COLUMN: It's bowling season

By: 
Mark Spensley
Express Co-Publisher

     Let’s be honest, a few months ago I would never guess that Pete and I would be wagering our rather large bet of $1 on the outcome of the college football bowl season. I figured the season would take off and come to a crashing halt. Glad I am wrong. Here is a quick rundown of bowls and my suggestions for bets (please do not use my advice in Vegas or online gambling).

     North Texas over Appalachian St. in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. Nevada over Tulane in the Idaho Potato Bowl. BYU over UCF in the Boca Raton Bowl. Louisiana Tech over Georgia Southern in the New Orleans Bowl and Florida Atlantic over Memphis in the Montgomery Bowl.

     I’ll take Houston over Hawaii in the New Mexico Bowl, Marshall over Buffalo in the Camellia Bowl and Coastal Carolina over Liberty in the Cure Bowl. UAB will upset South Carolina in the Gasparilla Bowl. Louisiana should handle UTSA in the First Responder Bowl (after all they did upset ISU). The winner of the LendingTree Bowl will be Georgia State. (The Military Bowl still has not picked their teams but I am going with the winning team.)

     Miami will beat Oklahoma St in the Cheez-It Bowl (by the way, Cheez-It has a dynamite new snack that I highly recommend: Cheez-It Snap’d). The Alamo Bowl winner is Texas over Colorado. Wisconsin wins the Mayo Bowl (I love Mayo) over Wake Forest and I am picking the Hawkeyes over the Missouri Tigers in the Music City Bowl. (oh, how I wish we were going to Nashville).

     I think Florida wins a barnburner against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl Classic and Mississippi St. beats Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl. I’m picking San Jose State over Ball State in the Arizona Bowl and West Virginia to take down Tennessee in the Liberty Bowl. The Texas Bowl winner is TCU over Arkansas.

     The Peach Bowl will quiet the Cincinnati Bearcat fans griping their team didn’t get more respect when the Georgia Bulldogs jump all over them. Northwestern should defeat Auburn in what could be Pat Fitzgerald’s last college game he is NFL-bound). I’ll take Kentucky over NC State in the Gator Bowl.

     Indiana will lose to Ole Miss in the Outback Bowl, Oregon State nips Iowa State on a close but high scoring affair and North Carolina will go down at the hand of the Texas A&M Aggies.

     College Football playoff: Alabama beats Notre Dame, Clemson defeats Ohio State, Alabama beats Clemson. The haves still have it in college football.

     Big 12 Championship. After I watched the Hawks get beat in basketball by Gonzaga I flipped over to the ISU game against Oklahoma and at the time they were down by the score of 24-7. I sensed a comeback brewing because let’s face it, they don’t play much defense in the Big 12, especially at Oklahoma, and the better QB was on the Cyclones’ side.

     Sure enough, the Cyclones picked away at the Sooners’ lead but ran out of time. The Cyclones are legit this season. I’ve read online that many Hawk fans feel they are overrated. I’m somewhere in between. I think the annual rivalry would have been a great game this year.

     Some Hawk fans were wishing the two teams would meet in a bowl game this season. I am not one of those fans. I like their rivalry as is, not as a bowl game.

     Fantasy Football update. I did indeed come out on top last week, squeaking out a 121-113 win. That victory vaulted me into our 4-team playoff against the team that gave me two of my four losses. But this week the third time was not the charm as I took my opponent down, 126-102.

     My big scorer of the week was QB Lamaar Jackson, who scored 30 points for me. A last-minute roster change also played into my win. Viking RB Dalvin Cook has been my top scorer in the league all season but had a horrible week the last time they played the Bears. 

 

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