New Year’s Day bowls: Who’s playing, who’s favored and who doesn’t care
It’s New Year’s Day, the one day on the calendar where it’s perfectly acceptable – nay, darn near mandatory – to sit on the couch for hours upon end watching almost entirely meaningless college football games. The low-stakes level of these exhibitions has ramped up in recent years, as some of the nation’s top players have come to the realization that it’s probably smarter to preserve themselves for their NFL careers rather than risk injury in exchange for a bag full of junk with an NCAA-mandated maximum value of $550.
With all that in mind, this preview will focus on an estimated measure of each team’s give-a-darn level.
Point spreads taken from Monday morning.
Outback Bowl
Mississippi State vs. Iowa
Time, TV: 9 a.m., ESPN2.
Line: Mississippi State by 5.
Motivation?: Iowa played in this game just two years ago, getting its doors blown off by Florida. It also was in this spot after the 2013 regular season. And after 2008. And after 2005. And after 2003. Obviously, not all of the current Hawkeyes have Bloomin’ Onion malaise, but some might, and their fans might be getting a little sick of spending New Year’s Eve in Tampa and then waking up for New Year’s Day’s earliest bowl game. The Bulldogs are bowling for the ninth straight season and have won four of their last five contests, so motivation seemingly hasn’t been an issue of late (though all of those previous games were under Dan Mullen and not current coach Joe Moorhead, who’s coaching in his first bowl game). And yes, Mississippi State’s fans will be allowed to bring their beloved/reviled cowbells into the stadium.
Citrus Bowl
Kentucky vs. Penn State
Time, TV: 10 a.m., ABC.
Line: Penn State by 4.
Motivation?: The 9-3 Nittany Lions are gunning for their third straight season with double-digit wins, something that hasn’t happened in Happy Valley since 1980-82. The similarly 9-3 Wildcats, meanwhile, haven’t won 10 games since 1977 and haven’t won a bowl game since 2008, so there’s plenty of motivation on that side, too.
Fiesta Bowl
LSU vs. Central Florida
Time, TV: 10 a.m., ESPN
Line: LSU by 8.
Motivation?: Central Florida, the perpetually slighted “defending national champion,” which hasn’t lost a game since December 2016? The program that may singlehandedly drag the College Football Playoff into an eight-team format? How can the Knights not be motivated to slay another SEC dragon in a New Year’s Six bowl? They might be too motivated, if we’re being honest. LSU probably is just happy not be playing in another Citrus Bowl, which has hosted the Tigers the last two seasons.
Sugar Bowl
Texas vs. Georgia
Time, TV: 5:45 p.m., ESPN.
Line: Georgia by 11.
Motivation?: Someone has to be the first team left out of the playoff every year and this season it’s the fifth-ranked Bulldogs, who came close to toppling Alabama in the SEC title game but couldn’t quite get it done. The previous four No. 5s in the CFP era have gone 1-3 in their bowl games – 2-2 against the spread, if that aspect matters to you – with Ohio State the lone straight-up winner, covering the spread as a 10-point favorite against USC last season. The Longhorns (9-4) haven’t posted double-digit victories since 2009 and haven’t won a New Year’s Six bowl game since the season before that, so they’ll be looking to confirm their rise under second-year coach Tom Herman. Oh, and Herman’s teams have gone 10-2-1 against the spread as underdogs, winning seven of those games outright. Motivation doesn’t seem like it’s ever an issue.