Following a long and eventful college football regular season, the most wonderful time of the year is finally here. Bowl season might not be as essential across the college football landscape as it once was, but it still presents bettors with a plethora of games to handicap and wager on. The action continues on Tuesday with the Boca Raton Bowl between Toledo and Louisville, the New Orleans Bowl between Western Kentucky and Southern Miss and the Frisco Bowl between UNLV and Ohio.
With another weekday slate of bowl games upon us, it’s time to get into this Tuesday card with my best bets column. We have gotten back on track in the column with a 6-1 mark over the last couple of weeks, so let’s keep that momentum going into bowl season! Let’s take a look at my pair of CFB best bets for Tuesday, and you can also find out all of our expert CFB picks for the Bowl Season action.
CFB best bet: Western Kentucky vs Southern Miss over 58.5 (-110)
Odds available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to Over 59.5.
Both of these teams are coming into this game following disappointing ends to their respective regular seasons, but I actually think we’ll see a pretty entertaining bowl game this time around. Each side should be pretty motivated to put forth a good showing, especially since both teams have expressed interest in finishing the season strong and playing one more game with their teammates. In fact, there are hardly any opt-outs from either team in this game, and both sides are pretty healthy coming off a couple of weeks away from the rigors of conference play. Instead of questioning the motivation of each team, we have a script that sets up nicely for an over on Tuesday.
The biggest question mark in this game centers around Southern Miss, as former head coach Charles Huff has moved on to be the new head coach at Memphis. However, offensive coordinator Blake Anderson is assuming head coaching duties and he’ll have the backing of his staff and starting quarterback Braylon Braxton in this one. Southern Miss should have no trouble moving the ball on the Western Kentucky rush defense. Conversely, you can generate plenty of success on Southern Miss’ defense, a unit that is 111th in points per quality drive allowed. All signs point to this one being a shootout, so let’s bank on a higher-scoring contest in a matchup that should feature a lot of tempo and plenty of scoring opportunities.
CFB best bet: UNLV Rebels -6.5 over Ohio Bobcats (-115)
Odds available at bet365 Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to UNLV -7.
Both of these teams are in pretty different states of mind heading into this game, as UNLV appears to be motivated to play in this game and should have almost all of its roster available, while Ohio recently fired head coach (and offensive play-caller) Brian Smith due to issues of professional miscount. With that sudden change in mind, it would be fair to question the motivation of this Bobcats team heading into what is essentially a meaningless game. On the other side, UNLV’s offense has been excellent all season long (20th in success rate, 12th in points per drive) and I expect Anthony Colandrea and company to have no problem putting up points against an Ohio defense that should struggle to keep up with the Rebels’ consistent tempo and explosive passing attack.
Generally speaking, it’s smarter to try and pick a winner in a lot of these bowl games that feature a ton of uncertainty. There is naturally a lot of variance that is being introduced to these games, and it’s hard for the market to accurately price that in one way or another. Therefore, when looking to back a favorite in a bowl game, it’s best to lay the points and not worry about if the spread is a bit inflated in this spot. Let’s look for that trend to continue and take UNLV to roll through an Ohio team that might not be in the right state of mind to compete for 60 minutes on Tuesday.
Get our expert’s full UNLV vs Ohio prediction
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