College Football Best Bets: Picks & Analysis For The Bowl Games On Friday, December 16

The college football bowl season opens up on Friday, December 16, when the Miami Ohio RedHawks take on the UAB Blazers in the HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl and the UTSA Roadrunners face the Troy Trojans in the Duluth Trading Cure Bowl. Instead of doing an individual article on every game, we'll simply be giving you a pick for every bowl game that will be played on a given day. With that said, keep reading for our best bets for a Friday that should be very exciting for college football fans and bettors. These picks were very profitable for us during the regular season and we're confident we can continue providing winners the rest of the way. 

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RELATED: College Football Bet Hub 

College Football Best Bets For The Friday, December 16 Bowl Games

HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl: Miami (OH) RedHawks vs. UAB Blazers - 11:30AM ET

Miami needed to finish its season strong in order to make a bowl game and that's exactly what it did. The RedHawks rattled off wins in three of their last four contests, which now puts them in position to help us cash an Over in a meeting with a Blazers team that has seen its total go Over in each of its last four games. 

We're not exactly looking at a game between two offensive juggernauts, but the Blazers averaged 30.6 points per game this year and they're very good at moving the ball down the field. If they can do what they do, the RedHawks wont' have to do all that much for Over bettors to be celebrating after this one. 

This is just a game in which we envision UAB having no trouble running the football, as the team can turn to either DeWayne McBride (1,713 yards, 19 touchdowns, 7.4 YPC) or Jermaine Brown Jr. (832 yards, 6 touchdowns, 5.9 YPC) on the ground. That will open up some things for Dylan Hopkins to make some throws. It'll also result in Miami's Aveon Smith needing to make some throws in order to bring his team back into this one. A game script that requires the RedHawks to throw the football a lot would benefit Over bettors. 

Our DimersBOT also happens to like the Over in this one, which is never a bad sign. Our model has an implied total of 47.0 on this game, which means the 44.5 that Vegas has is a little too low. The only thing that can really impact this would be intense weather. And while the forecast calls for scattered showers, it looks like the wind will be manageable. 

BET: Over 44.5 at -110 at DraftKings Sportsbook

🏈 Miami (OH) vs. UAB Predictions
📈 Betting preview: Miami (OH) vs. UAB

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Duluth Trading Cure Bowl: UTSA Roadrunners vs. Troy Trojans - 3:00PM ET

It's a crying shame that UTSA and Troy are being forced to play on the opening Friday of bowl season. While it does give the fans the opportunity to see some good football right off the bat, these are two top-25 programs and they deserved a bit better than this. Still, it's going to be fun to see these two clashing in Orlando, Florida, where we do ultimately expect the Trojans to pull it out. 

Our DimersBOT actually has Troy with a 56% chance of winning this one outright, and it isn't too hard to figure out why. While UTSA has an explosive offense that averaged 38.7 points per game this season (12th in NCAA), Troy only gave up 17.5 points per game this year (eighth in NCAA). This is a matchup between an elite offense and an elite defense, but we trust the Trojans offense a bit more than we trust a leaky Roadrunners defense. 

Troy was remarkably impressive in a 45-26 win over Coastal Carolina in its final game of the season and the Trojans are 11-2 against the spread in meetings with teams that average 8.0 or more yards per attempt over the last three seasons. Troy has won those games by an average of 7.1 points per game and we're just putting one final bit of trust in a Trojans team that was 10-3 ATS this year. That's an entire year of profitable play from Troy, so we expect the team to go out the right way. 

BET: Troy -1 at -110 at DraftKings Sportsbook

🏈 UTSA vs. Troy Predictions
📈 Betting preview: UTSA vs. Troy