Bowl Season Part 2

“Twas the bowls before Christmas, when all thro’ the sportsbook,

Every bettor was stirring, some biting the hook.

The bets were placed at the window with care,

In hopes that cash bags soon would be there. 

The degernates shop lines, with their laptop in bed,

While visions of covers dance in their head.”

What’s the week leading up to Christmas without wagering on Group of 5 teams you haven’t watched all year? Luckily for you Money Train passengers, you have me to help you navigate this landscape. Once you’ve gotten your shopping done, you can make all that money back before Christmas Day. The Money Train is here to take you right out of Christmas credit card debt. That’s right. My gift to you is financial freedom. Considering Dave Ramsey said you can’t get rich quick, I’m assuming he hasn’t yet been introduced to my site.

Money Train Christmas Gift Idea: Give a loved one an envelope that contains a ticket you drew by hand (magic markers and construction paper are preferable). Its a ticket for the Money Train. It has my website http address on it. You changed someone’s life forever and it didn’t cost you a thing. Don’t be greedy. Let’s all get rich together this holiday season.

Last week we got our feet wet and had a 2-2 performance. That brings us to 70-49-4 ATS (58.82%) for the year. For the record, I will not doubt Lane Kiffin again. That dude is on some Bama-type, world domination mindset and I kinda love it. Can I take a second and say I don’t know what Kiffin’s ultimate plans are, but that guy has it good where he’s at. He just signed a 10 year deal to coach football in freaking Boca Raton, Florida. He doesn’t have to deal with as much pressure as he would at a large school, he gets less of the prima madona type kids, he’ll get the best recruits for that level, and he’s going to make 950,000 dollars a year doing it. All the while fishing and living the life in freaking Boca. Forget moving up, I contend this man has it figured out.

I picked six of the eight games being played before Tuesday, including the game tonight. Lets get this money:

LA Tech +4 v SMU

An important factor in every bowl game is motivation. The strategy of fading the team that just had their coach up and ditch them for greener pastures has already paid off once for us this bowl season. I called for a Boise State cover and possible outright victory and both happened. SMUs Chad Morris packed it up and headed to Fayetteville and it anyone’s guess how his former team responds. Their opponent LA Tech is no stranger to going bowling. They have 3 straight bowl wins and a win here would make it 4. They also showed some mettle by taking South Carolina down to the wire early in the season in a 17-16 loss. I like the bulldogs to cover the number.

Temple v FIU +7

A theme you’ll see this week is I’m leaning on a few dogs. Bowl season is typically kind to those taking the points. I haven’t been overly impressed with Temple this year and I wonder if they’re getting this number partly due to name recognition. FIU is coming in hot off of strong performances against WKU (41-17) and UMass (63-45) (FIU was an underdog in both). Similar to what we saw with FAU, this is another instance of a northern team coming to the sunshine state to play a team that’s actually from Florida. I think that’s certainly an added edge.

UAB +7 v Ohio

UAB has a good story and seems like the darling play in this matchup. Ordinarily that would cause me to stay away, but any team that calls themselves the BLAZERS is going to have a place in my heart. I already mentioned that a big factor in bowl games is motivation and its hard to imagine that UAB isn’t the much more motivated team in this one. Its a cliche, but after regaining their program with a chance to compete on the national stage, this is shaping up to be their Super Bowl. This means more to the Blazers, take the points.

CMU +3.5 v Wyoming

When this line first came out it was even! What caused this line movement? I’m guessing its all the squares that want to back Wyoming because their QB will most likely be a day one draft pick. But to me, I see this as an opportunity to get points in a matchup with even teams. And I’ll take that bet all day. If any of you reading this is aware of a key CMU player getting arrested, or if you have any connection to the mob and know the fix is in, please reach out to me and let me know. Otherwise we’re riding with Central Michigan.

Texas Tech v USF -2.5

USF is a very good Group of 5 team. In some respects, UCF is having the season many expected USF to be having. They were deemed by preseason experts to be the ones crashing a New Years Six Bowl. USF has still put together a decent resume with a close loss to UCF and a loss to a tough Houston team. Texas Tech has been up and down this year but is not very good defensively, so I give the nod to the Bulls.

SDSU -6.5 v Army

Its time to fade everyone that watched the Army – Navy game and wants to play on their recent emotions. The public money is coming in on Army all because they watched them beat an average Navy team in the snow. On the other hand, SDSU is a team that actually runs a real offense and put up a 10-2 season (including a win over Stanford).

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all Money Train passengers! I appreciate your support this season and I promise more cash bags await. I’ll get a post up next week before the games on Tuesday.