This article is part of our Bowl Game Pick 'Em series.
Of the 41 bowls, including the national championship, only one provided consensus — Washington State (-6.5) vs. Minnesota in the Holiday Bowl. Nick Grays likes Wazzu so much he made it his best bet.
Jesse Siegel proved the biggest spoiler, preventing consensus in four games. He was the only writer to take underdogs Miami (OH) (+13 vs. Mississippi State), Baylor (+7.5 vs. Boise State) and Penn State (+6.5 vs. USC), and was the only one on the side of Hawaii in a pick 'em against Middle Tennessee.
Chris Morgan took the points on two of the bigger underdogs as the only writer picking Central Michigan (+11.5) over Tulsa and Idaho (+13.5) over Colorado State.
Mario Puig and Jason Thornbury did likewise with their consensus busters, with Puig taking the points in Indiana (+8) vs. Utah and Thornbury going with underdog Arkansas State (+5.5) against Central Florida.
James Anderson went the other way as the only writer to give up the points and take North Carolina State (-4) over Vanderbilt.
Greg Vara's best bet came from the national semifinal as he tabbed Clemson (+3.5) against Ohio State, while Chris Bennett stuck with the Big Ten and Wisconsin (-7.5) vs. undefeated Western Michigan as his best bet.
As for the national championship, Thornbury was the lone holdout, going against the grain with Washington as all others took favorite Alabama to win the title.
• Picks
Of the 41 bowls, including the national championship, only one provided consensus — Washington State (-6.5) vs. Minnesota in the Holiday Bowl. Nick Grays likes Wazzu so much he made it his best bet.
Jesse Siegel proved the biggest spoiler, preventing consensus in four games. He was the only writer to take underdogs Miami (OH) (+13 vs. Mississippi State), Baylor (+7.5 vs. Boise State) and Penn State (+6.5 vs. USC), and was the only one on the side of Hawaii in a pick 'em against Middle Tennessee.
Chris Morgan took the points on two of the bigger underdogs as the only writer picking Central Michigan (+11.5) over Tulsa and Idaho (+13.5) over Colorado State.
Mario Puig and Jason Thornbury did likewise with their consensus busters, with Puig taking the points in Indiana (+8) vs. Utah and Thornbury going with underdog Arkansas State (+5.5) against Central Florida.
James Anderson went the other way as the only writer to give up the points and take North Carolina State (-4) over Vanderbilt.
Greg Vara's best bet came from the national semifinal as he tabbed Clemson (+3.5) against Ohio State, while Chris Bennett stuck with the Big Ten and Wisconsin (-7.5) vs. undefeated Western Michigan as his best bet.
As for the national championship, Thornbury was the lone holdout, going against the grain with Washington as all others took favorite Alabama to win the title.
• Picks are against the spread (except the national championship).
• Best Bets are in bold.
•Losers are noted as such.
•Pushes are italicized.
• The Hawaii Bowl (Hawaii vs. Middle Tennessee) did not have a line at press time, so we made it a pick 'em.
• Minnesota players are threatening a boycott of the Holiday Bowl, in which case Northern Illinois will play Washington State. We stuck with the spread at press time that still involved Minnesota (+6.5).
• John McKechnie was a late entry.
Happy Bowling.
POST-BOWL UPDATE: Congratualtions to Chris Bennett for winning the 2016 Bowl Pick 'Em title. Five players finished with the same record and Bennett won on the fourth tie-breaker:
1. Record
2. National championship pick
3. Best Bet
4. National semifinals picks
| BOWL MATCHUP | FINAL | MARIO | CHRIS B | NICK | JESSE | GREG | CHRIS M | JASON | JAMES | JOHN |
| New Mexico New Mexico vs. UT San Antonio +7 | 23 20 | UTSA | UTSA | UTSA | UTSA | |||||
| Las Vegas Houston vs. San Diego State +3 | 10 34 | SDSU | SDSU | SDSU | ||||||
| Camellia App. State vs. Toledo +1 | 31 28 | APP | APP | APP | APP | APP | ||||
| Cure Central Florida vs. Arkansas State +5.5 | 13 31 | ASU | ||||||||
| New Orleans Southern Miss vs. La Lafayette +3.5 | 28 21 | SM | SM | SM | SM | SM | ||||
| Miami Beach C. Michigan vs. Tulsa -11.5 | 10 55 | TUL | TUL | TUL | TUL | TUL | TUL | TUL | TUL | |
| Boca Raton Memphis vs. W. Kentucky -5 | 31 51 | WKU | WKU | WKU | WKU | WKU | WKU | |||
| Poinsettia BYU vs. Wyoming +8.5 | 24 21 | WYM | WYM | WYM | WYM | |||||
| Potato Idaho vs. Colo. State -13.5 | 61 50 | IDA | ||||||||
| Bahamas E. Michigan vs. Old Dominion -4 | 20 24 | OD | OD | OD | EMU | OD | EMU | OD | OD | OD |
| Armed Forces Louisiana Tech vs. Navy +3.5 | 48 45 | NAVY | NAVY | |||||||
| Dollar General Ohio vs. Troy -4 | 23 28 | TROY | TROY | TROY | TROY | TROY | ||||
| Hawaii Hawaii vs. Middle Tenn EV | 52 35 | HA | ||||||||
| St. Petersburg Miami (OH) vs. Miss State -13 | 16 17 | MO | MO | |||||||
| Quick Lane Maryland vs. Boston College +1 | 30 36 | BC | BC | |||||||
| Independence NC State vs. Vanderbilt +4 | 41 17 | NCSU | NCSU | |||||||
| Dallas Army vs. North Texas +10 | 38 31 | NT | NT | NT | NT | NT | ||||
| Military Temple vs. Wake Forest +13 | 26 34 | WK | WK | WK | WK | WK | WK | |||
| Holiday Minnesota vs. Wash. State -6.5 | 17 12 | |||||||||
| Cactus Boise State vs. Baylor +7.5 | 12 31 | BAY | ||||||||
| Pinstripe Pittsburgh vs. Northwestern +5.5 | 24 31 | NW | NW | NW | ||||||
| Russell Athletic West Virginia vs. Miami -3 | 14 31 | MIA | MIA | MIA | MIA | |||||
| Foster Farms Indiana vs. Utah -8 | 24 26 | IND | IND | |||||||
| Texas Texas A&M vs. Kansas State +2 | 28 33 | KSU | KSU | KSU | KSU | KSU | ||||
| Birmingham S. Florida vs. S. Carolina +10.5 | 46 39 | SC | SC | SC | SC | SC | ||||
| Belk Arkansas vs. Virginia Tech -7 | 24 35 | VT | VT | VT | VT | VT | ||||
| Alamo Oklahoma State vs. Colorado -3 | 38 8 | OSU | OSU | OSU | OSU | |||||
| Liberty Georgia vs. TCU +1 | 31 23 | UG | UG | UG | UG | UG | UG | |||
| Sun Stanford vs. North Carolina +3.5 | 25 23 | UNC | UNC | |||||||
| Music City Nebraska vs. Tennessee -3 | 24 38 | TEN | TEN | TEN | TEN | TEN | TEN | TEN | ||
| Arizona South Alabama vs. Air Force -13 | 21 45 | AF | AF | AF | AF | |||||
| Orange Michigan vs. Florida State +7 | 32 33 | FSU | FSU | |||||||
| Citrus LSU vs. Louisville +3.5 | 29 9 | LSU | LSU | LSU | LSU | LSU | ||||
| Taxslayer Georgia Tech vs. Kentucky +3.5 | 33 18 | GT | GT | GT | ||||||
| Peach Washington vs. Alabama -16 | 7 24 | ALA | ALA | ALA | ALA | ALA | ALA | |||
| Fiesta Ohio State vs. Clemson +3.5 | 0 31 | CLE | CLE | CLE | CLE | |||||
| Outback Florida vs. Iowa +2.5 | 30 3 | UF | UF | UF | UF | UF | UF | |||
| Cotton W. Michigan vs. Wisconsin -7.5 | 16 24 | WIS | WIS | WIS | WIS | WIS | WIS | |||
| Rose USC vs. Penn State +6.5 | 52 49 | PSU | ||||||||
| Sugar Auburn vs. Oklahoma -3.5 | 19 35 | OU | OU | OU | OU | OU | OU | |||
| National Champ | ||||||||||
| RECORD | 18-22-1 | 18-22-1 | 16-24-1 | 18-22-1 | 14-26-1 | 14-26-1 | 15-25-1 | 18-22-1 | 18-22-1 |
THE PLAYERS
Mario Puig: RotoWire College Football Editor; 2012 and 2013 Bowl Picks champion
Chris Bennett: Co-writes College Capper column
Nick Grays: Writes Waiver Wire column, covers the Big 12
Jesse Siegel: Writes The Spread Offensive column, covers the SEC
Greg Vara: Co-writes the College Capper column; 2008 Bowl Picks champion
Chris Morgan: Covers Conference-USA
Jason Thornbury: RotoWire Senior Editor; 2011, 2014 and 2015 Bowl Picks champion
James Anderson: CFB Podcast host
John McKechnie: Assistant College Football Editor, CFB Podcast host
