College Bowl Predictions

The 2016 college football bowl season has arrived. This will be the third year of the four-team playoff. Ohio State took down the first in 2014. Then, after losing to Ohio State in the playoff the previous year, Alabama captured the National Championship in 2015.

Alabama is the only team to make the four-team playoff all three years. It will be No. 1 Alabama vs No. 4 Washington in the Peach Bowl and No. 2 Clemson vs No. 3 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl on December 31. The Buckeyes and Tigers will be making their second appearances in the playoff, while the Huskies are a first-timer out of the Pac-12.

I feel like the playoff committee got the four teams right. It’s a shame that Penn State won the best conference in the country and didn’t get in despite having the head-to-head win over Ohio State. But the Nittany Lions lost two games early, including a blowout loss at Michigan, which pretty much sealed their fate no matter how good they were playing down the stretch. It’s simply going to be very tough to make the playoff with two losses.

The four selection committee bowl games feature No. 5 Penn State vs No. 9 USC in the Rose Bowl, No. 6 Michigan vs No. 11 Florida State in the Orange Bowl, No. 7 Oklahoma vs No. 14 Auburn in the Sugar Bowl and No. 8 Wisconsin vs No. 15 Western Michigan in the Cotton Bowl. Congratulations to PJ Fleck and the Broncos on a perfect 13-0 season, clearly deserving of the Cotton Bowl bid as the best Group of 5 team in the country.

I have gone through and picked the straight up winner of all 40 bowl games. Feel free to use my picks for all your bowl pools as I know that many of you will be playing in them this year. Keep in mind that just because I pick a team to win straight up doesn’t mean that’s who I’m going to take against the spread once the bowls roll around. Take a look at the college bowl odds to help you out with your picks.

I will also be adding betting previews of every bowl game throughout December. Just click the ‘odds’ link in the table below to get a preview of each bowl game, plus a prediction of which team will cover the spread. I hope you enjoy these free bowl picks, and best of luck with your bowl pools this year.

2016-17 College Bowl Predictions