College Football Best Bets, Odds, Picks, & Player Props for Dec. 27
If you're a fan of college football, today is truly one of the best days of the year, as more bowl games take place today than on any other day on the calendar. If you're like us, you're going to be watching all eight games for about a combined 14 hours today. The action starts with the Military Bowl between Pitt and East Carolina at 11 am EST and finishes with the Texas Bowl between LSU and Houston, which kicks off well after 9 pm EST.
With all these games on the docket today, I'd hate to be a couch. Go grab all of your favorite Christmas leftovers, maybe order yourself a pizza, and enjoy one of the best days of sports action in the entire year. Make sure you head over to our favorite college football betting sites to lock in the best prices before you finalize your wagers.
Without further ado, let's talk about our college football best bets for today, December 27.
Game Lines
LSU Tigers vs Houston Cougars -1.5 (-105)
🏈Odds via FanDuel📈
The Tigers are playing Houston in Houston for the Texas Bowl, effectively making this a road game. LSU are missing a whopping 16 players in this one due to opt-outs, injuries, and transfers, while the Cougars are only missing a small handful of players, most notably stud offensive lineman Demetrius Hunter.
Michael Van Buren Jr. is clearly not the immediate answer for LSU at quarterback, and the Tigers have struggled to do anything with him under center. They barely knocked off 2-10 Arkansas and Western Kentucky in his starts, though the defense came through to keep it close against Oklahoma in the final week of the season.
Now that head coach Brian Kelly has been fired, and LSU have a ton of regulars missing, we just can't see them winning against an extremely good Houston Cougars team today.
Pittsburgh Panthers -10.5 vs East Carolina Pirates (-112)
🏈Odds via DraftKings 📈
We're going to keep this one extremely simple. East Carolina came into this game completely overmatched and are now without their starting quarterback, their starting running back, their number two wide receiver, and one of their two starting tight ends. If you want to top that off, the Pirates have seen their offensive coordinator leave for the Ole Miss role, while their defensive coordinator has left for South Florida.
We know the Pitt Panthers aren't the greatest 8-4 team in the world but they won't have to be today.
North Texas Mean Green -6.5 vs San Diego State (-110)
🏈Odds via Caesars Sportsbook📈
Superstar 19-year-old quarterback Drew Mestemaker was expected to enter the transfer portal and miss this game. However, he claims he's locked in for this one and will get the nod.
There are a ton of questions about North Texas' ability to perform against one of the best defenses in college football today. The books don't seem to be that scared, with this one being the highest over/under on the slate today. San Diego State's defensive coordinator has left for Nebraska, and they're missing their starting quarterback and out-and-out WR1.
While the Mean Green aren't that good defending the run, they know that the Aztecs should be extremely one-dimensional handing the ball off to Lucky Sutton early and often today. We think they'll do a good enough job containing him and get the win in convincing fashion.
Anytime Touchdown Scorers
Lucky Sutton Anytime Touchdown Scorer (-200)
🏈Odds via bet365 📈
This is your free money alert. Lucky Sutton may get every single touch for San Diego State today as they'll have a ton of inexperience heading out on the offensive side of the ball. Sutton won't have enough to win the game by himself, but we think he could have himself an extremely padded stat line.
Amare Thomas Anytime Touchdown Scorer (-110)
🏈Odds via DraftKings 📈
Thomas has scored at least one touchdown in each of his last four games and is up against an LSU Tigers defense missing many of their top corners. Don't be afraid of LSU's reputation on defense, there will be points in this one and Thomas will be targeted often.
Cale Hellums Anytime Touchdown Scorer (-500)
🏈Odds via Caesars Sportsbook📈
Bet the house and take your 20% return. Army play an option defense and their quarterback has twice as many rushing yards as passing yards. In fact, 16 of the team's 31 offensive touchdowns this season has been with Hellums on the ground. UConn isn't the best at stopping the run and practically half the team is in the transfer portal.
Player Props
Amare Thomas 100+ Receiving Yards (+118)
🏈Odds via FanDuel📈
Amare Thomas has been an absolute beast over the last four games of the season, scoring a total of six touchdowns and averaging 93 receiving yards in each of those games. In fact, he's on a four-game touchdown streak and is the odds-on favorite to get in the end zone in this one.
LSU will be missing a ton of regular defensive starters today, including three cornerbacks - most notably projected first-round pick Mansoor Delane. Yes, LSU have kept the majority of their games extremely close this season but we could see Houston going nuts on a weakened defense.
Lucky Sutton Over 119.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
🏈Odds via bet365 📈
The San Diego State Aztecs will be trotting out a quarterback who has barely played a snap and won't have a handful of their top wide receivers. They'll still have Lucky Sutton in the backfield, who has averaged over 100 rushing yards a game this season. The North Texas defense have given up over 200 rushing yards a game and have been extremely reliant on outscoring their opponents all season. We think this one won't have any trouble cashing.
Cale Hellums Over 133.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
🏈Odds via bet365 📈
While this number is a pretty big ask, we expect the Army offense to be extremely run-heavy and for Hellums to take over the game. Expect a nice, slow, consistent contest with Hellums getting 30 to 40 carries today. We love this number to get smashed.
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All Odds as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Dec. 27
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