Amid recruiting battles, the NIL conversation and college football’s wild transfer portal madness, is anyone else excited about bowl season? Player opt-outs are increasing, sure, but this month’s 41-game slate along with the College Football Playoff on New Year’s Day offers up several great matchups and our final predictions are in. Editor’s note: These lines are updated as of Tuesday, Dec. 12. Play accordingly.

Factors to watch closely when betting bowl games are prospective depth charts given portal departures and early NFL Draft announcements along with coaching staff changes. By a rough count, there’s only a handful of games during bowl season that haven’t yet been affected by one of those two details.

After going 3-3 during conference championship weekend with SMU and Washington being the notable outright wins as underdogs, I finished a couple games over .500 against the spread during the regular season. That marks the second-straight season in the money, but not by much in 2023. Here’s hoping bowl season is more profitable for all parties.