Bowl Previews (December 15-18)

December 13, 2018 by CFP Staff

The 40-game bowl season begins Saturday, December 15th with a 5-pack of games and it all kicks off with the Cure Bowl at 1:30 p.m. ET.

A pair of Louisiana schools will head east to Orlando as Tulane (6-6) faces Louisiana-Lafayette (7-6). The Green Wave tied for first in Conference USA's West division with a 5-3 mark in league play. Louisiana's Ragin Cajuns' lost to Appalachian State in the Sun Belt Championship game. Though the schools are only two hours apart along Interstate 10, they've met just 28 times. Tulane has dominated the series 22-6, but each team has won half of the 12 meetings that have taken place since 1988. Click Here for more information about sports-themed slots. Louisiana was shut out in the first 7 meetings from 1911-1920 before finally getting on the board with a safety in 20-2 loss in 1923. They were then shut out 3 more times before finally scoring on offense while posting a 17-16 loss in 1974, some 63 years after the series began. This is the first time that the Ragin' Cajuns will play in a bowl game that isn't called the New Orleans Bowl, and it's also the first time that a coach other than Mark Hudspeth will serve as their head coach in a bowl game. The computer likes Tulane by 3.35.

The New Mexico Bowl at 2:00 p.m. ET in Albuquerque is a 'reunion game' between two former Big West Conference rivals - Utah State (10-2) and North Texas (9-3). The Aggies are now in the Mountain West and North Texas plays in Conference USA. The teams haven't met since 2004. The Aggies hold a 4-3 series advantage and are an 8.38-point favorite, according to the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com.

Up next is the Las Vegas Bowl (3:30 p.m. ET) with Mountain West champ Fresno State (11-2) taking on Arizona State (7-5) out of the PAC-12. The Sun Devils haven't played in this game since 2011 when Boise State ran them out of the building 56-24. Arizona State is 3-0 all-time versus Fresno State, but hasn't played the Bulldogs since 1941 when ASU was also called the Bulldogs. In fact, they were the Arizona State Teachers' College at Tempe Bulldogs. Fresno State in 1941 was the Fresno State Normal School Bulldogs and competed in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. The computer has ASU by 2.70 - good information to have if you're considering use of a mobile betting site.

The Camellia Bowl is fourth in the line-up on opening day and features a battle of Eagles as MAC member Eastern Michigan (7-5) takes on Sun Belt member Georgia Southern (9-3) in Birmingham. This is only the third bowl game in the history of EMU football and the second for GSU. Chris Creighton has now led Eastern Michigan to two bowl games in three years after the school went 20 consecutive years without a winning record prior to Creighton's arrival. Georgia Southern has only been playing FBS football since 2014 and went bowling in its first year of eligibility in 2015. But a 58-27 win over Bowling Green in the GoDaddy Bowl came under interim head coach Dell McGee after Willie Fritz resigned to fill Tulane's vacancy. 2016 and 2017 were tumultuous for the program as the school hired Tyson Summers to replace Fritz, only to fire him mid-way through the 2017 season when the team was 0-6 and his overall record was 5-13. Chad Lunsford took over as interim head coach and began the turnaround as the team won 2 of its final 6 games, but the 2-10 final record was the worst in the school's football history. This season, Lunsford led the program back to respectability, largely by returning to a run-first offense that enters the bowl season ranked 8th in the nation. The computer has Eastern Michigan in a mild upset by 2.16.

The fifth and final game on December 15 pits Sun Belt Champion Appalachian State (10-2) against Conference USA runner-up Middle Tennessee (8-5) in the New Orleans Bowl. The Mountaineers returned to the 'big leagues' of college football in 2014 and went bowling a year later in their first season of bowl eligibility. They are now 3-0 in bowl games. The Blue Raiders are also making a fourth straight bowl trip. MTSU is 2-5 overall in bowl games and looking for a second straight bowl win. These teams have met only once before with Appalachian State winning 18-7 in Boone in 1974. The Mountaineers are given a 1.97-point advantage by the computer.

Bowling resumes on Tuesday, December 18 when UAB (10-3) meets Northern Illinois (8-5) in the Boca Raton Bowl as the only game on that date and the first-ever meeting between these two schools. The Blazers got here by avenging a regular season loss to Middle Tennessee. They fell to Middle Tennessee in the final regular season game, but then won the rematch a week later in the Conference USA title game. The Huskies got here by upsetting Buffalo in the MAC Championship game. For this contest, the MAC champ gets a slim 0.17-point computer advantage.