Our Sportsbook Review analysts offer their college football expert picks for Saturday's college football bowl game slate. The picks are based on the top NCAAF odds from our best sports betting apps.
The final Saturday of college football's bowl season is here with a four-game slate starting with Ole Miss vs. Penn State at noon ET and Auburn vs. Maryland at 2 p.m. ET. Georgia plays Florida State in the Orange Bowl in the game of the day with Toledo facing Wyoming in Saturday's finale.
To accompany our college football player props and best bets, and as part of our look at all college bowl game odds, here are our best college football expert picks for Saturday's bowl games (odds via our best college football betting sites; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
College football schedule for Saturday
(Odds via Caesars)
- Ole Miss vs. Penn State (-5)
- Auburn (-6) vs. Maryland
- Georgia (-20) vs. Florida State
- Toledo vs. Wyoming (-3.5)
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College football expert picks for Saturday's bowl games
| Game | Mike Spector | Phil Wood | Brenden Schaeffer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ole Miss vs. Penn State | Penn State team total Under 26.5 (-105 via DraftKings) ???? | Jaxson Dart Under 200.5 passing yards (-109 via Caesars) ???? | Drew Allar Over 1.5 passing touchdowns (+140 via bet365) ??? |
| Auburn vs. Maryland | Maryland +6.5 (+100 via Caesars) ??? | Jarquez Hunter Under 96.5 rushing yards (-115 via bet365) ???? | Roman Hemby Over 53.5 rushing yards (-114 via FanDuel) ???? |
| Georgia vs. Florida State | Georgia -9.5 first half spread (-125 via BetRivers) ???? | Florida State Under 10.5 points (-110 via DraftKings) ???? | Georgia -20 (-110 via DraftKings) ???? |
| Toledo vs. Wyoming | Wyoming first half ML (-148 via DraftKings) ???? | Andrew Peasley Over 1.5 passing touchdowns (+165 via bet365) ??? | Under 44.5 (-110 via DraftKings) ??? |
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College football top picks for Saturday's bowl games
Penn State and Ole Miss have been fixtures in New Year's Six bowls. Tthe Nittany Lions have made five such appearances in the 10 years of the College Football Playoff era, while Ole Miss has appeared in four New Year's Six games.
This should also be one of the most true matchups as it is affected much less than others by transfers and player opt-outs. Thus, going by what we saw for much of the regular season, we expect the Penn State offense to struggle against an Ole Miss defense that should be motivated after getting lit up for 42 points in last year's Texas Bowl.
Penn State has won 21 consecutive games against teams not named Ohio State or Michigan, but that speaks more to the lack of depth and elite talent in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions scored just 27 combined points in losses to the conference's top two teams, and quarterback Drew Allar completed just 52.5% of his passes and averaged 4.2 yards per attempt against ranked competition this season.
If Penn State cannot get its running game going (the Rebels allowed fewer than 140 rushing yards per game outside of losses to Alabama and Georgia), it will be a long day offensively, as the Nittany Lions rank in the bottom eight of the country in Passing Downs Explosiveness and outside the top 50 in Passing Success Rate. In addition, this four-star play would grow in confidence if Nittany Lions offensive tackle Olumuyiwa Fashanu, whom many consider to be one of the two best left tackles in the country, does not play after declaring for the 2024 NFL Draft.
There is a big jump in Draft Kings' odds to back Penn State's team total Under at 27.5, as it charges a price of -135 at that number. Thus, if bettors were interested, they would find much better value with FanDuel's -122 odds. However, we prefer to roll the dice somewhat at the Under of 26.5 given the more than fair -105 odds at DraftKings to do so