College Football Bowl Betting: Odds Open for 38 Matchups

Only two teams opened as double-digit underdogs, as oddsmakers posted lines on all 38 bowl games this week.

Maryland opened as 13-point dogs against Stanford in the Foster Farms Bowl, and Northern Illinois was getting 11 points against Marshall in the Boca Raton Bowl.

All of the other spreads were tighter, as college football embraced a playoff system for the first time, resulting in a pair of major New Year's Day clashes, with Alabama vs. Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and Oregon vs. defending champion Florida State in the Rose Bowl.

The Tide and Ducks opened as solid favorites to advance to the national championship game.

The over/under values ranged from a low of 39 in the Pinstripe Bowl (Penn State vs. Boston College) to a high of 71 in the Rose Bowl. And there are intriguing trends associated with most of the bowls and with many of the teams, such as the 2-10 against-the-spread run by Notre Dame in bowl action.

Opening lines aggregated by Odds Shark:

Bowl	Teams	Open	O/U
New Orleans	Nevada vs. Louisiana-Lafayette	+1	61
New Mexico	Texas El Paso vs. Utah State	-11	50.5
Las Vegas	Utah vs. Colorado State	+4	58
Idaho Potato	Western Michigan vs. Air Force	+3	55.5
Camellia	South Alabama vs. Bowling Green	-1.5	55
Miami Beach	BYU vs. Memphis	-1	56.5
Boca Raton	Northern Illinois vs. Marshall	-11	61.5
Poinsettia	Navy vs. San Diego State	PK	56.5
Bahamas	Central Michigan vs. W. Kentucky	-1.5	65
Hawaii	Fresno State vs. Rice	+2	59
Heart of Dallas	Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech	-4	61
Quick Lane	Rutgers vs. North Carolina	-3	65.5
St. Petersburg	North Carolina State vs. UCF	-3	49
Military	Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati	-3.5	49
Sun	Duke vs. Arizona State	-9	59.5
Independence	Miami vs. South Carolina	PK	59.5
Pinstripe	Penn State vs. Boston College	-2.5	39
Holiday	Nebraska vs. Southern Cal	-4	62
Liberty	West Virginia vs. Texas A&M	+4	OFF
Russell Athletic	Clemson vs. Oklahoma	OFF	OFF
Texas	Texas vs. Arkansas	-5	45.5
Music City	Notre Dame vs. LSU	-7.5	52
Belk	Louisville vs. Georgia	-7	58.5
Foster Farms	Maryland vs. Stanford	-13	49
Chick-Fil-A	Mississippi vs. TCU	-3	56
Fiesta	Boise State vs. Arizona	-4	69
Orange	Georgia Tech vs. Mississippi State	-7	59.5
Outback	Wisconsin vs. Auburn	-6.5	61
Cotton	Michigan State vs. Baylor	-1.5	70
Citrus	Minnesota vs. Missouri	-6.5	OFF
Rose	Florida State vs. Oregon	-8.5	71
Sugar	Ohio State vs. Alabama	-9	58
Armed Forces	Pittsburgh vs. Houston	+2	53
TaxSlayer	Iowa vs. Tennessee	-3	52.5
Alamo	UCLA vs. Kansas State	-2.5	59
Cactus	Oklahoma State vs. Washington	-5	55.5
Birmingham	East Carolina vs. Florida	-7	57.5
GoDaddy	Toledo vs. Arkansas State	+1	66