain to lose. And with two very different teams - each facing some drama leading up to game and each having had very different seasons - it's hard to know for sure which Tigers will be which. But that uncertainty is what makes it fun.
Notre Dame vs. Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/24/2015
Both of these teams would rather be playing in a much more prestigious game. Until the last two weeks of the regular season, they both had a decent chance of getting there. If Ohio State hadn't lost to Michigan State in their second to last game then it would have been them and not Michigan State that played Iowa in a winner-take-all battle for a playoff spot. Notre Dame's dreams lasted a week longer - they were likely to make the playoff until they lost to Stanford in their finale.
Michigan State vs. Alabama Cotton Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/24/2015
The fact that this game - a very promising semifinal by any measure - is being played at 8 p.m. ET on New Year's Eve is almost impossibly stupid. It's almost as if the powers that be at the NCAA and the networks don't like having viewers. Moronic. I won't let it taint my view of a very good game, though - albeit a game that I will only be able to watch in bursts when I can sneak away from the party I don't really want to go to but have no choice. Have I mentioned that this scheduling is dumb?
Stanford vs. Iowa Rose Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/24/2015
Last year we didn't have a traditional pairing in the Rose Bowl - the Pac-12 was represented by the winners from Oregon, but they beat not a Big Ten foe like they are supposed to but instead the ACC's Florida State. It was a playoff game, and a highly-prestigious game and all, but it still wasn't the real Rose Bowl, and there is no better game in my mind than the Rose Bowl. Now everything is right with the world again. Not only do we have a traditional matchup, but it's a heck of a game at that.
Oklahoma vs. Clemson Orange Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/24/2015
The first of the big games of the year. The winner moves on, and the loser goes home. I wasn't a playoff guy before it started, and I still have some real issues with it, but having games this important with teams this compelling makes a believer for at least one day. Now if only we didn't have to play the games on New Year's Eve - that's a really dumb idea.
Oklahoma State vs. Ole Miss Sugar Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/24/2015
I am not in the locker rooms of these teams, obviously, but my guess is that the Sugar Bowl is not where anyone on either side was hoping to end up. Ole Miss got a huge upset win at Alabama in Week 3 and probably thought that they were national contenders, But then two weeks later they were blown out at Florida, then lost a stunner at Memphis two weeks after that, and then lost a shootout to Arkansas for good measure. Suddenly a very promising season turned into a very frustrating one. Oklahoma State was able to maintain their dream even longer - they opened their season 10-0.
College Football Playoff Betting: Unique Handicapping Challenges
by Trevor Whenham - 12/22/2015
Handicapping the bowl season is a much different proposition than the regular season. That has been true for a long time. What we have seen now, though, is that the new college football playoffs have added yet another wrinkle to postseason college football handicapping.
NCAA Football Predictions: Christmas Week Bowls Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 12/21/2015
If Saturday's first day of bowl action was any indication, it's going to be a very high-scoring and interesting postseason. Before the bowls began, Bovada had a prop asking whether any game would see two teams score at least a combined 100 points after two bowls did last year. I thought no, but there was plenty of offense on Saturday.
USC vs. Wisconsin Holiday Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/21/2015
What we have here is surely a long-awaited rematch of the 1963 Rose Bowl. In that game USC maintained their No. 1 rank in the country by beating No. 2 Wisconsin 42-37. In the first-ever meeting of the top-two ranked teams in a bowl game, Wisconsin fought back from a 42-14 fourth-quarter deficit but fell just short in what is thought to be one of the best bowl games ever played.
LSU vs. Texas Tech Texas Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/21/2015
A few weeks ago I was sure that the preview of LSU's bowl game that I wrote would definitely include a discussion of how the school had made a horrible decision by firing Les Miles. It seemed inevitable. Instead, I am writing about how bizarre it was that they made everyone think they were firing him, neutered his recruiting efforts, and then announced they were keeping him as if was the plan all along. Very odd. Relevant to this game, though? Probably not as much as the betting public will assume it to be.
Miami vs. Washington State Sun Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/21/2015
We can only hope that both teams don't revert to their recent bowl game form in this one - if they do it will be a very lame game. Miami last won a bowl game in 2006 and has lost five bowl games since. That recent record shines next to Washington State, though. The Cougars lost the 2013 New Mexico Bowl in a crazy shootout to Colorado State. That was their only bowl appearance since 2003. So, in other words, we can toss the narrative about two proud programs at the top of their game clashing in this one.
UCLA vs. Nebraska Foster Farms Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/21/2015
This game really should be called the Nightmare Bowl. The game is a total nightmare for the fanbases of both teams - they would rather be pretty much anywhere else than this game. Nebraska got tired of winning nine or 10 games a year under Bo Pelini - the same thing he had done seven straight years - and hired Mike Riley to correct the situation. He didn't correct it so much as he changed it - the team won just five games, and it suffers the ultimate humiliation of being a pity bowl invitee out of necessity.
Tulsa vs. Virginia Tech Independence Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 12/18/2015
It's sad when an era ends like this. Frank Beamer has been coaching Virginia Tech since 1987. He won his conference seven times and was National Coach of the Year in 1999. After all he has done, and all the respect he has earned over the years, he deserves to go out in something other than a bad bowl game that people will most likely watch only because their turkey hangover and exhaustion from shopping has made them incapable of doing anything but lying on the couch.
NCAA Football Mid-Major Betting Report: Temple Owls Bowl Game
by Aaron Smith - 12/18/2015
The final edition of the NCAA Football Mid-Major Betting Report is ready to go! We're finishing up the fourth year for this article at Doc's Sports. The goal of this weekly piece is to attempt to show that specialization can be a profitable betting strategy. For the mid-major betting report, we follow one team throughout the season and make selections on their games on a weekly basis. Temple was picked this year because of their ability to have a breakout season.
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