Name: Bowl Season Analysis: Memphis vs. NC State and More
Uploaded: 2025-12-18T15:26:42-05:00
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Description: College Football Preview: Memphis battles North Carolina State in the Gasparilla Bowl, with key stats, team insights, and betting trends for savvy predictions.

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College Football Preview: Memphis battles North Carolina State in the Gasparilla Bowl, with key stats, team insights, and betting trends for savvy predictions.

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Bowl Season Analysis: Memphis vs. NC State and More

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The first game we'll get to is a bowl game, Tom, not tonight, but tomorrow on a Friday afternoon. We love that, but it's bowl season. It's Memphis, it's NC State. Hey, two names I actually recognize here, Tom, with an opening number at 4.5 and still sits at 4.5. A total of 59.5, now sits 57.5. I'm gonna tell you this, Tom, I haven't watched either one of these two teams play a single snap this season. So I look at the public and say, NC State only getting 40% of the tickets. I'm going to NC State minus 4.5% on a blind bet here. What are you thinking? Yeah, I, I would say the same thing. I, I certainly liking, uh, not backing Memphis when we're looking at this. Uh, Donnie, they haven't won a game since October. They're giving up points left and right, so I would lean NC State. When it comes to the total. My issue would be Memphis isn't doing enough scoring, as we was talking about. Like you need a dance partner. You need something to do the scoring with you in order to get over that total. So NC State, I like the over, but I'm not there yet. Memphis needs to do their part if they're, if there's gonna have any shot of getting to 60 points essentially. Now hold on, Tom. You just told me that, did you, was it NC State that you said hasn't won a game since October? No, no, Memphis hasn't won a game. I lean with NC State because Memphis is not informed right now. All right, let's understand this, and this proves my point on bowl season. Can we please end it? You have a bowl game with a team that hasn't won a game since October. This shows how stupid bowl season is. So let's get to the next game, a real football game that matters with superstar players and big-time universities. It's Miami taking on Texas A&M Saturday, Tom, 12:00 p.m. start local time, actually 11:00 a.m. A&M 3.5 on the opening number. 3.5 as it still sits today. Tom, I'm even seeing 50/50 action on both of these sides here. A total though, that is dropping 51.5 to 48.5 because some windy conditions do down at Kyle Field in College Station. I'm a Miami fan, so I'm going Miami with the 3.5, but this game looks right down to the wire and the public, they're thinking the same thing, 50/50. I love it, man. Yeah, I would say if you have the under 51 or under 50, that's an awesome spot to have at this point considering how much the line was moved. You know, I would say for me, I'm gonna wait to see if we get a flat 3 with this. I don't expect it to move another full number to go down to 2.5 because at that point, I would certainly look to back the Aggies at home. If you're getting the 3 in the hook, I would look to go to Miami at this point, right? The, the line is dropping and we're still getting over a key number. That's where I'd look. But man, if we get another 49.5, that's really where I want to jump in at most is taking the under. Tom Beckyo Donny right side here, Thursday morning right here on the Early line of the sports rid Network. Getting you set for your sports grid day. More importantly, what a weekend we are going to have. Now, Tom, we always like to start bowl season, like I'm close to 50 years old at this point. When I grew up, bowl season was a big deal. And sometimes you get jaded with some things you love and some things those loves slip away. Bowl seasons really slipped away for me at this point because now you have the NIL and as Tom pointed out early on, we got a football team playing in a bowl game tomorrow night that hasn't had a win since October. What reward are you sending to these teams? In order to get to the bowls. But now we got the Xbox Bowl coming up, Tom, tonight, 9 p.m. Missouri State, Arkansas State. Well, I wonder how that does in the ratings war against the NFC West game tonight with all the marvels on the line. But we do have a favorite, which is actually Missouri State now. The opening lines, Tom, at Arkansas State is a favorite and a total that opened up at 56.5, now sits at 54.5. The question is how many Xbox are going to be handed out to the players tonight, but more importantly, do we get scoring? Do we like a side here, Tom? Do you like anything? Uh, I would say first off for bowl season, to your point is to make sure all the players are gonna be playing at least on the team that you're gonna be betting on. But, uh, for me, I would say points, points are probably coming, you know, looking at Missouri State, some of their, their recent performances, you know, giving up 40 points is terrible. But if you can get out there and you're putting up 30 of your own, now we're actually in a spot that we could see some scoring. So I don't mind leaning towards Arkansas State in this spot, but I think points are coming first and foremost. That's where it would go, if anywhere. And by the way, when, when you take a look at like some things and how it plays out, I get the kids will be excited, but if we have a top 25, right? And most of those teams are already included in the college football playoff. Maybe there's a couple, 34 games left over that you can make it happen, but Arkansas State, Missouri, like what are we doing and that's, that's not a bowl game. That should be played at a high school field without any television and just for family and friends to watch their sons, daughters, or whoever coach play and, you know, cheerlead and have. Some fun with it. We don't need this on TV, which then gets us here to the 19th, Tom, which is tomorrow. Kennesaw State and Western Michigan. Now Joe Rainieri loves himself from Kennesaw State. I think the guy's like 30-0 this year betting with them. They're an underdog in this game, but getting a little bit of money, Tom, 3.5 is now a favor for Western Michigan, the champions of the MAC, taking on Kennesaw 47.5. 99% of the people watching this program, Tom, didn't know Kennesaw State was a football team or even where that college even is at this point. Any thoughts tonight, Kennesaw State and Western Michigan. I mean if I'm filling in for Joe Ranieri and he's had so much success betting on K State getting the 3 in the hook, I think is the right side to be on, you know, we're not dealing with a, a, a massive total when it's all said and done, but if it's not working for Western Michigan at this point, he might as well just continue to roll with Kennesaw State, you know, take them and take the under. If they're gonna win, they're probably gonna do their part on defense, and Western Michigan is not gonna be scoring. By the way, in the future, Tom, right? Like, are we headed for it, like, I know the bowl games are a scam because the thing that the only people that make money on like the bowl committees themselves. Like you hear it so many times like, hey, Memphis is going to a bowl against NC State. Hey, it's great for us and our organization, but it's gonna cost us $3 million in travel and tickets and all that stuff. It's not even, it's a net loss for 90% of these teams unless you're playing in the Rose Bowl or the college football playoff or let's just say a New Year's Day Bowl. Memphis and NC State, we're already. Talked about them here. 4.5 point favorite for NC State. Memphis 57.5 NC State total as it sits here. One team hasn't won a game since October. Like, if these games go away, would you be upset? Because outside of degenerate betters at this point, and yes, some, if you have a wager on it, it makes the game so much more enjoyable, but these games mean absolutely nothing, and I can't stand them anymore, Tom. I want the expanded college football playoffs, and I don't ever want to hear about bowl games again after this year. Yeah, I would say expand the college football playoffs. I wanna see just more teams in it. It will just bring us more action, and it's more action of the highest quality. That's what we're, we're really after. We want the best quality teams, and if that means adding around, giving a few more teams buys, whatever it might be, I'm on board for that. I'm leaning NC State in this one. I'm not gonna say I'm, I'm. Biased because the last time I bet on Memphis, they lost outright to Navy on Thanksgiving when Brady, Brady Cannon and I were doing in-game live for that. So, maybe I'm just biased against Memphis, but again, Memphis hasn't won a game since October 31st, Donnie. They're gone over a month, month and a half without winning a game. Give me NC State in this one. I think they win this one going away. How about this one, Washington State, Utah State. This game's gonna be played on the 22nd at 2 p.m. Washington State got thrown out of their own conference and said, you just hang out on the side. Hey, let's give them a bowl game here against Utah State. 2.5 point favorite, 50.5 total. This game will be played, I'm assuming, what, so today is Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Is it hold on. Correct me if I'm wrong. This, so 19th is Friday, 20th is Saturday. OK, so Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock Washington State, Utah State time. Give me a breakdown, please. First off, having this game named the famous Ohio, uh, Idaho Potato Bowl and not having an Idaho team and not, but not having a team from Idaho in the Idaho Potato Bowl, that's a mistake overall. So they need to have one. That's what. Give me points in this game, points, points, points. There you go. Give them the points here. By the way, you're right, like Hawaii always plays the Sheridan, Hawaii Bowl. Why can't Boise State play in this one? Ah, who cares? Our number 2 is up next. College football playoffs. No, it doesn't start tonight. We got a great appetizer tonight in the NFC West, a game between the Rams and also the Seattle Seahawks, but we do start tomorrow night live from Norman, Oklahoma. It's gonna be Alabama and Oklahoma. But before we get there, like ideas and topics are being thrown around daily. Understand this, me being a division 3 football player from the 1990. 90s. I paid to go to school to play football. So it's not me crying and saying, oh, I can't believe guys are getting paid, but you have to understand the fundamental landscape of college football is going to change once you got NIL. And a lot of people had no idea about. Pay the kids, they're worth millions of dollars. Well, enjoy what you're actually sowing right now where it's a true free agent market. Tom, we actually just had a quarterback at USC re-sign with the Trojans, which I thought was hilarious. But here's PJ Fleck talking about paying players. Like, uh, uh, I think that You know, everybody has representation now, right? So, uh, I think they have representation to one, put them in the best position. They're hiring them to put them in the best position and, and then give them as much money as they possibly can or get them as much money as they possibly can. But, um, I said earlier, I talked about the value system. Like what, what do you really value? Is it just the highest dollar? Is it the right position for your future? Uh, is this an environment that you value, uh, versus extra dollars? Are we the highest bidder? Maybe we are. Um, but yeah, I think it's all got to fit together. It's all got to come together. It's, it's the best example I give and, and you, you've covered the Vikings forever, right? And it, it's the roles we're in is like you're the head coach, you're the president, you're the owner, you're the GM you're the director of player personnel, right? And you've almost got to be a negotiator as well, uh, of what you have in your budget, and you're doing that without the systems that the NFL has in place. You know, salary cap or you can't, you know, you can kind of figure out what guys are getting offered. I don't know how you do it here. Well, sometimes those offers are real and sometimes those offers aren't real. And you have to, I think there, there's a book called The Art of Making a Deal. There's got to be deals you walk away from. Uh, Ryan asked me earlier, uh, this is weeks ago. He's like, it's just gonna be interesting to see how you go through and make the decisions you make and Some decisions, it's not just, uh, uh, uh, uh, a guy wanted to leave or had to leave, uh, but both parties were just, they had, couldn't come to an agreement. You had to walk away. By the way, NIL Tom does really level the playing field in most instances because it used to be like, like Alabama would say, you're gonna go to Memphis? Like, you're coming to Alabama because we're gonna put you in a better spot. Now, Memphis goes, we'll pay you double what you're getting, and the kid goes, OK, I'll go to Memphis at this point. It's such an interesting landscape now. It really is. It really is. And you know, what I keep thinking of is, and I forget where I heard this. It might have been someone on this network. It might have been somewhere else, but I heard someone say, uh, and I really wish I could credit them. I, I don't remember who it is, is you either get NIL or you get the transfer portal. You get one or the other. And I think that would be a really good balance where you can't have both just because there's too much going on in all these, and there's not Not enough guard rails set up at this point, right? And, and to your point, it's saying is, oh, you want to pay the players, it's great. But I think if there were more boundaries in place, that's where we can really see the best growth overall, where we could see things be in control, but also players have a little bit of freedom to go where they want to go, maybe they get paid a little bit, but also be in the position that they want to be in. Yeah, no, it's, it's changed the landscape. We'll live with it. We'll learn to understand it. We're now, you know, GMs are now in college football because they have to handle a quote-unquote salary cap that they have, which is kind of interesting at this point. But we'll find out where it goes. College football playoff odds, Tom, talked about this all week long as we finally get up to the first game, which will be tomorrow night, Alabama and Oklahoma. OSU is that favorite to +195. You see Indiana up there to 310, followed by Georgia, Texas Tech, Oregon, and Texas A&M. We get underway, Tom, but I always ask this question. I keep on pounding it to Joe. Does Ohio State deserve to be the favorite after getting beat by Indiana at + 195? Is that just a little trip up there? Yeah, I, I would say that's, uh, that, that's fine when it's all said and done. I will say, you know, when we're looking at the odds, it Like A&M stands out to me, and I know they have an extremely difficult path, but you know, if they were to win, they are a home favorite, at least in round one. They obviously have to go up against Ohio State. What do you make of their odds because those are extremely long considering that they are hosting a round one game. And 19 to 1, they have to get past Ohio State. They have to get past Georgia, theoretically, those two teams, but 19 to 1 seems too long given where they are. Yeah, some of those are tough. And by the way, we'll lump in these games, Tom. You got 4 games coming up this weekend in the college football playoffs. But also, I've seen so many people say this. Why would you put James Madison in Oregon in prime time at 7:30 on Saturday night? The spreads 21.5. Why wouldn't Miami and Texas end? People, understand, the NFL cannibalizes everything you do. The NFL is a doubleheader on Saturday that starts at 5 o'clock. Of course. put Miami and Texas A&M during an NFL game. That's why you put that Miami, Florida game going up against Texas A&M in that early slot. But it does start, Tom, Alabama and Oklahoma, game number one, night number one of the college football playoff on Friday, and then right away Saturday morning, you're gonna be getting ready for Miami versus Texas A&M. The boys will be live, both myself and Joe Rainier for college football today. We'll be able to preview. Those games, then Tulane, Ole Miss, James Madison, Oregon. For me, Tom, it's really, who do I say? Who do I say? What did I say? Joe Ranieri's coming back Saturday. Did I mess that up right there? OK, there you go. Joe and Joe. I'm with a Joe on Saturday. That's all you need to know. Alabama, Oklahoma, Miami, and Texas A&M. Then we get the two layups, Tom, which game are you looking forward to? Do you have a side? Do you have an angle on one of these games that you actually really like? Yeah, I, I would say again, if you can get uh A&M and you can get, if it falls down to 3 and not 3.5, I think that's certainly a spot to bet. The 3.5 for Miami does look good at this point. You know, Joe Raniere did say if we are really dealing with the, the best 12 teams in the country, none of these games should be over a field goal, which I absolutely agree with. So, the Ole Miss Tul-ane game, there's no way that's like, that's going to be an enjoyable game compared to Alabama, Oklahoma, like we. We have a rivalry. We have a rematch. We have a game that should bring us literally the best quality football of the entire weekend. So, the two late games bring nothing for me, but the two early games, that's where we get the juice. That's where we get the best players, you know, I lean on the under for Alabama, Oklahoma. We're gonna see somewhat of the same thing as we saw, you know, weeks ago earlier in the regular season. I'm not sure if Alabama can lose two times in a row to the same team in the same season. But man, points are not going to be coming in this matchup. I just don't believe these teams are gonna be getting up and down, flying and scoring. I could see a little bit of scoring in Miami and A&M, but still leaning with Miami getting the 3.5 right now. And by the way, like I do like Oklahoma, but again, being a handicap and understanding how some of these lines work, Tom, less than, you know, 40% of the tickets coming in on Oklahoma. Alabama was the favorite all along. They're not the favorite anymore. It's -1. 1.5 year towards Oklahoma and also understand this, that total 40.5. You gotta be kidding me. Like even DraftKings now showing Tom 39.5 for this game. Windy conditions sustained around 20 MPH. Alabama hasn't been that great on offense. We know Oklahoma's offense stinks out loud. This will be an interesting one to watch it play out. But for me, I think that line swing is really interesting when Oklahoma is the favorite at home against Alabama. Yeah, I, I would say the same thing. It's partly due to the weather, it's partly just due to the defense on both sides. You know, Matier is a good quarterback, but this is also not an offense that's gonna go and score 30 points by themselves.

Bowl Season Analysis: Memphis vs. NC State and More

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