"To The Pain" Bowl Season Bonanza: Part 1

Mark and Danimal are back the next week to 10 days in order to wrap up their season long college pick 'em bonanza. They rightfully chose to ignore many of the bowl games that have already occurred. On to their picks...

DANIMAL

Down 2. Not much time left. My picks for today.

AdvoCare V100 Bowl! (12:30 p.m. EST)

Arizona -7 vs Boston College

What the hell is “AdvoCare” you ask? Beats the hell out of me. That’s the purpose of sponsoring a bowl game though jerky. You’ll know, hopefully, by the end of the game. Way to go AdvoCare!

Two 7-5 teams. BC with the edge in strength of schedule and wins. Plus they are 7-5 against the spread and they are just good wholesome Catholic kids, like I used to be.

Eggles!

Hyundai Sun Bowl (2:00 p.m. EST)

UCLA -7.5 vs VA Tech

Mark & I love to hate VaTech when it comes to wagering on them. WTF. There’s no way in hell he’s going to bet on the Hokies, which makes me want to grab some sack and do so. But I can’t. VaTech, capable of beating the shite out of UCLA (yes, I believe that), will more likely make loads of mistakes, turn the ball over vis-à-vis Logan Thomas, and lose by 8 points or more. VaTech is 4-7-1 ATS vs UCLA’s 8-4 too.

Bruins

Chic-fil-A Bowl (8:00 p.m. EST)

Duke +12 vs Texas A&M

Other than a couple of guys I know, there won’t be many homosexuals at this one.

Manziel’s curtain call. Duke’s first big bowl game since Moby Dick was a tadpole. Two great coaches. Did you realize that Duke went 10-3 this year? I didn’t. They can score points too when they play against shitty D’s (1 last DEES NUTS! for 2013)….and we all know A&M has one of those. Twelve points….as we say at the blackjack table... “TOO MANYYYYY!!!”

DUUUUUKE

MARK

[From the picker] Wife is at a tattoo appt and I'm running errands with the kid so just the picks for today. Ill jump into the post and add some words later.

Arizona -7 over Boston college

UCLA -7 over Va tech

A&M -12 over Duke

I'm about to go meet my wife for some post tattoo drinks to celebrate her birthday (Yes, it's today. the Birthday New Year's Eve combo is a doozy) but I figured I owed the loyal G:TB readers some thoughts behind today's picks. Basically, the first two games come down to this: The ACC sucks and the PAC-10 is pretty good. The second best conference in America this year after the SEC. And I think the ACC might be worse than the AAC (the old, fractured Big East in case you didn't know), especially once you get past Florida State. So, with the difference in conference strength being so pronounced I went PAC-10 for both of today's early games. I don't see motivation being an issue for Arizona or UCLA today either as both programs are on the rise and won't turn their collective noses up at the idea of competing in a lesser bowl game.

As for tonight, I think Duke will give A&M a pretty good run for the first half and maybe even into the third quarter. As Danimal stated, the Aggie defense is awful and Duke should be able to move the ball. I'll be watching the Duke offense with a special interest as Duke's OC Kurt Roper has been hired as the new OC at Florida effective January 1st. In the end, the A&M offense will be too much for Duke and Johnathan Football will go out in with a win (and cover) in his final game at Texas A&M.

Happy New Year! I'll be drinking soon so I'll see y'all in the comments.