Bowl Odds

[NJCat]

NU opens as a 9.5 point dog, O/U 42.5

CFB bowl season 2023-24 schedule: Matchups, odds, times for all 41 games

See the dates, matchups, kickoff times and odds for all 41 college football bowl games.

theathletic.com

 

[phatcat]

OMG take the under!!!!

 

[eastbaycat99]

OMG take the under!!!!

I have to laugh at myself as my first reaction was take the over.

 

[zeek55]

Reasonable given the talent that Utah has.

Even though Utah is better than every team we've beaten, I still feel like this is a winnable game. Feels like we already won 3 games this year as 7-11 point underdogs (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois).

It's going to be relatively low scoring as long as our front 7 handle rush defense well. Question is whether we can put up 21-28 points, which is probably enough to win it...

 

[FanatiCat]

If we can get Coco back that’ll help the D and I’ll feel better about our chances.
Bryant may not have been 100% when he came back, hopefully the few weeks off will have him fully healthy.
The extra practices will be great I think for our lines especially, which will both have to have very good games for a chance to win.

 

[Sheffielder]

At a glance it looks like the Utes were held to two TDs or fewer in half their games this season. Not saying we're gonna win this game, but I'll take those odds.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

At a glance it looks like the Utes were held to two TDs or fewer in half their games this season. Not saying we're gonna win this game, but I'll take those odds.

They were playing 3rd and 4th string QB’s.

 

[Sheffielder]

They were playing 3rd and 4th string QB’s.

No confirmation their backup starter will be ready for us in 2.5 weeks. Rarely is a bowl game gonna be a gimme, especially for us, so this is as favorable as a mid-tier game vs. an 8-4 Pac-12 team is gonna get.

 

[EvanstonCat]

No confirmation their backup starter will be ready for us in 2.5 weeks. Rarely is a bowl game gonna be a gimme, especially for us, so this is as favorable as a mid-tier game vs. an 8-4 Pac-12 team is gonna get.

Barnes says he is playing per his Twitter feed.

 

[Figrating]

Where NU lives.

IMHO, NU is improving, though. That W against Illinois was huge. NU plays like that against Utah, they can win.

 

[curdog]

Reasonable given the talent that Utah has.

Even though Utah is better than every team we've beaten, I still feel like this is a winnable game. Feels like we already won 3 games this year as 7-11 point underdogs (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois).

It's going to be relatively low scoring as long as our front 7 handle rush defense well. Question is whether we can put up 21-28 points, which is probably enough to win it...

This Utah team is not very good. They have had some clunkers and QB has been an issue without Rising (who I think is a very good college QB). This is exactly the type of offense NU defense excels at. Stop the run and make a shaky QB make throws. Take the points

 

[ricko654321]

Reasonable given the talent that Utah has.

Even though Utah is better than every team we've beaten, I still feel like this is a winnable game. Feels like we already won 3 games this year as 7-11 point underdogs (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois).

It's going to be relatively low scoring as long as our front 7 handle rush defense well. Question is whether we can put up 21-28 points, which is probably enough to win it...

We've won 3 conference games as double-digit underdogs this year (Maryland believe +14, Minnesota I think +10.5, Wisconsin I believe closed at +12), and 5 conference games total we won as outright underdogs (Purdue +3*, Illinois +6.5). We also covered the spread in both our losses to Iowa and Nebraska while Bryant was out. We did not cover against PSU (in part due to that jerk fake kneel play they ran when they could have run out the clock), and did not against Rutgers or Duke early in the season. So we were 7-3 ATS vs decent teams, including closing with 6 straight covers.

Utah may well beat us, but the betting lines have underestimated us pretty consistently once we got past the ugly first few games to start the season.

* Purdue actually shifted to us being a favorite -2.5 just before kickoff with the news of their QB Hudson Card being out, but I got it at +3 earlier. We covered the -2.5 as well with an 8 point W.

 

[GECat2]

Seriously. When was the last time we were favored going into a bowl game? It seems a betting rule to have us as a bowl game underdog.

 

[zeek55]

Seriously. When was the last time we were favored going into a bowl game? It seems a betting rule to have us as a bowl game underdog.

We were favored in the Citrus bowl game (Auburn had a fair number of injuries, we were considerably healthier and had played a lot better than them all season).

Generally though yeah we've been underdogs more often than not.

 

[FanatiCat]

Seriously. When was the last time we were favored going into a bowl game? It seems a betting rule to have us as a bowl game underdog.

We may have been favored going into the Motor City bowl against BGSU ages ago. Until we ran into the Alaskan menace WR.

 

[BosCat]

Spread is down to +7 or +7.5
https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf-game/utah-northwestern-score-odds-december-23-2023/214189

 

[CappyNU]

Seriously. When was the last time we were favored going into a bowl game? It seems a betting rule to have us as a bowl game underdog.

Generally our bowl games have been a) in the South (1996, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020), b) against an SEC or Big 12 team (1996, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020), and or c) in a higher bowl slot because multiple big ten teams made BCS/playoff/NY6 games (1996, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017).

All of this works against us being favored.

 

[hdhntr1]

Where NU lives.

IMHO, NU is improving, though. That W against Illinois was huge. NU plays like that against Utah, they can win.

Not if the D has the holes they showed vs IL