College Football Bowl Results Against The Spread 2017-18
By Mike Marteny
College Football Bowl Results Against The Spread 2017-18
Can you believe that another college football season is in the books? It was crazy. It was wild. That was everything we can expect from a college football season. It definitely gets much more interesting picking every game against the spread. I didn’t stop for bowl season!
More from College Football Odds
- Colorado football getting insane amount of bets to win 2024 National Championship
- College Football National Championship Odds on National Signing Day
- 3 college football teams that could beat Georgia in 2023 (Can Florida State break through?)
- College Football 2023 National Championship Odds (Georgia favored for three-peat)
- Best college football bowl game picks today (Best bets for Monday, January 2)
I went 382-352 over the regular season with 61 betting points. That means that I beat the casino for betting every game over the entire season! I’ll take that!
My bowl mania picks were just awful. I only had 379 points. For perspective, the winner of our group, Maize N Blue, had 537. pitt2534 finished second with 500, followed by TeemsCaleb with 479. mnsooners finished fourth by just one point!
I am hoping that my against the spread picks were much better than the actual bowl mania picks. Just in case you want to follow along, click here.
Here are the final tallies for bowl season. Winners against the spread are in BOLD.
Army vs. Navy(-3.5): HIT! Army did take this straight up in a full blown snowstorm in Annapolis!
Troy(-6.5) vs. North Texas at New Orleans: HIT! I got off to a good start! Unfortunately, I think it was short lived.
Western Kentucky(-6.5) vs. Georgia State at Orlando: MISS! So much for the WKU offense. Well, Mike White had a good game. The rest of the team? Not so much.
Boise State vs.Oregon(-7.5) at Las Vegas: MISS! This is where the wheels started to come off. Oregon never could get anything going on offense. And the defense, which had been an issue all year, couldn’t stop Boise.
Marshall vs. Colorado State(-6.5) at Albuquerque: MISS! I should have known better than this. Colorado State fooled me all year long.
Middle Tennessee State vs. Arkansas State(-3.5) at Birmingham: MISS! The Arkansas State defense was a sore spot here. Justice Hansen was as advertised, but the Blue Raiders defense came up big when they had to.
Akron at Florida Atlantic(-22.5): HIT! This was easy money that I talked myself out of betting more on. Take the last two syllables of that sentence, and it sums up bowl season for me…..
Louisiana Tech vs. SMU(-6.5) at Frisco: MISS! Wow, where did that come from? The Bulldogs had a stagnant offense for a lot of the season, and they just shredded SMU. This was total domination for Louisiana Tech.
Temple(-7.5) vs. Florida International at St. Petersburg: MISS! FIU was completely shut down by the Owls. Their offense couldn’t do anything.
UAB vs. Ohio(-3.5) at Nassau: MISS! UAB got absolutely steamrolled in this one. The Solich machine was well oiled, and wasn’t stopping for anything.
Central Michigan vs. Wyoming(-3.5) at Boise: MISS! So, I talked myself out of this one. I knew better. Josh Allen lifted his draft stock with this performance.
Texas Tech vs. South Florida(-2.5) at Birmingham: HIT! This didn’t break the scoreboard like I thought it would, but it was easily the most entertaining of the early bowls. And I did manage to hit both the spread picks and the over/under on this one.
Army vs. San Diego State(-6.5) at Ft. Worth: HIT! Army capped their best season since 1996 with a win over a very good team in a bowl game. Rashaad Penny had a nice going away party with 221 yards on just 14 carries with four touchdowns. It still wasn’t enough.
Appalachian State vs. Toledo(-6.5) at Mobile: MISS! Toledo, one of the best offenses in college football, was shut out by the Mountaineers defense. This was complete domination, and another strong showing for the Sun Belt.
Fresno State vs. Houston(-2.5) at Honolulu: MISS! This was an entertaining game. Fresno capped off a great season with their tenth win.In hindsight, this was one I also should have seen coming.
Utah(-6.5) vs. West Virginia at Dallas: HIT! I should have put more on this one. West Virginia just isn’t the same without Will Grier and Justin Crawford. This was brutal.
Duke(-5.5) vs. Northern Illinois(-6.5) at Detroit: MISS! I felt good about this pick until Duke took the field. I saw immediately that the good Duke had shown up. I knew I was in trouble then.
Kansas State(-6.5) vs. UCLA at Tucson: HIT! This wasn’t even close after halftime. Kansas State adjusted, UCLA did not. Would it have made a difference if Josh Rosen were in this game? Maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it. It was the UCLA defense that was a letdown in the second half.
Southern Mississippi vs. Florida State(-15.5) at Shreveport: MISS! So much for Southern Miss showing up…..
Iowa(-2.5) vs. Boston College at New York: MISS! I’m still baffled at how Boston College blew this game. Iowa did play a very good game though. They had to to win this one.
Arizona(-3.5) vs. Purdue at Santa Clara: MISS! Purdue’s defense has been solid all year. What surprised me was the offensive output. Elijah Sindelar should have locked down the starting job for next year with this one.
Texas vs. Missouri(-3.5) at Houston: MISS! I knew better than this. I really did. Bowl season can make you make some bad picks.
Virginia at Navy(EVEN): HIT! Home teams go 2-2 to start bowl season, and this was an absolute blowout. The service academies had a great bowl season!
Virginia Tech vs. Oklahoma State(-5.5) at Orlando: HIT! Mason Rudolph had a nice game in his swan song. So did James Washington. It was everything that Oklahoma State planned.
Stanford vs. TCU(-2.5) at San Antonio: MISS! Oh, that stupid half! This was one of the more entertaining games of bowl season. TCU’s defense did a solid job on Bryce Love, and the Cardinal couldn’t stop Kenny Hill.
Washington State vs. Michigan State(-1.5) at San Diego: MISS! It was nice of Washington State to not show up again. They were completely dominated, and it likely wouldn’t have mattered if Luke Falk played or not.
Wake Forest(-2.5) vs. Texas A&M at Charlotte: HIT! This game featured 107 points, including 66 points in the first half. This was one of the more entertaining games this bowl season, and it turned out to be the highest scoring one.
North Carolina State(-6.5) vs. Arizona State at El Paso: HIT! Arizona State showed new coach Herm Edwards exactly what he is up against: a porous defense. The Sun Devls were gouged all year long, so it should be no surprise that it happened in the bowl as well.
Kentucky vs. Northwestern(-7.5) at Nashville: MISS! Northwestern looked like they were going to run off with this one until the defense failed in the second half.
New Mexico State vs. Utah State(-4.5) at Tucson: HIT! This was a big one for New Mexico State. Their first bowl in 57 years, and they get a win in overtime! What a game!
USC vs. Ohio State(-7.5) at Jerry World: MISS! Ohio State made a statement here. Both teams were scoreless in the second half, but the Ohio State offense did all the damage that they needed to in the first half.
Louisville(-6.5) vs. Mississippi State at Jacksonville: MISS! Lamar Jackson had a big game, but no one else came through for the Cardinals. That defense was exposed again.
Iowa State at Memphis: HIT! Memphis became the first bowl team to lose at home. This was a great game between two good offenses that somehow thrived on defense in this game. Allen Lazard had a huge game in his final college football contest. You will see him in the NFL on Sundays.
Washington vs. Penn State(-2.5) at Glendale: MISS! I knew better. Washington hasn’t shown up in a big game besides the Apple Cup this year.
Wisconsin(-4.5) at Miami(FL): MISS! Two home teams lose on the same day? The Miami defense came up big a couple of times in the first quarter, but Alex Hornibrook had the game of his life! Four touchdown passes on a big stage has to be a huge stepping stone for next year.
Michigan(-7.5) vs. South Carolina at Tampa: HIT! Once again, Michigan failed in a big game. The Big Ten(14) had a chance to go undefeated in bowl season, which is impressive in it’s own right. The South Carolina defense came up big in this one. The offense put up 23 second half points while the defense shut out Michigan in the fourth for a big bowl win.
Central Florida vs. Auburn(-9.5) at Atlanta: HIT! I didn’t expect UCF to win this outright, but I’m not surprised that they did either. This team has rallied in big situations all year.
Notre Dame vs. LSU(-3.5) at Orlando: HIT! This was a great game like I expected, but it was a yawner for most of the first three quarters. It was 7-6 LSU at the end of three. The teams then combined for 25 fourth quarter points and a fantastic finish.
Georgia(-2.5) vs. Oklahoma at Pasadena: MISS! I have seen this far too many times. Oklahoma choking away a big lead. The defense came up with a couple of big plays, but after that, they kept going for the big play instead of the solid one. The defense couldn’t stop the big play, and Georgia’s defense held Oklahoma enough in the second half. After more review, I have to think that Baker Mayfield was hurt pretty bad when that lineman fell on him. Why else would Riley take the ball out of the Heisman winner’s hands with the game on the line? It’s the only thing that makes sense. I have to give credit to Georgia. Jake Fromm made big plays, the running backs were unstoppable, and the defense came up big when the team really needed them.
Alabama(-2.5) vs. Clemson at New Orleans: HIT! This was domination by Alabama. If there was one of the four that looked like they didn’t belong in the playoff, it was the number one team. I hit both the under and the pick on this one as well. I should get two points. I need all the help I can get!
Georgia vs. Alabama(-3.5) at Atlanta: HIT! As expected, this was a great game. Regardless of what you think about Nick Saban, who else has the stones to pull a starting quarterback, one that already has National Championship game experience, and replace him with a true freshman? It was the key to the game
Bowl season wasn’t quite as bad as I thought, but it was definitely worse than I was hoping for. I went 18-23 in bowl season to bring by final 2017 tally to 400-375. At least it makes the math easy! I finished at 51.6% on the season. Anything better than 50% is respectable, but I fell short of my goal.
How did the point betting go? Let’s check it out! The season long total is in parentheses:
1. 3-0 (55-49) = 6
2. 5-5 (145-129) = 32
3. 7-9 (124-109) = 45
4. 2-5 (49-57) = -32
5. 1-4 (27-31) = -20
I lost 30 points during the bowls, but still came out 31 points ahead for the season. I am still down 13 points over the three seasons that I have been keeping track of betting points. I definitely have to be more conservative with my four and five point picks. I do well in the middle range.
Next: Week 10 College Basketball Power Rankings
It was another great season full of heartbreak for most of us, except the Alabama fans, who who have become quite spoiled by Nick Saban and his college football juggernaut. I will be back next year to make all of the picks against the spread again! In the meantime, I still have DFS picks for the NBA and MLB. We also have plenty of site experts that cover DFS for the NFL, PGA, EPL, and the Euroleague! We also have picks for Fantasy Draft and FanDuel! We have something for everyone.