68 Ventures Bowl: South Alabama vs Eastern Michigan Odds, and Picks (Dec 23)

• South Alabama lost their regular season finale to Texas State, 52-44.
• Eastern Michigan reached bowl eligibility after winning their last 2 games.
• This will be the first time in program history that these two teams face off.

College football has made it to bowl game season! Let’s preview the upcoming 68 Ventures Bowl taking place between the South Alabama Jaguars and the Eastern Michigan Eagles, two 6-6 Group of Five teams.

How to Watch

• ESPN

Preview

South Alabama came up short in their final regular season game, but managed to clinch bowl eligibility the week prior by defeating Marshall 24-0. They’ll be aiming for a defensive performance similar to that in this bowl. The Jaguars are inconsistent on defense, but showed flashes of excellence. They gave up 52 points to Texas State in their finale, but held a ranked Oklahoma State team to just 7 points in a blowout victory.

Eastern Michigan snapped a 35-year drought without a bowl win last season, and now has the chance to win bowl games in back-to-back years for the first time in program history. They’ll enter this matchup with some momentum, after surging past Akron and Buffalo in the last two weeks of the regular season. They claimed bowl eligibility by doing so, but will face an even tougher matchup against South Alabama here.

Prediction

This is one of several bowl matchups featuring two 6-6 teams. Although it may seem like a bad matchup among mediocre teams, there’s often a ton of energy in these games. Both of these teams just barely claimed bowl eligibility, and are now full of momentum. For this particular matchup, I’d favor the Sun Belt’s South Alabama over a middle MAC team in Eastern Michigan, though I’m not sure that it will be a blowout.

NCAAF Picks:

• South Alabama 33, Eastern Michigan 20 ()