Welcome to the first day of the 2024-2025 bowl season. Yesterday, I posted about the Army/Navy game and the quarterfinals for the FCS tournament including last night’s 52-19 shellacking of Idaho by still-undefeated Montana St. Today, the playoffs for both FCS and FBS shift to bowl season and will be included in these posts.
…..
Today, we have 2 games. First, at noon (all times Eastern), we have the Cricket Celebration Bowl played at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. This is the only current bowl for FCS teams, although many non-major teams participated in bowl games in the past. Most of the FCS conferences participate in the 24-team playoff with the noted exception of the Ivy League, who has no post season at all, and the MEAC and SWAC. Both are Historically Black College and University conferences. The SWAC is one of only 2 Division I conferences (Sun Belt) that still have divisions. Jackson St (11-2/126) beat Southern to take the SWAC title. South Carolina St (9-2/139) won the MEAC. Both teams were undefeated in official conference play, although one of JACK’s losses was in a non-conference game against conference foe Grambling St. A couple of years ago, an undefeated Jackson St coached by Deion Sanders lost to South Carolina St in this same bowl. Vegas sees a repeat with SCST-3.0, but the GCR disagrees with JACK 52% and to cover. Note: bowl games, because of opt-outs are not included in the GCR’s season’s prediction statistics.
…..
Our second game is the first of the FBS bowl season with a 9:00pm kickoff in Montgomery, Alabama. Crampton Bowl will host South Alabama (6-6/98) of the Sun Belt (5-3) will take on W Michigan (6-6/123) of the MAC (5-3). Both teams had big wins during the season. The Jaguars beat the West Division champion Louisiana (10-3/43) 24-22 on November 16th. It was their only regular season loss in Sun Belt play (the subsequently lost to Marshall in the championship game). They started the season with 2 Group of 5 losses (North Texas and Ohio) before beating winless Northwestern St 87-10 which was the highest offensive output by any D1 team this season and App St. Losses to Arkansas St and LSU put their bowl chances in jeopardy. A 4-2 second half, including that win over Louisiana, secured their slot in this game. W Michigan’s best win was against Buffalo (8-4/80) who missed out on the MAC championship game by tie-breaker. They had 2 losses to Big Ten (Wisconsin and Ohio St) teams and also lost to Sun Belt champion Marshall before going on a 4-game win streak for a perfect October. November was tough starting 0-3 before beating E Michigan in a winner goes bowling game to end the season. Vegas likes South Alabama-9.0 and while my gut says that feels right, the GCR agrees with the victory 53%, but W Michigan should cover.
…..
That’s it for today. I put the table below in case you wanted a reference. Don’t forget the Army/Navy game at 3:00. Thank you for reading and sharing with others, G
| Time | Bowl (City) | Team | Team | Vegas | GCR Win | GCR Cover |
| 12:00 | Cricket Celebration (Atlanta) | Jackson St (11-2/ 126) | South Carolina St (9-2/ 139) | SCST-3.0 | JACK 52% | JACK |
| 9:00 | IS4S Salute to Veterans (Montgomery, AL) | South Alabama (6-6/98) | W Michigan (6-6/123) | SALA-9.0 | SALA 53% | WMI |
