Welcome to episode 443 of the GCR. Yesterday, we had a couple of interesting games. In the First Responder Bowl, in which Vegas and the GCR projected a rout by Texas St (8-5/84) over North Texas (6-7/103), no matter how good TXST looked, the Mean Green held them and came back over and over again. In fact, NTEX had the lead until 3:27 in the half, going in 16-14. In the 3rd, the Bobcats would drive and look like they were trying to run away with the game, but they would stall, scoring just once making the score 23-14. The scoring drought lasted until just over 3 minutes to go when the Mean Green made it 23-21. 55 seconds later, the Bobcats had a 73-yard run to push the lead to 30-21. Not to be outdone, 36 seconds later North Texas rushed 70 yards to give us our final score, 30-28.
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The nightcap had Minnesota (8-5/39) favored by 9.5 over Virginia Tech (6-7/62) and the GCR had VT to cover. The teams looked evenly matched in the first with the Hokies taking a 7-0 lead. The second quarter was all Minnesota with 3 TDs. VT did hit a 60-yard field goal as the half expired which could have been a momentum shifter, but they never scored again. The second half was the defensive fight I was expecting for the entire game with only a Gopher FG. Final score 24-10 Minnesota. The ACC’s futility in the bowl season is now complete at 2 wins and 11 losses.
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So, the GCR picked the winner in both games bringing the bowl games to 30-15 (.667) but missed the spread both times dropping the record to 24-21 (.533). Here are the latest standings.
| Conf | Total Games | Games Played | Wins | Losses | Points Scored | Points Allowed | GCR Rating | GCR Rank |
| IND | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 77 | 41 | 0.7610 | 1 |
| AAC | 8 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 237 | 201 | 0.5736 | 2 |
| Big Ten | 16 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 408 | 332 | 0.5555 | 3 |
| SEC | 15 | 14 | 8 | 6 | 415 | 352 | 0.5325 | 4 |
| MAC | 7 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 203 | 178 | 0.5298 | 5 |
| SUN | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 169 | 208 | 0.4662 | 6 |
| B12 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 295 | 299 | 0.4327 | 7 |
| ACC | 13 | 13 | 2 | 11 | 338 | 443 | 0.3111 | 8 |
| USA | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 81 | 110 | 0.3096 | 9 |
| MWC | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 114 | 156 | 0.2846 | 10 |
| P12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 35 | 52 | 0.2109 | 11 |
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This morning at 11:00 Eastern, we have our final non-playoff bowl game of the season when the Bahamas Bowl Presented by Atlantis Resorts hosts the MAC’s 3rd place Buffalo Bulls (8-4/77) and Conference USA’s 4th place Liberty Flames (8-3/69). Buffalo ended the season on a 4-game winning streak but were just 2-4 against bowl eligible (BE) teams. They did beat N Illinois (8-5) just 2 weeks after NILL beat Notre Dame (13-1). Looking at their season the only loss that should have been a win was to W Michigan (6-7). Liberty started off 5-0 and were looking to repeat as the top Group of 5 team until they played the newest member of Conference USA and to the FBS, Kennesaw St (2-10). I live in the Atlanta area, and we almost went to that game, but decided it was going to be a blowout so stayed home to watch more interesting games. I mean, Liberty was favored by 27.5 points! 5-0 versus 0-6. But Kennesaw St won 27-24 knocking the Flames out of the playoff picture. The next week, which had to be a rebound, saw LIB losing to eventual C-USA champion Jacksonville St (9-5). The ended up 2-2 vs BE teams. They were supposed to play at App St (5-6) but the game was cancelled due to Helene. Vegas likes Buffalo-4.5, but the GCR sees Liberty as the better team and 53% to win and cover. Watch the game on ESPN2.
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That’s it for today. I’m taking tomorrow off and returning on Monday for the FCS Championship game. Thank you for reading and sharing with others, G.
| Time | Bowl (Location) | Team | Team | Vegas | GCR Win | GCR Cover |
| 11:00am | Bahamas Presented by Atlantis Resorts (Nassau) | Buffalo (8-4/77) | Liberty (8-3/69) | BUFF-4.5 | LIB 53% | LIB |
