This article is part of our Bowl Game Pick 'Em series.
Bowl season is upon us, so we polled some of our college football writers for their picks. Of the 39 bowls, including the national championship, just two provided consensus -- the Poinsettia with San Diego State and the Fiesta with Arizona.Nick Whalen proved the contrarian of the bunch, preventing consensus in two bowls. He was the only writer to give up the 10 points in the Boca Raton Bowl and pick Marshall to beat Northern Illinois. On the other hand, he was the only one to take the points and Notre Dame (+7) in the Music City Bowl against LSU.
Three other bowls missed consensus by one pick. Chris Morgan was the only voice for Duke (+7.5) in the Sun Bowl against Arizona State, James Anderson was the only backer of Central Michigan (+4) against Western Kentucky in the Bahamas Bowl and Ethan Padway was the lone writer to pick Nebraska (+6.5) to beat USC in the Holiday Bowl.
As for the national championship, Greg Vara and Mario Puig were on the side of the majority with Alabama, while Nick Grays and Brian Peacock took Oregon. Jason Thornbury was all alone with Ohio State.
Picks are against the spread (except the national championship). Best Bets are in bold. Losers are noted as such.
Happy Bowling.
UPDATE: Chris Bennett was a late entry.
POST-BOWL UPDATE: Congratulations to Jason Thornbury for winning the Bowl Pick 'Em title. He edged Nick Whalen by virtue of picking the national champion correctly.
| BOWL MATCHUP | CHRIS M | JAMES | ETHAN | GREG | NICK W | NICK G | MARIO | BRIAN | JASON | CHRIS B |
| New Orleans Nevada vs. LA Lafayette -1 | LAF | LAF | LAF | LAF | ||||||
| New Mexico Utah St. vs. UTEP +10.5 | UTST | UTST | UTST | UTST | UTST | UTST | UTST | |||
| Las Vegas Utah vs. Colo. St. +3.5 | UTAH | UTAH | UTAH | UTAH | UTAH | UTAH | UTAH | |||
| Potato W. Michigan vs. Air Force -1.5 | AF | AF | AF | AF | AF | AF | AF | AF | ||
| Camellia S. Alabama vs. Bowl. Green +3 | BG | BG | BG | BG | BG | BG | BG | |||
| Miami Beach BYU vs. Memphis -1.5 | MEM | MEM | MEM | MEM | ||||||
| Boca Raton Marshall vs. N. Illinois +10 | MARSH | MARSH | ||||||||
| Poinsettia Navy vs. SDSU -3 | NAVY | |||||||||
| Bahamas C. Michigan vs. W. Kentucky -4 | CMU | |||||||||
| Hawaii Fresno St. vs. Rice -2.5 | RICE | RICE | RICE | RICE | RICE | |||||
| Dallas Illinois vs. La Tech -6 | LT | LT | LT | LT | LT | |||||
| Quick Lane Rutgers vs. UNC -3 | RUT | RUT | RUT | |||||||
| St. Pete NC St. vs. UCF -2 | NCST | NCST | NCST | |||||||
| Military Cincinnati vs. Va Tech +3 | VT | VT | VT | VT | ||||||
| Sun ASU vs. Duke +7.5 | DUKE | |||||||||
| Independence Miami vs. S. Carolina +3 | SC | SC | SC | |||||||
| Pinstripe BC vs. Penn St +2.5 | PSU | PSU | PSU | PSU | PSU | |||||
| Holiday Nebraska vs. USC -6.5 | NEB | |||||||||
| Liberty Texas A&M vs. W. Virginia -3.5 | TAM | TAM | TAM | TAM | TAM | TAM | ||||
| Russell Athletic Oklahoma vs. Clemson +3 | CLEM | CLEM | CLEM | |||||||
| Texas Arkansas vs. Texas +6 | ARK | ARK | ARK | ARK | ARK | ARK | ||||
| Music City Notre Dame vs. LSU -7 | ND | |||||||||
| Belk Georgia vs. Louisville +6.5 | GA | GA | GA | GA | GA | GA | ||||
| Foster Farms Maryland vs. Stanford -14 | STAN | STAN | STAN | STAN | STAN | |||||
| Chick-Fil-A Ole Miss vs. TCU -3 | TCU | TCU | TCU | TCU | TCU | TCU | TCU | TCU | ||
| Fiesta BSU vs. Arizona -3.5 | ||||||||||
| Orange Miss. St. vs. Ga Tech +6.5 | GT | GT | ||||||||
| Outback Auburn vs. Wisconsin +6.5 | WISC | WISC | ||||||||
| Cotton Mich. St. vs. Baylor -3 | MSU | MSU | MSU | |||||||
| Citrus Missouri vs. Minnesota +5.5 | MIZZ | MIZZ | MIZZ | MIZZ | MIZZ | MIZZ | ||||
| Rose Oregon vs. Florida St. +9 | ORE | ORE | ||||||||
| Sugar Alabama vs. Ohio St. +9.5 | OHST | OHST | OHST | OHST | OHST | |||||
| Armed Forces Houston vs. Pittsburgh -3 | HOU | HOU | HOU | HOU | HOU | HOU | ||||
| Taxslayer Iowa vs. Tennessee -3.5 | TENN | TENN | TENN | TENN | TENN | TENN | ||||
| Alamo Kansas St. vs. UCLA +1 | UCLA | UCLA | UCLA | UCLA | UCLA | |||||
| Cactus Washington vs. Okla. St. +5.5 | OKST | OKST | ||||||||
| Birmingham E. Carolina vs. Florida -7 | FLA | FLA | FLA | FLA | FLA | FLA | ||||
| GoDaddy Toledo vs. Ark. St. +3 | TOL | TOL | TOL | TOL | TOL | TOL | ||||
| National Champ | OHST | |||||||||
| RECORD | 13-26 | 17-22 | 15-24 | 15-24 | 19-20 | 13-26 | 16-23 | 16-23 | 19-20 | 15-24 |
THE PLAYERS
Chris Morgan: Covers Conference USA
James Anderson: CFB reporter on the RotoWire Football Podcast
Ethan Padway: Covers the American Athletic Conference
Greg Vara: RotoWire college football handicapper; 2008 Bowl Picks champion
Nick Whalen: College football injury guru
Nick Grays: Covers the Sun Belt
Mario Puig: RotoWire College Football Editor; Writes daily game article; 2012 and 2013 Bowl Picks champion
Brian Peacock: Covers the Pac-12
Jason Thornbury: RotoWire Senior Editor; 2011 Bowl Picks champion
Chris Bennett: Covers the ACC; Writes Waiver Wire Watch
