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Birmingham Bowl Odds & Prediction

By Mike Marteny

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Here is the pick against the spread for the Birmingham Bowl!

The bowls are more than half over, and though I haven’t watched all of them between holiday festivities and work, I don’t think I am off to that great of a start. My bowl mania picks were doing okay until Nebraska beat UCLA. I still have the against the spread picks to go, and from the looks of it, it will be a struggle to stay at .500 in bowl season. I still will finish in the black in the points system though.

More from College Football Odds

In case you missed how the point scale works, here is a brief rundown:

5. A lock. I am comfortable making a sizable wager on this game.

4. Very confident. Not quite a lock, but I am comfortable making a decent sized wager on it.

3. Middle of the road. Good enough that I would make a small wager on it.

2. Could go either way. So much so that I wouldn’t bet on it.

1. Stay away from these.

Just in case you missed any:

On to the Birmingham Bowl!

Auburn(-3.5) vs. Memphis at Birmingham, AL(5):

Auburn(6-6, 2-6):

Wins: vs. Louisville(31-24), vs. Jacksonville State(27-20), vs. San Jose State(35-21), at Kentucky(30-27), at Texas A&M(26-10), vs. Idaho(56-34)

Losses: at LSU(21-45), vs. Mississippi State(9-17), at Arkansas(46-54), vs. Mississippi(19-27), vs. Georgia(13-20), vs. Alabama(13-29)

Record vs. bowl teams: 3-6

Memphis(9-3, 5-3):

Wins: vs. Missouri State(63-7), at Kansas(55-23), at Bowling Green(44-41), vs. Cincinnati(53-46), at South Florida(24-17), vs. Mississippi(37-24), at Tulsa(66-42), vs. Tulane(41-13), vs. SMU(63-0)

Losses: vs. Navy(20-45), at Houston(34-35), at Temple(12-31)

Record vs. bowl teams: 5-3

Auburn was in the preseason talk for a dark horse playoff team. All that went quickly by the wayside when they got bulldozed by Leonard Fournette and LSU. There were chinks in the armor long before that though with the uninspiring win over Louisville and the close call against Jacksonville State. You can’t say anything real bad about that one. Jacksonville State is in the FCS Championship game, but the fact remains that Auburn was supposed to be much better than they ended up being. They have carried that stigma all year long. Their real reason for lack of success is the instability at quarterback. Neither Sean White nor Jeremy Johnson have done much in their time with the job. That will need to change before this game for them to have a shot against the high flying Memphis offense.

Paxton Lynch could be the number one pick in the NFL draft this spring. That’s how good of a quarterback he is. He led the Tigers to a big win over Ole Miss, a team that beat Auburn at home. The Memphis defense held them back from a truly special year when the offense failed to get going against the stifling defenses of Navy and Temple. The Tigers put up 50 or more points five times, and will be looking to do it again against a below average Auburn secondary.

This is not a good matchup for Auburn. They will likely be able to run the ball with Peyton Barber, so they wont get blown out, but I’m not sure the secondary can handle Lynch and all of the weapons at WR. The Auburn defensive line needs to get pressure on Lynch. If they can do that, this game will stay close. With Memphis’s defense, Auburn will have a chance to win. I just question their quarterback situation and their motivation. I like Memphis straight up.

My pick: Memphis

Next: The Picks For Every Bowl Game!

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