The New Years Six bowl games will continue on Saturday, December 30. Ole Miss takes on Penn State in the Peach Bowl, while Georgia will face Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
Let's break down our 2 college football best bets for these iconic games. Best of luck with all of your bets!
Peach Bowl: Penn State Nittany Lions vs Mississippi Rebels
After a 6-0 start, the Nittany Lions went 4-2 down the final stretch of their schedule with losses to Ohio State and Michigan. While the offense was impressive averaging 37.2ppg, the defense was exceptional at holding opponents to just 11.42ppg which was 6th best in the country. PSU is one of the few schools not being decimated by opt outs and the portal.
Only Theo Johnson and Chop Robinson are opting out while Christian Driver who played limited snaps has entered the portal. However, they did lose their DC, Manny Diaz, who has left for the head job at Duke. We shall see if his departure plays a role in how this stellar PSU defense performs.
Ole Miss had a very similar season to PSU in that their only 2 losses on the season came to the 2 perennial powerhouses of the conference, Alabama, and Georgia. Jaxson Dart led a highly explosive passing offense that ranked 36th in the country with 276.6 yards per game.
They did have several players decide to enter the portal but only a couple that played significant minutes. Almost the entire offense will be intact with the defense missing just a couple of rotation players in their secondary.
Best Bet: Ole Miss +4.5
Prior to Manny Diaz leaving for Duke, we had the PSU defense being slightly stronger than this Ole Miss offense. However, without a true DC, we now give the slight edge to Dart and his wide receiving group.
The Rebels are getting just over a field goal, and we believe that number will come into play here. Anything over +3 here is worth playing along with a small sprinkle on the Ole Miss moneyline.
Key Betting Trends for Ole Miss vs Penn State
- PSU is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games against an opponent in the Southeastern conference.
- Miss is 3-1 ATS in their 4 non-conference games this season.
Orange Bowl: Florida State Seminoles vs Georgia Bulldogs
The Noles had an incredible season that unfortunately ended in heartbreak through no fault of their own. After QB, Jordan Travis went down with the Noles holding an 11-0 record, many wrote them off. However, the rest of the FSU team rallied and defeated their final 2 opponent to finish 13-0.
Unfortunately, the CFB playoff committee believed that the loss of Travis pushed this undefeated Noles team outside the top 4 teams in the country. The opt out list for FSU includes both their top WR, Johnny Wilson and top RB, Trey Benson. There are another 7 players that have entered the portal that played significant time this season. Freshman, Brock Glenn is likely to get the start in this one.
A 12-1 season ended with a loss to rival Alabama and cost the Bulldogs an opportunity to win the national title for a 3rd straight season. QB, Carson Beck, has confirmed he will return to Athens for next season.
He will be without tight end Brock Bowers who is opting out. He will have a bunch of healthy receivers and a running back group that is losing no one. It will be interesting to see how the motivation factor plays a role with these Bulldogs who were hoping to be playing for their 3rd straight title.
Best Bet: Georgia -19
We believe this Georgia defense is going to smother the FSU offense that will be using their 3rd string QB. We normally wouldn't want to lay this many points, but this we just don't see this Seminoles offense getting to double digits against an elite Bulldogs defense.
On the other side of the ball, Carson Beck returns and he's the new darling on campus. He should be in a good spot to put up a decent number of points against this FSU squad.
Key Betting Trends for Florida State vs Georgia
- UGA is 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games against an opponent in the Atlantic Coast conference.
- UGA is 8-4 ATS in their last 12 games played in December.
