2016 Bowl Results Against The Spread
By Mike Marteny
2016 Bowl Results Against The Spread
We have come to the end of another college football season. This is always a sad time for me. Maybe that is why I put this off for a week. I wasn’t ready to let go. College football is the last sport where the regular season actually means something. That has to count for something!
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I picked every game against the spread this season, but the results weren’t always as planned. I was 335-381 during the regular season, but I could make up some decent ground with a solid bowl season!
I should be glad this season is coming to a close. I missed too many early on to make up ground. Hopefully I finished strong!
Winners against the spread are in BOLD, followed by my result.
Here are the picks, in case you want to follow along:
Gildan New Mexico Bowl
Geico Las Vegas Bowl
Raycom Camellia Bowl
AutoNation Cure Bowl
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Miami Beach Bowl
Boca Raton Bowl
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Popeyes Bahamas Bowl
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
Dollar General Bowl
Hawaii Bowl
St. Petersburg Bowl
Quick Lane Bowl
Camping World Independence Bowl
Zaxby’s Heart Of Dallas Bowl
Northrup Grumman Military Bowl
National Funding Holiday Bowl
Motel 6 Cactus Bowl
New Era Pinstripe Bowl
Russell Athletic Bowl
Foster Farms Bowl
AdvoCare V100 Bowl
Birmingham Bowl
Belk Bowl
Valero Alamo Bowl
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Hyundai Sun Bowl
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl
Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl
Capital One Orange Bowl
Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
Chick Fil A Peach Bowl
PlayStation Fiesta Bowl
Outback Bowl
Goodyear Cotton Bowl
Northwestern Mutual Rose Bowl
National Championship Game
Navy(-5.5) vs. Army: MISS! I should have known better. Navy hasn’t covered a spread in this game for a while.
UTSA at New Mexico(-7.5): HIT! My go big or go home policy for the bowls was off to a good start!
Houston(-4.5) at San Diego State: HIT! Donnel Pumphrey went out in style, and with a huge win. This shouldn’t have surprised anyone.
Appalachian State vs. Toledo: MISS! Well, this was the biggest toss up of bowl season, and was a very good game. You couldn’t really ask for more.
Arkansas State vs. Central Florida(-5.5): MISS! I should have known since the Knight didn’t beat a bowl team this year. Arkansas State is going to be a really good team again next year.
Southern Mississippi(-6.5) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette: HIT! This one was very close!
Tulsa(-13.5) vs. Central Michigan: MISS! I knew the Tulsa offense was capable of this, but wow! The story was the Tulsa defense. They looked better than they have in years.
Memphis vs. Western Kentucky(-6.5): HIT! Well, we found that the Hilltopper system still works even with a new coach.
BYU(-10.5) vs. Wyoming: HIT! This was the easiest money of the bowls. Hopefully you made out on in well like I did!
Idaho vs. Colorado State(-14.5): HIT! This game featured 111 combined points, the most of any bowl. Idaho went out in style, though I do hope they revisit dropping down after this show!
Eastern Michigan vs. Old Dominion(-3.5): MISS! I shouldn’t have put as much on this. I knew the Monarchs were solid.
Louisiana Tech(-6.5) vs. Navy: MISS! Navy put up a great fight behind a third string quarterback. Of course, the Louisiana Tech offense was terrific, but that defense was terrible.
Ohio vs. Troy(-6.5): MISS! This game was not as close as the score indicates.
Hawaii vs. Middle Tennessee State(-6.5): MISS! This was quite a showing by Hawaii in this one, likely their best game of the season.
Miami(OH) vs. Mississippi State(-14.5): HIT! I gave Mississippi State a little too much credit for playing in the SEC. I knew this line was totally bogus.
Maryland(-1.5) vs. Boston College: MISS! Yeah, so, I guess Maryland’s problems were just missing their quarterback. It says volumes about how bad your defense is when you give up 36 to a terrible offense.
Vanderbilt vs. North Carolina State(-5.5): HIT! The only thing I missed here was it was Jaylen Samuels and not Matt Dayes that took over the game.
Army(-10.5) at North Texas: HIT! This line was one of the worst, but that was good for those of you that followed my lead. This was a great game. You can consider this season a success for both teams.
Temple(-11.5) vs. Wake Forest: MISS! I’m glad the line was so large on this, or I would have put more on Temple. There is no way I thought they would lose outright. This was a great bowl season for the ACC, and a harbinger of things to come.
Minnesota vs. Washington State(-8.5): MISS! This was the biggest shocker of bowl season for me. What a great performance by the Minnesota defense.
Boise State(-7.5) vs. Baylor: MISS! December 27th single-handedly torpedoed by Bowl Mania sheet. It really hurt the bottom line against the spread as well.
Northwestern vs. Pittsburgh(-4.5): MISS! This was one of the few blemishes for the ACC. It is more indicative of just how underrated Northwestern was this year.
West Virginia vs. Miami(FL)(-3.5): HIT! More proof that rankings mean very little. Vegas knew who should have been favored.
Indiana vs. Utah(-5.5): MISS! Indiana rallied around their dismissed coach and nearly pulled the upset.
Kansas State vs. Texas A&M(-3.5): HIT! To me, this was one of the easier ones. I know I was in the minority thinking K-State would win, but it was a great game like I expected.
South Florida(-10.5) vs. South Carolina: MISS! We caught a glimpse of how good this young South Carolina team is going to be in the near future here.
Arkansas vs. Virginia Tech(-6.5): HIT! This looked like a terrible pick until halftime!
Oklahoma State vs. Colorado(-2.5): MISS! This was quite a statement by Oklahoma State.
Georgia vs. TCU(-2.5): HIT! Georgia needed to end this tumultuous season on a high note.
Stanford(-2.5) vs. North Carolina: HIT! The half went my way this time.
Nebraska vs. Tennessee(-6.5): MISS! Of concern to Nebraska fans should be how awful the defense was in the last two games, not replacing Tommy Armstrong. Mike Riley has plenty of quarterbacks in Lincoln. What he does not have is a solid defense. They were gouged by an average at best Tennessee team.
South Alabama vs. Air Force(-14.5): MISS! Well, the Jaguars started out well. Then they just got trampled by this formidable ground game.
Florida State vs. Michigan(-6.5): HIT! This was one of the best games of bowl season. It had all the drama you could ask for from two proud programs in prime time, no less. This overshadowed the two semifinal games.
LSU(-3.5) vs. Louisville: HIT! This game reiterated just how ridiculous the Heisman is. ESPN crowned Lamar Jackson in September. He clearly did not deserve it by the end of the year. Any of the others on that stage with him deserved it just as much, if not more.
Kentucky vs. Georgia Tech(-3.5): HIT! If we learned one thing this bowl season, it was to always go with the option team.
Washington vs. Alabama(-14.5): MISS! This was a very good showing by Washington against a team that was clearly better than they were. Washington is going to be very good next year though, and part of the reason will be playing a team like Alabama.
Ohio State(-2.5) vs. Clemson: MISS! With all due respect to everything Alabama did this year, this may have been the most dominating performance by any defense this year. Clemson made Ohio State look like Ball State.
Florida(-2.5) vs. Iowa: MISS! I knew better.
Western Michigan vs. Wisconsin(-9.5): HIT! The Broncos gave a very good effort here, but this was not a good matchup for them. Wisconsin has a really good defense.
USC(-7.5) vs. Penn State: HIT! If it weren’t for Michigan-Florida State, this would have been the best game. It might have been anyway. What a comeback by Penn State, only to lead to an equally impressive comeback by Penn State, only to lose it at the end.
Auburn vs. Oklahoma(-2.5): HIT! I almost want Oklahoma to join the SEC because they always show up in those games. They sure didn’t for Houston and Ohio State. Of course, this was an Oklahoma team that found their stride. They were firing on all cylinders here.
Clemson vs. Alabama(-6.5): HIT! Once again, Clemson and Alabama gave us a very entertaining championship game. It didn’t begin that way. Bama looked like they were going to run off with this in the first quarter. But DeShaun Watson proved what a leader he is mounting a comeback against the best defense in the college football universe.
It was a wacky bowl season, but we wouldn’t expect anything less. The final tally was 21-21 against the spread, which puts my season total at 356-402 for a total of 47%. A strong finish the last few weeks saved me from my worst total over the six years I’ve been doing this (2013 was a rough year). This was the second worst, but I fully expect to rebound next year.
Did I gain any points in my big bowl betting campaign? Season totals are in parentheses:
1. 0-2 (56-64) -8
2. 2-4 (129-123) +12
3. 8-8 (101-128) -81
4. 6-6 (50-51) -4
5. 5-1 (20-37) -85
I gained 14 points during bowl season, all due to my five point bets finally paying off! I still lost 166 points on the season, and my two year points total is at -43. That means I will start next year in a big hole, but I can promise it wont be as bad as this year.
Next: FanDuel Picks For Conference Championship Weekend
I hope you had as much fun with this as I did this year! I will be back in August with every pick against the spread next season. Until then, we will have DFS picks for the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, and even the EPL and Golf. We have something for everyone, no matter the sport!