The 2024 Season’s Bowl games are officially here! We are into our second day of bowl games and there are two today! We will have at least one bowl game every day through the new year except for Sundays and Christmas! To celebrate bowl season, I’ll be releasing a best bets article each day there’s a bowl game! We missed yesterday’s by half a point after Memphis blew their big lead. Today, we bounce back. Get your bets in before the bowl games kickoff each day! Let’s hope we start with a winner in today’s bowl games best bets for Wednesday, December 18th. Check out all the staff picks here.
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2024 Season Today’s Bowl Games Best Bets – Wednesday, December 18th
Boca Raton Bowl: Western Kentucky vs. James Madison
First up today at 5:30 Eastern Time is the Boca Raton Bowl! This bowl game will see Western Kentucky and James Madison square off. Western Kentucky finished 8-5 straight up and 7-6 against the spread (ATS). They didn’t play many good teams and suffered losses to teams like Jacksonville State, Liberty, and Louisiana Tech.
James Madison had an up-and-down year after going 8-4 straight up and 6-6 ATS. They were 8-2 until dropping their last two games to Appalachian State and Marshall. They started their season off going toe-to-toe with North Carolina and beating them 70-50. James Madison finds themselves as six-and-a-half point favorites over Western Kentucky and the total is set at 49.5.
Both these teams have a decent defense. Western Kentucky allowed 24.5 points a game while James Madison allowed only 20.8. However, I still like the game to hit the over because of these offenses. Western Kentucky averaged 25.5 points a game compared to James Madison’s 33.8. Western Kentucky’s strength is the passing game, however, James Madison’s defensive strength is against the pass.
On the other side, James Madison has a strong rushing offense while Western Kentucky struggles to stop the run. Things could get ugly for Western Kentucky if James Madison is able to establish the run and start “running” away with the game.
Today’s Bowl Games Best Bets: James Madison -6.5 – Another chalk pick, but they’re the better team.
LA Bowl: California vs. UNLV
The second game today is between California and UNLV at 9:00 PM Eastern time. UNLV is a three-point favorite over California and the total is set at 45.5 points. At one point DraftKings had UNLV as 1.5-point dogs. It’s slightly scary that so much public money has come in on UNLV that they’re now three-point favorites. However, that also has to do with the fact that Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza is transferring, therefore, won’t play.
California finished 6-6 straight up and 6-6 ATS this year. They dropped six of their last nine games. UNLV on the other hand, went 10-3 straight up and 7-6 ATS. Two of their losses were to Boise State, who got a first-round bye in the 12-team playoffs. Both teams beat San Diego State, Cal winning 31-10, and UNLV winning 41-20. Both teams lost to Syracuse, Cal losing 25-33, and UNLV losing 41-44.
These teams should match up fairly evenly against each other. Cal’s advantage would have been in the passing game, however, without Mendoza they may struggle to get their rhythm down. UNLV has a strong run game, however, Cal’s run defense has been pretty solid all year. This should lead to a back-and-forth game. The biggest question will be if Cal can overcome losing Mendoza. Backup quarterback Chandler Rodgers only threw the ball 25 times this year, completing 12 of those for 117 yards.
Today’s Bowl Games Best Bets: UNLV -3 – Losing Mendoza is too much for Cal to overcome this year and UNLV puts a nice finish to their 10-3 season.
