Welcome back, sports fans, as we continue our travels across the country, at least figuratively, with the 2025-2026 bowl season.
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Yesterday, we had two fun games. First Old Dominion scored a late TD just before the 2-minute time-out to make the final 24-10 over South Florida. It was closer than that going back and forth in the first 3 quarters. The second game was a nail biter as first year Delaware had to punt just after the 2-minute time-out in a 7-point game. They downed it on the six with 1:41 to go, but Louisiana quickly used the sidelines well to move down the field, and it looked like we may get some free football. The Ragin’ Cajuns had squandered opportunities all night so they were due. For some reason, with 17 seconds left they decided to run up the middle for a single yard from the DEL 8. By the time they were able to regroup and spike the ball, there were just 4 ticks left. The next pass was incomplete in the endzone, and Delaware became just the second team to win a bowl game in their first year as an FBS team. Jacksonville St did it a couple of years ago – both teams are in Conference USA. The GCR picked the winner in both games (Delaware as an upset) but split against the spread. So, 2-0 and 1-1.
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Speaking of first year Conference USA teams, the Missouri St Bears (7-5/92), tied for 4th in conference play, are heading to Frisco, TX to play the Arkansas St Red Wolves (6-6/102), tied for 2nd in the Sun Belt in the Xbox Bowl. The game will be aired on ESPN2 at 9:00 Eastern and should be a good one. MOST lost their first FBS game at Southern Cal 73-13 but bounced back to take down Marshall 21-20 the next week. They had a 5-game winning streak from October 8th through November 15th before dropping the final two games. They have appeared in 4 previous bowls with prestigious names like the Missouri-Kansas Bowl (1948), the Mineral Water Bowl (1963, 1967) and the Pecan Bowl (1989) – all were non-FBS bowls and they lost all 4. The Red Wolves lost all 4 games in September starting with a 1-4 record before a 3-0 October including wins over bowl-bound Texas St, South Alabama, and Ga Southern. They started November by besting Sun Belt runner up Troy 23-10. A couple of losses put them at risk of missing a bowl, before they edged App St in Boone 30-29 to secure the spot. This should be an exciting game. Vegas thinks so too, with ARST-1.5. Similar to Delaware, the GCR sees the newcomer as a slight favorite with MOST to win 51% of the time and to cover. So far this bowl season, C-USA is 2-0 and the Sun Belt is 1-2. Enjoy the game.
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That’s it for today – tune in tomorrow for 3 games including our first FBS playoff game of the season. Thank you for reading and sharing with others, JoJo and G.
