SC v Penn State

SC is -8.5 or -9

JoePa has a way of winning bowl games, especially against very good teams who might think they should be playing someone else. IE when looking at these games on paper, they shouldn’t even be close. Penn State has a very good defense. They have coaches who have more institutional knowledge about football than many pro teams.

That said:

SC wins easily and the PAC 10 goes undefeated in the bowl season. The PAC 10 has been maligned this year because of a slow start, but as conference they have picked it up and are meshing at the end of the year; 4-0 bowl record. And next year watch out for Oregon, they could do some serious damage

Mark my words: SC has a minimum of three – probably four – defensive players who’ll go on the first day of the NFL draft in April. They have more speed on their defense than most teams have on offense. Mark Sanchez is not a bad QB, and RB’s Joe McKnight and CJ Gable aren’t bad college players either. They haven’t gotten the pub because they don’t have the elite offensive players that they have in the past but they are good college players.

SC wins, but the question is: Do they cover?

I think JoePa has a trick or two up his sleeve (wildcat?) and keeps it to a touchdown.

And then there’s the SoCal team rule of thumb that every team from SoCal is overvalued by between 10 and 30 per cent because of the proximity to Vegas. It’s human nature; because SoCal fan can easily bet on their teams, they do, and like all fans they overvalue their team.