The Blogger Bowl: December 17th Bowls
Matt Rooney of Betsperts and Phil Gough of SB Nation pick each and every Bowl game throughout the 2021–22 Bowl season

Throughout Bowl season, Matt Rooney of Betsperts and Phil Gough of Notre Dame’s SB Nation site One Foot Down will pick and preview every Bowl game and of course track our picks on Betsperts as well. Whoever has the most units gained after Bowl Season wins! Follow along with our picks at username 10Mrooney and PhilG_24.

Bahamas Bowl (11am CT): Toledo Rockets (-10) (-370) vs Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (+295) O/U 51.5

Phil: I have to go with the mighty Toledo Rockets in this one. Both teams have been wildly inconsistent this year, but Toledo has finished the season very strong, and will continue that trend. I like them straight up and to cover. I am also smashing the over in this one as Toledo is averaging 45.5 ppg over their last 4 and MTSU is averaging around 29 ppg. It will be hot and players will be a bit sluggish after lounging on the beaches. Expect a shootout in the beginning, with Toledo’s defense finishing the game in the 4th to guarantee the cover. Pick: Toledo -10, + OV 50

Matt: Going through both schedules, there’s a whole lot of reason to take either side on this one. It opened at Toledo -8, and at that number I think I’d have been on the Rockets, but with the jump to 10, I think that’s enough for me to ride with Middle Tennessee State. I think the MAC tends to get overvalued a bit in Bowl games because of their heightened exposure during MACtion (I love MACtion so much) season. I think both teams will be able to score quite a bit, and like who’s going to take the under in the Bahamas Bowl, that’s no fun. Like Phil said above, both teams have been a bit of a roller coaster this season, so for that reason I’m going to fallback on my MACtion strategy that served me well: Underdogs and Overs. Pick: MTSU +10, OV 50

Tailgreeter Cure Bowl (5pm CT): Northern Illinois Huskies (+320) vs. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (-10.5) (-420) O/U 63

Phil: When Picking games like this, I generally look at what team has more to gain. In this case, Coastal has had a very disappointing year based on the lofty expectations coming into 2021. NIU on the other hand, who was supposed to hot trash, has wildly exceeded expectations. I like NIU to win straight up against a sluggish CCU team. The sluggishness also makes the under ripe for picking. Pick: NIU +11, UN 63

Matt: I have ZERO feel on a side here. I’ve gone back and forth on both, and in my head can justify going either way. So I’m just going to stick with a total here and take the over. Northern averages over 31 points per game, Coastal is up over 40 points per game. Northern is allowing over 32 points per game and close to 450 yards per game. This one probably depends on which version of Northern’s offense shows up. If we get the version we saw in the MAC Championship game, I think the over cruises. Pick: OV 63
['Matt Rooney']
['Sports Betting', 'College Football']