Clay Travis' College Football Bowl Game Picks: Celebrate The Holidays With 12 Winners

Okay, we went 5-4 with the final week of games — plus the Army-Navy win — to finish off the regular season with an 80-88 record. 

That’s not ideal, which is why I have 12 bowl game winners for all of you. 

Yep, Santa Clay is here with gambling gifts for everyone. 

I’ll actually be in Australia with my family for all of these bowl games too so if you have ideal suggestions for where to watch American football in Sydney, Melbourne or Cairns, fire them my way via DM. And crazily we actually have a pretty decent sized Australian Outkick readership now so if you’re down under and you think to yourself, “Is that Clay Travis being chased by a saltwater crocodile, boxing a kangaroo or posing with a koala bear?” The answer is probably yes. 

Honestly, I can’t wait for this trip. 

I’ve never been to Australia and have wanted to go for as long as I can remember. 

Okay, with that in mind, here we go with the 12 winners:

Betting on bowl games is often about motivation of the players — who cares? — who is playing and who is opting out? and what kind of trend lines, if any, did the teams establish?

And here’s the deal, down the stretch both Utah and Northwestern’s offenses started to score points, reversing a defensive domination from earlier in the year. 

I think that continues in the bowl game, give me the over for our first win of bowl season.

The Cowboys can’t stop anybody decent and who knows what players A&M will even have on the field given all the transfer portal additions and the coaching change.

What’s that add up to?

Lots of points, because you know Oklahoma State will score, especially with A&M down a bevy of defensive starters. 

The over cashes in this one too.

SMU should win this game comfortably, but it should also do so while setting the pace, racing out to a track-meet-style game. 

I could spend more time analyzing it, but all you care about is a win. 

So another over cashes to make us 3-0 on bowl season. 

Rutgers can’t score points against decent teams and Miami is unlikely to be super excited to be playing in this game. 

So what happens?

Rutgers controls the pace and tempo and it’s an ugly, low-scoring affair. 

Don’t worry, this is our only under bet of bowl season. 

The biggest thing when it comes to betting bowl games is figuring out which teams are motivated and excited to actually be playing the games. 

If you can do that, the gambling wins follow. 

N.C. State is going for a 10th win, which would be a signature achievement for the program, the most of Dave Doeren’s tenure. 

Meanwhile, Kansas State isn’t excited to be in this game at all. And their starting quarterback is bailing on the program. 

Give me N.C. State for the win — but I’ll take the +3 just to be safe.

Again, it’s all motivation in this game. 

A huge percentage of Ohio State’s top players are either heading to the NFL or transferring. 

Meanwhile, Missouri has most of its stars committed for this game and eager to punch an 11th win for the program. The result? Mizzou wins by a touchdown or more.

I think these teams are pretty much dead even and both to be equally motivated. 

I think Lane Kiffin really wants to win this game to get his team to 11 wins and I think many on the team do too. But guess what, I think the same thing is true of James Franklin and this Penn State squad, who are also seeking a big time win given the frustrating losses to Penn State and Ohio State. 

With two teams likely to be motivated to win, I’ll take the underdog giving me the points in what figures to be one of the best games of bowl season. 

Hotty Toddy covers.

I think FSU is going to put everything imaginable in this game and I think Georgia won’t really care that much, especially since top players are unlikely to play. 

So what happens?

FSU has a really good chance to win. 

And my blood bank guarantee is the Seminoles covering this big number to send a message to the college football playoff committee that it should have been in the final four. 

I don’t think Iowa will have much success against the Tennessee defense — heck Iowa hasn’t had that much success against any decent defense all year — and the Vols will be able to move the football enough against Iowa to get the win, especially since most of Tennessee’s offensive line is playing and returning next year.

In what will be an ugly game, I see the Vols winning 21-10, which gets you a nice cover.

Liberty is a huge underdog in this game so why not have some fun and take some chances?

I think we have a sprinter’s pace in this one and Liberty catches Oregon a bit flatfooted as the Ducks are unlikely to be excited to be playing in this game coming off the loss to Washington. 

The over cashes.

Okay, here’s the first of the two games that we know motivation won’t be an issue. I like Nick Saban with time to prepare. Especially against a Michigan offense that doesn’t do anything that fancy. 

Given nearly a month to get ready, I’ll take the Tide defense to strangle this Michigan run game and make J.J. McCarthy beat them with precise throws. And I think the Michigan defense has pretty much the same plan for Alabama. 

Ultimately the difference is Jalen Milroe, I expect for him to be the best player on the field and for Michigan to struggle with his containment. 

The Tide wins outright in a low scoring game, 24-17. 

In what should be a really exciting match up between elite offensive squads, I like Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns to force more punts than Washington does.

And ultimately that will be enough for a 34-28 Longhorn win. 

Yep, I’ve got the Tide and the Longhorns playing for the title.  

And I’m looking forward to watching both of these games, even with the time difference, somewhere in Australia. 

…

Merry Christmas from Santa Clay, 12-0 is my gift to all of you.