The bowl games for New Year’s Day feature several teams with coaching drama, as well as matchups pitting top Big Ten teams against top teams from the SEC and the Pac-10.
The day begins with two teams that both feature fast-paced spread offenses, Northwestern as an 8-point dog against Auburn in the Outback Bowl. The Tigers prefer to run, while the Wildcats lean to the pass, but both play an up-tempo game, and a high-possession shootout could result.
The Capital One Bowl features No. 11 Penn St as a 2.5-point fave over No. 13 LSU, and both teams’ outstanding defensive squads will be on display. The Tigers have a tremendous record in Bowl games in the 4 years they’ve been coached by Les Miles, but that may not have any bearing on the likely outcome here.
The 2010 Rose Bowl pits No. 8 Ohio St against No. 7 Oregon, with Oregon rated a 4-point favorite. The Ducks consistently gave awesome offensive performances throughout the regular season, led by multiple-threat mobile QB Jeremiah Masoli. But the Buckeyes bring one of the elite defenses in the country to the table, and it will be interesting to see if they can stop Oregon in a way no one else has been able to this year.
In the Gator Bowl, legendary Florida St coach Bobby Bowden will coach the final game of his career. The Seminoles will need to get a boost from that to pull out a win, as they appear to be significantly outmatched on paper by No. 18 West Virginia, whom the market has made a 2.5-point favorite.
And the day ends with one of the biggest bowl matchups of the year, No. 5 Florida against No. 4 Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl. The market sees the Gators as having a big edge here, making them 12.5-point favorites over the Bearcats, who almost made the Championship game this year. Coaching drama with both teams may be contributing to this line, as Cincinnati’s coach Brian Kelly split with the team acrimoniously in December to take the head coach position at Notre Dame, while Florida coach Urban Meyer’s health problems have the team rallying behind him. Perhaps the surest thing about this game is that if Florida wins by 11 or 12, the books will get killed on a nasty middle.
