Welcome back sports fans as we kick off the next bowl game. On Saturday, Jackson St (12-2/118) stopped a 2-game losing streak in the Celebration Bowl by tackling South Carolina St (9-3/147) 28-7. As a reminder, the Celebration Bowl is the only FCS bowl. To kick of the FBS bowls later in the evening, the Salute to Veterans Bowl, South Alabama (7-6/97) of the Sun Belt defeated the MAC’s W Michigan (6-7/128) 30-23. Congratulations to the winners as well as the teams that earned their way to the bowl appearance.
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During the Army/Navy game (which Navy dominated end-to-end), Army’s Independence Bowl opponent, Marshall, announced because of a head coaching loss (he just won the Sun Belt with a powerful Thundering Herd team and left for a last place Southern Miss – in the same conference) and the subsequent 35+ transfers (wonder how many of those players will end up being Golden Eagles as well). The issue is the 5-7 teams who could have taken their spot had sent their players home for the holiday break. Cincinnati should have been the first choice because they have the highest APR of 5-7 teams, but the choice ended up with the 15th of 16 qualifiers, and the closest physically to Shreveport at just 67 miles, LA Tech (5-7/135). So, instead of the only bowl featuring two conference champions, we will have the Bulldogs and Army (11-2/18). While the game won’t be as good or as interesting, kudos to LATC for getting their players engaged and back on campus.
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Tonight, we have a single game with a 9:00pm Eastern kickoff on ESPN. The Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl (in Frisco, Texas) pits the American Conference (AAC) and the Big 12 in the first appearance by either conference. Memphis (10-2/27) was 4th in the AAC this year with a 6-2 conference mark. A shootout loss to Navy and a late season upset at UTSA kept them out of the AAC championship game. Their best win was against Tulane (9-4/41) who was the conference runner up. They did win their only game against Core 4 when they gave Florida St one of their 10 losses. They will take on the Big 12’s 9th place team with a 5-4 conference record. West Virginia (6-6/77) was a preseason Big 12 contender who lost to both out of conference Core 4 teams (Penn St and Pittsburgh) to start the season. All 6 losses came against bowl-eligible teams (opponents’ record of 52-22/.703) and all 6 wins came against teams with losing records (25-47/.347). The Vegas line is interesting. It opened with MEM-3.5 and was -4.5 this morning jumping all the way to -6.0 in the afternoon down to -5.0 then at -5.5 as I type. It doesn’t matter which number you choose, the GCR picks Memphis to win this one 63% and to cover (up to 13 points).
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Enjoy the game, thank you for reading, and, especially, for sharing with others. I’ve included the game information below as well. G
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| Time | Bowl (Location) | Team | Team | Vegas | GCR Win | GCR Cover |
| 9:00 | Scooter’s Coffee Frisco (Frisco, TX) | Memphis (10-2/27) | West Virginia (6-6/77) | MEM-5.5 | MEM 63% | MEM |
