Bowl Games Best Bets: Composite Ratings Picks The Winners

The Composite is here to help you pick the winners of all the bowl games, including the College Football Playoff matchups.

Author:
Richard Johnson
Publish date:
Dec 16, 2021

Welcome to the crapshoot that is bowl season.

We tried to give you one player to watch in each bowl game, but that can be difficult this time of year with the dizzying array of opt outs. This affects your betting tickets, along with trying to judge the team's motivations.

Who really wants to be in this bowl game? And who would much rather just start their offseason program? Which team fired its coach? Who’s on the skeleton bowl staff and were they too busy trying to figure out their future that they may have let a thing or two lapse during bowl practices?

We can give you the numbers, but a lot can change in the weeks between the regular season and bowl games.

Good luck this holiday season, but you’ve been warned.

Season Record: 342-384-6 (47.3%)
Bowl Record: 12-23-2 (35.1%)

Check Bowl Game Odds at SI Sportsbook

Alabama's Brian Robinson Jr. blows confetti off his outstanding offensive player trophy after the Cotton Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff semifinal game against Cincinnati, Friday, Dec. 31, 2021, in Arlington, Texas. Alabama won 27-6. — Michael Ainsworth/AP

Composite Best Bets

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The process behind the picks is briefly explained in my Week 1 column. Most of the time, the computer spits out something within one or two points of the real line (and at that point, sharp plays and whale plays are what’s moving the line anyway). But if the computer gives something more than three points, it’s worth a second look.