College Football Betting: Bowl Prep
Did you get your holiday shopping taken care of? Good thing, because it’s already time to get back into the war room. College football betting is once again front and center, as the first bowl games of the postseason kick off this Saturday.
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Are you ready for three weeks of wall-to-wall football? If not, we’ll do our best to help you get caught up.
The Tide Is High
The Alabama Crimson Tide are the breakthrough story of the season. They punched their ticket to the BCS Championship Game with a 31-13 victory over the Florida Gators (-4.5) in the SEC title game. Crimson Tide running back Mark Ingram followed that up by winning the Heisman Trophy, the first Alabama player ever to receive the honor. The Tide (13-0 SU, 8-5 ATS) are the No. 1 team in the BCS rankings and 5-point favorites to beat the No. 2 Texas Longhorns (13-0 SU, 5-7-1 ATS) on January 7 (8:00 p.m. Eastern, ABC) in Pasadena, Calif.
Zero Tolerance
Texas and Alabama each go into the championship game undefeated – two of five teams in the FBS to finish the regular season with zero losses. We’ll see two more at the Fiesta Bowl on January 4 (8:00 p.m. ET, FOX), thanks to the controversial decision to pit the No. 4 TCU Horned Frogs (12-0 SU, 8-4 ATS) against the No. 6 Boise State Broncos (13-0 SU, 8-5 ATS) in a battle of non-BCS programs. This is the first time two such teams have met at a major bowl and the first time a non-BCS team (Boise State in this case) has received an at-large bid. The same two clubs played at the Poinsettia Bowl last year, with TCU prevailing 17-16 as a 3.5-point favorite.
The college football odds at press time had the Horned Frogs laying seven points this year; as always, check Bodog Sports for the freshest lines.
Kelly’s Heroes
The other undefeated team is the No. 3 Cincinnati Bearcats (12-0 SU, 6-6 ATS), who won the Big East and will play at the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX) against the No. 5 Gators. But the Bearcats will be playing without the coach who got them there. 
Brian Kelly has left Cincinnati to take the prestigious (and challenging) head coaching job at Notre Dame. The reaction from the players after they heard the news was not positive at all. “It’s like somebody turned their back on us,” tight end Ben Guidugli told reporters. Offensive co-ordinator and longtime Kelly disciple Jeff Quinn will coach the Bearcats at the Sugar Bowl; Florida (12-1 SU, 6-6 ATS) is favored by 11 points.
Bowden’s Last Stand
Although the Florida State Seminoles barely made themselves bowl eligible at 6-6 SU and 3-9 ATS, they also get to play on New Year’s Day at the Gator Bowl (1:00 p.m. ET, CBS) against the No. 16 West Virginia Mountaineers (9-3 SU, 5-6 ATS). There were better teams in the ACC, but Gator Bowl officials weren’t obliged to take them – they instead went with the big-name program with the big-name coach who happens to be hanging up the clipboard after this game. Bobby Bowden has decided to retire after a rough season that included calls for him to step down. The game at Municipal Stadium in Jacksonville reportedly sold out within two hours. The Seminoles will arrive with a refurbished coaching staff under Bowden after incumbent Jimbo Richards shuffled the deck, bringing in Mark Stoops as the new defensive co-ordinator. Despite the turmoil, West Virginia is only favored by three points (-105).
Book of Saturday
The postseason gets underway this Saturday with a doubleheader on ESPN, starting with the New Mexico Bowl (Fresno State Bulldogs vs. Wyoming Cowboys) at 4:30 p.m. ET, followed by the St. Petersburg Bowl (UCF Knights vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights) at 8:00 p.m. We’ll have live betting for the opener with Fresno State (8-4 SU, 7-4 ATS) favored by 12 points and clearly superior to the Cowboys (6-6 SU, 8-3 ATS) on paper. The Bulldogs feature Ryan Mathews (6.8 yards per carry), who led the FBS with 151.3 yards per game. Wyoming allowed 170.5 rushing yards per game to place No. 91 in that department.
