The college bowl schedule kicks off today with two opening games on the schedule as Wyoming meets Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl and Central Florida hooks up with Rutgers in the St. Petersburg Bowl.   College football fans will be treated to 34 games over 20 days culminating with Alabama and Texas deciding this year’s national champions.

This year’s matchups pair what appear to be some with three teams favored by double-digit spreads and twelve team favored by a touchdown or more.  While Vegas is seeing a lot of mismatches, there appears to be some great upsets brewing.   I am projecting right now seven underdogs achieving outright victories and sixteen underdogs covering the spread.

My biggest underdog covers include SMU, Boston College, Northwestern, East Carolina and Boise State.  My biggest underdog outright victories are Texas A&M and Stanford.

Bowl	Matchup	Spread	Winner	Cover
New Mexico Bowl	Wyoming vs. Fresno State	Fresno State by 11	Fresno State	Fresno State
St. Petersburg Bowl	Central Florida vs. Rutgers	EVEN	Central Florida	Central Florida
New Orleans Bowl	Middle Tenn St vs.Southern Miss	Southern Miss by 4	Southern Miss	Middle Tenn St
Las Vegas Bowl	BYU vs. Oregon State	Oregon State by 3	BYU	BYU
Poinsettia Bowl	Utah vs. California	EVEN	Utah	Utah
Hawaii Bowl	SMU vs. Nevada	Nevada by 15	Nevada	SMU
Little Caesars Bowl	Ohio vs. Marshall	Ohio by 3	Ohio	Ohio
Meineke Care Bowl	North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh by 3	Pitt	North Carolina
Emerald Bowl	Boston College vs. USC	USC by 9	USC	BC
Music City Bowl	Kentucky vs. Clemson	Clemson by 7½	Clemson	Clemson
Independence Bowl	Texas A&M vs. Georgia	Georgia by 7	Texas A&M	Texas A&M
Eagle Bank Bowl	UCLA vs. Temple	EVEN	Temple	Temple
Champs Sports Bowl	Wisconsin vs. Miami	Miami by 3	Miami	Miami
Humanitarian Bowl	Bowling Green vs. Idaho	Bowling Green by 2	Bowling Green	Bowling Green
Holiday Bowl	Nebraska vs. Arizona	Arizona by 1½	Nebraska	Nebraska
Armed Forces Bowl	Air Force vs. Houston	Houston by 4½	Air Force	Air Force
Sun Bowl	Stanford vs. Oklahoma	Oklahoma by 8	Stanford	Stanford
Texas Bowl	Navy vs. Missouri	EVEN	Navy	Navy
Insight Bowl	Iowa State vs. Minnesota	Minnesota by 3	Minnesota	Minnesota
Chick Fil-A Bowl	Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech	Virginia Tech by 4½	Virginia Tech	Tennessee
Outback Bowl	Northwestern vs. Auburn	Auburn by 7½	Auburn	Northwestern
Capital One Bowl	LSU vs. Penn St.	Penn St. by 3	Penn State	Penn State
Gator Bowl	Florida State vs. West Virginia	West Virginia by 3	West Virginia	West Virginia
Rose Bowl	Ohio State vs. Oregon	Oregon by 3½	Oregon	Oregon
Sugar Bowl	Cincinnati vs. Florida	Florida by 11	Florida	Florida
International Bowl	Northern Illinois vs. South Florida	South Florida by 7	South Florida	South Florida
Papa John’s Bowl	Connecticut vs. South Carolina	South Carolina by 4½	Connecticut	Connecticut
Cotton Bowl	Mississippi vs. Oklahoma State	Mississippi by 3	Oklahoma State	Oklahoma State
Liberty Bowl	Arkansas vs. East Carolina	Arkansas by 8	Arkansas	East Carolina
Alamo Bowl	Michigan State vs. Texas Tech	Texas Tech by 8	Texas Tech	Texas Tech
Fiesta Bowl	Boise State vs. TCU	TCU by 7	TCU	Boise State
Orange Bowl	Iowa vs. Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech by 4	Georgia Tech	Iowa
Gmac Bowl	Troy vs. Central Michigan	Central Michigan by 3	Central Michigan	Central Michigan
BCS Championship	Texas vs. Alabama	Alabama by 5	Alabama	Alabama

Looking at conference performance, here’s how I see it playing out:

Bowl	Matchup
Atlantic Coast	4-3
Big East	4-2
Big Ten	2-4
Big 12	4-4
C-USA	2-4
Mountain West	4-1
Pac-10	3-4
Southeastern	4-6
Western Athletic	2-2

The SEC might be the power conference, but they got some unfavorable matchup.  I think the Big 12 and Big East are going to surprise some opponents.  The Mountain West is going to do some damage and really stoke the argument that they deserve an automatic BCS invite.

As for the National Championship game, I am seeing a major blowout.  Given Texas’ performance against ranked opponents and closing out its season on some very poor play, this just seems like a mismatch of grand proportion.  TCU and Cincinnati were much more deserving of a spot in the Championship Game and Alabama is going to apply a major smackdown that will likely drop Colt McCoy’s NFL stock drop tremendously when he loses the game single-handedly.

Overall, this bowl season looks to be exciting.  We have a lot of underdogs with solid shots at upsets which should make the next 20 days enjoyable for all to watch.

Tags: Air Force, alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Auburn, BCS, boise st, Boston College, Bowling Green, BYU, California, Central Florida, Central Michigan, cincinnati, Clemson, college bowl games, college football, Connecticut, East Carolina, Florida, florida state, Fresno State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Houston, Idaho, Iowa, Iowa State, Kentucky, LSU, Marshall, Miami, Michigan State, Middle Tenn St, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Navy, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, oregon, Oregon State, Penn St., Pittsburgh, Rutgers, SMU, South Carolina, South Florida, Southern Miss, Stanford, tcu, Temple, Tennessee, texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Troy, UCLA, USC, Utah, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

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