3 Low-Key Bowl Games You Need to Watch

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Everyone is going to be tuned in to the College Football Playoff and the NY6 games, but we’ve got a few low-key bowls that have some very intriguing storylines.

Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl
Washington (-3.5) vs. Boise State
Over/Under 49
Dec 21st, 730pm ABC
Las Vegas, Nevada

Why you need to watch: This is going to be the final game as head coach for Washington’s Chris Pedersen, and best of all, it’s against the team he made famous. SBD’s odd page for college bowl games has five-loss Washington as a four-point favorite over the Broncos, which may be due to how each team handled a shared opponent, BYU. Both teams traveled to Provo this season, but only the Huskies left with a victory, winning 45–19, while the Broncos left Utah with their only defeat of the season, losing 28–25 to the Cougars.

San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl
Iowa (-1) vs. USC
Over/Under 51
Dec. 27th, 8pm Fox Sports 1
San Diego, California

Why you need to watch: If USC wins, Clay Helton will salvage a little bit of his rep. It’s been a tough fifth-year for Helton, as they were smoked at home against №7 Oregon, Sports Illustrated reported he was fired — they were wrong, however — and he had the worst 2020 recruiting class in the Pac 12. Beating a solid Iowa team makes that all hurt a little bit less.

Redbox Bowl
California (-6.5) vs. Illinois
Over/Under 41
Dec. 30th, 4pm FOX
Santa Clara, California

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Why you need to watch: For all the mistakes they made with their bowl game merch, this is actually an intriguing matchup. Most importantly, it will be the first bowl game for Illinois under former NFL Coach of the Year Lovie Smith. The Fighting Illini had a shockingly good season, which included an improbable victory over №6 Wisconsin and a gigantic comeback over Michigan State. Everyone wants to see Lovie succeed, and college football is better when Chicago has a relevant Power-5 team. Oh yeah, this is also the only bowl game to broadcast on Fox and they offer a nice change of pace to ESPN’s bowl season domination.

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(Featured Image: Phil Roeder [CC BY-SA 2.0], from Flickr)