2017-18 NCAA Bowls (Results)

Oregon (-7.5) 28-38 (25) Boise State (o/u 59)

I gotta go with Boise State and the under.  Right on Boise State, wrong on the under.

North Texas (+7) 30-50 Troy (o/u 60.5)

I'll take Troy and the under. Right on Troy, wrong on the under.

Georgia State (+4.5) 27-17 Western Kentucky (o/u 50.5)
I'll take Georgia State to keep it close and the over. Right on Georgia State, wrong on the over. 

Marshall (+5) 31-28 Colorado State (o/u 56)

I'll take Colorado State and the under. Wrong on Colorado State, wrong on the under.

Middle Tennessee (+3.5) 35-30 Arkansas State (o/u 60.5)

I'll take Arkansas State and the over. Wrong on Arkansas State, right on the over.

Akron (+17.5) 3-50 Florida Atlantic (o/u 62.5)

I'll go with Florida Atlantic and the over. Right on Florida Atlantic, wrong on the over.

Louisiana Tech (+5.5) 51-10 SMU (o/u 70)

I'll take Louisiana Tech to play it close enough and I'll go with the under. Right on La. Tech, right on the under.

Temple (+8) 28-3 Florida Int'l (FIU) (o/u 54)

I'll take Temple and the under. Right on Temple, right on the under.

Alabama-Birmingham (+6.5) 6-41 Ohio (over/under 59)
I'll take UAB and the over. Wrong on UAB, wrong on the over.

Central Michigan (+3.5) 14-37 Wyoming (o/u 45.5)

I'll take Central Michigan and the over. I was wrong on Central Michigan, right on the over.

Texas Tech (+2.5) 34-38 South Florida (o/u 66)

I'll take South Florida and the over. Right on South Florida, right on the over.

San Diego State (-6.5) 35-42 Army (o/u 46)

I'll take San Diego State and the under. Wrong on San Diego State, wrong on the under.

Appalachian State (+7) 34-0 Toledo (o/u 61.5)

I'll go with App State and the under. Right on Appalachian State, right on the under. 

Fresno State (+2.5) 33-27 Houston (o/u 49)

I'll go with Fresno State and the over. Right on Fresno State, right on the over.

Utah (+6.5) 30-14 West Virginia (o/u 56)

I'll take Utah to keep it close and the over. Right on Utah, wrong on the over.

Duke (-5.5) 36-14 Northern Illinois (o/u 47.5)
I like Northern Illinois and the under. Wrong on Northern Illinois, wrong on the under.

Kansas State (-2.5) 35-17 UCLA (o/u 64.5)
I'll go with Kansas State and the over. Right on Kansas State, wrong on the over.

Southern Mississippi (+16.5) 42-13 Florida State (o/u 49)

I'll take Southern Mississippi (to win straight up) and the over. Wrong on Southern Mississippi, right on the over.

Iowa (-2.5) 27-20 Boston College (o/u 45.5)

I'll go with Iowa and the under. Right on Iowa, wrong on the under.

Texas (+2.5) 33-16 Missouri (o/u 60.5)
I'll take Texas and the under. Right on Texas, right on the under.

Arizona (-3) 35-38 Purdue (o/u 65.5)
I'll take Arizona and the under. Push on Arizona, wrong on the under.

(13) Stanford (+2.5) 37-39 (15) TCU (o/u 49)

I'll take TCU and the over. Wrong on TCU, right on the over.

(18) Washington State (-1) 17-42 (16) Michigan State (o/u 46)

I'll take Washington State and the under. Wrong on Washington State, wrong on the under. 

Virginia (+1) 7-49 Navy (o/u 55)
I'll go with Virginia and the under. Wrong on Virginia, wrong on the under

(22) Virginia Tech (+4) 21-30 (19) Oklahoma State (o/u 63)
I'll take Oklahoma State and the over. Right on Oklahoma State, wrong on the over.

(8) Southern Cal (+7.5) 7-24 (5) Ohio State (o/u 64.5)

I'll go with Ohio State and the under. Right on Ohio State, right on the under.

Kentucky (+7.5) 23-24 (21) Northwestern (o/u 51)
I'll take Northwestern and the over. Wrong on Northwestern, wrong on the over.

(24) North Carolina State (-6.5) 52-31 Arizona State (o/u 59.5)

I've got to take North Carolina State and the under. Right on North Carolina State, wrong on the under.

Wake Forest (-3) 55-52 Texas A&M (o/u 64.5)

I like Wake to get it done and the under. Push on Wake Forest, wrong on the under.

Utah State (+4) 20-26 (OT) New Mexico State (o/u 61.5)

I'll take New Mexico State and the over. Right on New Mexico State, wrong on the over.

(10) Miami (+6) 24-34 (6) Wisconsin (44.5)
I'll take Miami and the over. Wrong on Miami, right on the over.

(11) Washington (+2.5) 28-35 (9) Penn State (o/u 54.5)
I'll take Penn State and the under. Right on Penn State, wrong on the under.

Iowa State (+4) 21-20 (20) Memphis (o/u 67)
I'll take Memphis and the over. Wrong on Memphis, wrong on the over.

Louisville (-7) 27-31 (23) Mississippi State (o/u 63)
I'll take Mississippi State and the under. Right on Mississippi State, right on the under.

(12) Central Florida (+10) 34-27 (7) Auburn (o/u 67.5)
I'll take Central Florida to keep it close and the under. Right on Central Florida, right on the under.

(14) Notre Dame (+3) 21-17 (17) LSU (o/u 51.5)
I'll take Notre Dame and the under. Right on Notre Dame, right on the under.

Michigan (+7.5) 19-26 South Carolina (o/u 42.5)
I'll take Michigan to cover and the over. Right on Michigan, right on the over.

(3) Georgia (-2) 54-48 (2OT) (2) Oklahoma (o/u 60)
I'll go with Oklahoma and the under. Wrong on Oklahoma, wrong on the under.

(4) Alabama (-3) 24-6 (1) Clemson (o/u 47)
I'll take Clemson and the over. Wrong on Clemson, wrong on the over.


On picking the winners I was 22-15-2, not bad. But on picking o/u I was 16-23, so I did not have a good sense of predicting how the games would go. I'd like to think that if I was actually going to gamble (I do not gamble, nor do I (*) recommend it), my best bets would've been Ohio State, Notre Dame, North Carolina State and Boise State. And while I may have taken a flyer on Central Florida, I'm pretty sure I would've done the same with Clemson. So all in all I did okay picking winners but I was wrong on both semifinal games and not good at all on projecting points. This is why I don't gamble.

I watched NCAA football and paid attention to it more this year than ever before. I grew up in Kentucky, not strong college football country and I went to a fancy pants liberal arts college (where I developed a love of soccer). Until the BCS came along, I just thought college football was the most capricious corrupt thing I'd ever laid eyes on and since I never had a rooting interest, it was rather easy for me to ignore. But the BCS flattened out the playing field, made it more obvious who the good teams were, so as much maligned as it was, I thought the BCS was great for the game. Got me interested in it, anyway.

Now with the one-extra game championship, I gotta say the game is absolutely perfect right now. The fact that we'll have two SEC teams in the final probably speeds up the inevitable move to an 8 team playoffs (then a 16) but I'm good right here, right now. I'm telling ya: one extra game to decide the champion is ideal, once you start adding more and more teams, tournament-style football is just gonna be a grubby endeavor that will screw with how many games the best teams play, throw off the regular season and it will increasingly narrow--not widen!--the amount of teams that can compete. An 8-team tourney is a mirage, it's good right now.


(*) The trick to gambling is recognizing that the odds are virtually never in your favor, thus you should decline to gamble. Conversely, when you recognize that the odds are in your favor, you should gamble. It is not the better part of wisdom to think that though the odds aren't in your favor you can still win; the true wisdom is remembering that even though the odds are in your favor you can still lose.