The North Carolina Tar Heels face the West Virginia Mountaineers in the 2023 Duke's Mayo Bowl on Wednesday, and we have you covered with our North Carolina vs. West Virginia prediction for the Duke's Mayo Bowl based on the best college football odds.
What started as a promising season for the North Carolina Tar Heels (8-4) ended with two straight losses and a slew of expected opt-outs entering bowl season. It still earned an invite to the 2023 Duke's Mayo Bowl to face the West Virginia Mountaineers (8-4) in a loaded slate of college football games on Wednesday.
The Tar Heels should have a home-field advantage of sorts in nearby Charlotte, though it's an open question as to which version of this team we'll see after a deflating end to the season. The opposite is true for the Mountaineers, who ended the year on a roll and should be mostly at full strength for this one.
As part of our look at all college bowl game odds, here is our best North Carolina vs. West Virginia prediction and our college football picks for Wednesday's Duke's Mayo Bowl (odds via our best college football betting sites; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
North Carolina vs. West Virginia prediction: Duke's Mayo Bowl
This would be a far more compelling matchup if both teams were at full strength. Alas, as is tradition during bowl season, one of these teams has been gutted by transfers and opt-outs – and the result is one of my few five-star plays of this entire bowl season.
North Carolina QB Drake Maye, the catalyst for this offense and a likely top-two pick in April's NFL Draft, won't suit up on Wednesday. Neither will star wideout Tez Walker (699 yards) or linebacker Cedric Gray (121 tackles), both of whom earned All-ACC honors this season.
Without those three (among others), it's an open question as to what we'll see from a team that was already losing steam down the stretch. After a 6-0 start, the Tar Heels lost two head-scratchers in October and dropped their final two games of the year – capped by a 39-20 loss to NC State that drew criticism for the team's lack of effort and preparation.
Conversely, the Mountaineers won four of their final five games to close the year, and they'll be at mostly full strength for Wednesday's tilt. That should spell some serious mismatches against UNC's leaky front.
West Virginia finished the regular season as the nation's third-most prolific rushing offense (234.3 YPG), boasting three players with 700-plus rushing yards in QB Garrett Greene (708) as well as running backs CJ Donaldson (798) and Jahiem White (792).
Those three should have a field day against North Carolina, w hich ranked 86th in rushing yards allowed (163.1 YPG) and 95th in total defense (405.4 YPG) even before losing its leading tackler in Gray. The Tar Heels could also struggle to contain speedster Devin Carter (501 receiving yards), a former NC State transfer who torched UNC for 130 yards and a score in his final game with the Wolfpack in 2022.
It's no surprise that the betting market has pounced on West Virginia, which opened as a 3.5-point favorite before a three-point shift in its favor. That movement hasn't gone far enough against a UNC team that has lost six of its last seven bowl games and already quit on its season weeks ago.
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Nort h Carolina vs. West Virginia best odds
| DraftKings | FanDuel | BetMGM | Caesars | bet365 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WVU -6.5 | WVU -6.5 | WVU -6.5 | WVU -6.5 | WVU -6.5 |
| -112 | -115 | -110 | -110 | -110 |
After West Virginia opened at -3.5, the market is in full consensus with a -6.5 spread across our best sports betting sites. That said, three of our top sportsbooks are dealing the Mountaineers with standard -110 vig, compared to the worse price at market leaders DraftKings and FanDuel.
Our preference among the three remaining is BetMGM, though that's entirely a personal preference. I'd recommend checking out our best sportsbook promos to see which of those three books is offering the best bonus.
Editor's note: Get ready for the launch of Vermont sports betting with our best Vermont sportsbook promos, and be sure to download the best Vermont sports betting apps! 21+ and present in VT. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
North Carolina vs. West Virginia odds
West Virginia opened as a 3.5-point favorite to win the 2023 Duke's Mayo Bowl, which came before North Carolina QB Drake Maye officially opted out of his team's bowl game. With Maye and others sitting out, this line has moved all the way to -6.5, where it sits across our best sports betting apps. The total opened at 55.5 and hasn't moved much, with most of our best sportsbooks hanging a total of 54 ahead of this one. If you like the Under, you can still grab a rogue 55 at Caesars, though UNC's shaky defense makes that a tricky play. North Carolina-West Virginia prediction made Sunday at 8 p.m. ET. (21+. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER) Best Sports Betting Sites | Best Sportsbook Promos (U.S. only)
Duke's Mayo Bowl game info
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