Wasabi Fenway Bowl: SMU Mustangs (11-2) vs Boston College Eagles (6-6)
What you need to know: SMU enters this game on a roll, the Mustangs brought in a lot of transfers before the season and early on it took time for their offense to find a rhythm but once it did they had liftoff. The Mustangs will bring a 9 game win streak into this game, and overall they felt they had an argument for a NY6 bowl. SMU lost QB Preston Stone to injury prior to their conference championship but it didn’t stop them anyway. The catalyst for Rhett Lashlee’s squad wasn’t the offense, it was their defense that led the way. Boston College and Jeff Hafley had a very nice rebound season, the Eagles were 6-3 at one point but suffered some injuries down the stretch and lost their last 3 games. Boston College has a very exciting QB in Thomas Castellanos who is mobile and can make thrilling plays, unfortunately those plays can be exciting for either side. Wasabi is not what you’d expect by the name, they are a cloud storage company. Yes, this game takes place inside a baseball stadium.
Previous Meetings: These programs have met only once before, in 1986. If you don’t recall, when that meeting happened the dark cloud of the NCAA was over SMU but it did not stop the Mustangs from earning a home win over Boston College. I can’t find record of it but I’d assume the return trip was lost due to SMU receiving the death penalty. Not to worry, these two will become ACC foes next season and they play the next 3 years. The ACC’s newest rivalry coming up!
Motivation Edge: SMU had hopes of a NY6 bowl and instead they got sent to the coldest destination possible. Not many are talking about it but SMU got the worst draw of bowl season and it’s not even close. Boston College on the other hand is happy to be back in a bowl game again and this is a home game for them, the home game 35 years in the making for BC vs SMU.
Best Bet: Boston College +11 – a lot of money is on SMU so maybe wait this out and see how big of a number you can get. Boston College will be more motivated for this and SMU has not performed well in bowl games, not winning one since 2012 (though to be fair they had bowls in 2020 and 2021 cancelled.)
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl: Rutgers Scarlet Knights (6-6) vs Miami Hurricanes (7-5)
What you need to know: Rutgers had their strongest start in years, they started 6-2 before hitting the meat of their schedule and losing their last 4. Greg Schiano seems to be the only coach who can make this program respectable and he’s done a solid job. They are led by a solid defense and an offense that is at least capable. Miami is another team that ended the year going in the wrong direction. The Hurricanes opened up strong, claiming Miami superiority over their Ohio foes and many forget but Miami of all teams racked up 48 points and Over 450 yards against a Texas A&M defense that didn’t do that again even against Alabama or LSU. It didn’t last, thanks to the biggest collapse of the season Miami lost to Georgia Tech. This kicked off a season ending run where the Hurricanes went 3-5 down the stretch. Miami turned from Tyler Van Dyke to freshman Emory Williams late in the year but Williams got hurt reaching for a must have first down against Florida State and Van Dyke transferred. The Hurricanes might be down to one QB for this game. Yes, this is the 2nd game on this day that is in a baseball stadium in the Northeast. Can you imagine if a blizzard hits? I can see the Bad Boy Mowers covered in snow now and it’s glorious.
Previous Meetings: Miami and Rutgers were together in the old days of the Big East for some time and totaled 11 meetings. It doesn’t help that most of these occurred during Miami’s prime but this series is extremely one sided. Miami has won each matchup and none have been close. Maybe the closest Rutgers ever got was in 2002, Rutgers raised some eyebrows by taking 17-8 lead, and even led 17-14 in the 4th quarter before Miami reeled off 28 unanswered to put them away.
Motivation Edge: Rutgers is thrilled to be back in a bowl. Normally teams from cold destinations get to leave to go to a warmer southern destination for their bowl game, Miami is getting the opposite of that. Rutgers is clearly more excited for this draw.
Best Bet: Rutgers being only 1.5 points dogs is jarring, yet it might fit. Keep an eye on the weather forecast, if it looks like it’s going to be cold it’s worth betting Rutgers here.
Pop-Tarts Bowl: NC State Wolfpack (9-3) vs Kansas State Wildcats (8-4)
What you need to know: NC State started out this season struggling and the Wolfpack hit rock bottom in a 24-3 loss to Duke. NC State had a bye week to recover from that and they clearly found something. The Wolfpack would win out from there, this included a massive win over Clemson, beating Miami and of course crushing hated rival North Carolina. NC State is quietly one of the hottest teams in the nation right now. NC State somehow maintained this streak despite changes at QB, it began with MJ Morris at QB, but he took himself out of the lineup to redshirt and eventually transfer. That led to Brennan Armstrong who was originally benched for Morris to take back over at QB, Armstrong played a lot better once he took back over. Kansas State on the other hand had what you could simply call a solid season. The Wildcats generally beat the teams they were better than and lost to the best teams on their schedule, they were never out of any game, each loss was by one score. The only game that didn’t hold to their pattern was an absolutely crazy Farmageddon that occurred in what was basically a blizzard. Kansas State’s QB Will Howard transferred out so freshman Avery Johnson will start. Johnson has electric mobility, they unleashed him against Texas Tech where he ran for 5 TDs, he also played a lot against TCU but wasn’t used much since then. As you may have heard the Pop-Tart mascot will be edible which is going to be wild and fun to watch. Only in college football, I love this sport. Good for this bowl being creative and fun.
Previous Meetings: First time matchup!! These programs are incredibly similar in the modern era in how they are often solid hanging around 8-9 wins each year but don’t have as much historic success. Glad to see them finally get together for a game!
Motivation Edge: Both teams will be very excited to be in sunny Florida for this one and both want this to help them finish the season strong. What gives NC State the edge is that 10 wins is a mark that has been extremely elusive for this program. They’ve hit 9 wins so many times but only reached or surpassed 10 wins once in program history, in 2002, with Phillip Rivers as their QB! The Wolfpack will be hoping to hit that mark.
Best Bet: Over 47.5 – NC State loves low scoring games but their offense has picked it up as the season went on. Kansas State had very few games that finished below this number so it seems rather low.
Valero Alamo Bowl: Arizona Wildcats (9-3) vs Oklahoma Sooners (10-2)
What you need to know: These are the two best teams that didn’t make a NY6 bowl so we are all very lucky that they are matched to against each other! Arizona started the year losing their games early, the Mississippi State and USC losses both in OT that are regretful in hindsight. Arizona’s run to end the season was incredible though, the Wildcats won their last 6 games over some really good teams. One of the most impressive things is that redshirt freshman QB Noah Fifita was forced into action thanks to an injury to their starter and he became a revelation for this team. Impressive work by Jedd Fisch and co. Oklahoma started the season and showed they had playoff aspirations in taking down rival Texas. Oklahoma’s season came crashing down with back to back upset losses to Kansas and Oklahoma State but otherwise Oklahoma rolled all season thanks to improvements on the defense and being strong up front. Danny Stutsman and Billy Bowman led that defensive unit. Oklahoma will be taking this bowl game without Dillon Gabriel who was their star QB, transferred out. Highly regarded freshman Jackson Arnold will start, he filled in solidly against BYU earlier this year.
Previous Meetings: Surprisingly these two teams had a home and home series in 1988 and 1989. They split those games. Most notably their 1989 meeting in Tucson was a true rock fight where Arizona upset Oklahoma 6-3 on a last second field goal. This story about the game was very entertaining to read https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-17-sp-195-story.html
Motivation Edge: Oklahoma will be excited to be in a better bowl compared to last year but this is still short of the Sooners expectations. Arizona meanwhile has to be absolutely thrilled to be here, this is one of the best seasons the Wildcats have had and they are hoping to finish this off.
Best Bet: Under 62.5 – this is a very high total for these two. A big catalyst for Arizona’s improvement this year was their defense and it’s gone underappreciated. 8 of Arizona’s games went under. If you’re feeling frisky go ahead and bet Arizona too, the Wildcats were the best team ATS this year.
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