Bowl Predictions (Part 2)

Welcome to part 2 of our 11-part bowl-preview series. (No, really. There are that many bowl games.) You can find our standard disclaimer here. Let's keep rolling.

New Orleans Bowl (Saturday Dec. 21)
Tulane v. Louisiana Lafayette (N/A)
This game makes perfect geographic sense. That's really all I know to say about it other that, apparently, the Warhawks' starting QB has a broken arm. That can't be good for them. Even if he does wind up playing, he won't have practiced for weeks. The Green Wave wins the coin toss over their in-state rival(?).

Beef 'O' Brady Bowl (Monday Dec. 23)
East Carolina (-12.5) v. Ohio
Ohio is a MAC team that went 1-3 in its final four games, including losses to Buffalo, Bowling Green, and Kent State by a combined score of 16-123. Yikes. East Carolina is a C-USA team that finished 9-3. They may have gotten creamed by Marshall to end the season, but head coach Ruffin McNeill has them on the right track (other than a planned move "up" to the American Athletic Conference). The Pirates beat the Bobcats by at least 2 TDs.

Hawaii Bowl (Tuesday Dec. 24)
Boise State v. Oregon State (-2.5)
Oregon State appears to be favored based largely on a surprisingly strong late-season performance against their in-state rival, against whom the Beavers rushed for 231 yards. But that Duck team had been demoralized by a 16-42 loss to Arizona the week before... and they still won. That sounds like a fluky performance -- a fluky performance that wasn't even ultimately successful -- and you can't expect a repeat against a Boise State team that will be motivated to show up for its first trip to a bowl outside of Las Vegas since 2009. Boise State pulls the upset.

Go Dawgs!