Orange Bowl Excitement – Not So Fast – December 30

If the Orange Bowl is anything like last night’s Cotton Bowl, make sure you’ve got plenty of adult beverages on ice. You’ll need them. Tonight’s Orange Bowl pits No. 6 Georgia against No. 5 Florida State. It sounds great on paper and there’s some controversy involved, but the Bulldogs are a 20.5-point favorite. Yep, 20.5! For a bowl game…between two teams ranked in the top-10!

Florida State is a +750 underdog on the moneyline. What does that tell you? The juice on FSU’s point spread is -105 compared to Georgia at -115 to win by at least three touchdowns. It’s a risk for sure, but take a look at what our Sports Hub experts are doing before placing your final bets on today’s Orange Bowl. 

Both Georgia and Florida State were ranked in the top-4 in Week 14 of the regular season. The Bulldogs lost to Alabama in the SEC championship game to fall from No. 1 to No. 5 in the College Football Playoff rankings. Florida State won the ACC title game and finished the season 13-0 but was left out of the CFP because starting quarterback Jordan Travis was injured late in the season. As a result, both teams wound up playing in tonight’s Orange Bowl.

Orange Bowl History

The first Orange Bowl was held in 1935. The game is one of the oldest bowl games along with the Rose, Sugar, and Sun Bowls. The Orange Bowl was originally held in Miami before it moved to Orange Bowl Stadium in 1938. In 1996, the game moved to its current home, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Since 2014, the Orange Bowl has been sponsored by Capital One.

The first college football primetime broadcast was the 1965 Orange Bowl. Texas played Alabama that year. Beginning in 1954, the Orange Bowl usually featured the winner of the old Big Eight Conference. When the Big Eight expanded to the Big 12, that ended. From 1998 to 2005, the Orange Bowl usually had the ACC or Big East champion unless that team was invited to play in the old BCS national championship game. In the current CFP system, the Orange Bowl is one of the New Year’s Six bowl games.

Deja Vu All Over Again

It’s an old Yogi Berra saying. It’s deja vu all over again. That’s what happened with yesterday’s leaderboard. In yesterday’s Daily Report, Scott’s Picks was the big winner. In today’s Daily Report, guess who the big winner is again? Yep, Scott’s Pick’s!

And, just like yesterday, the rest of the top-5 was made up of all Sports Hub experts. Of the four Sports Hub guys, only Randall Dickelman suffered a loss. He went 6-1 while the other three combined to go 11-0. 

Let’s find out who they were.

• No. 1 again: One day after going 7-1, Scott teed it up again and went 7-2. This time, he won $490 to give him a three-day total of $989. The dude is hot!
• Dickelman: It’s fun to say Dickelman! Anyway, Randall went 6-1 and earned $471 yesterday. That puts him up $1839 for the last 30 days.
• Sports Hub experts: As mentioned, three of our experts went a combined 11-0. Bill Blatt and Robert Jones each went 4-0 and won $400. In a tie for fifth place, four Sports Hub experts each went 3-0 and won $300. They include Logan Wilson, James Acker, Nick Sabatini, and Gino Russo.
• Just so you know: Bill Blatt is our No. 1 handicapper on the overall 30-day leaderboard. He is hitting 62.6 percent of his picks and is up $2636 for the month. Outstanding!

What’s Up With These Bowl Games

Did you happen to watch the Cotton Bowl last night? Like the Orange Bowl tonight, the Cotton Bowl is one of the New Year’s Six bowl games. It pits two of the top-12 teams in the nation against one another. Last night, it was a giant turd. No. 19 Oregon State was shut out in the first half by No. 16 Notre Dame. The Irish then went on to win 40-8. Yuck!

The best game yesterday was Clemson and Kentucky who combined to score 42 points in one of the most exciting fourth quarters this season. The Tigers ended up winning 38-35 on a touchdown with 17 seconds left in the game. Will tonight’s Orange Bowl be that exciting? We can only hope.

Here’s what’s trending in sports.

• Bowl game opt-outs: The number of players opting out of bowl games ruins some of these matchups. There are also players who have declared for the NFL draft as well as those that are injured. Tonight, Georgia All-American TE Brock Bowers won’t play because of injury. Florida State lost its backup QB Tate Rodemaker to the transfer portal and will go with No. 3 Brock Glenn. Technically, Georgia has no opt-outs. Hmmm.
• Cowboys at home: Only one NFL team has won all of its home games this season. That would be Dallas. The Cowboys are 7-0 at AT&T Stadium and host Detroit today.

• Lions on the road: Detroit is one of the better road teams this season. The Lions are 6-2 away from home so far in 2023. Their worst loss of the season – 38-6 – came at Baltimore in their seventh game of the season.

Orange Bowl Among Four Bowls Today

There are four bowl games on tap today. The Orange Bowl is one. Four ranked teams play today. Get yourself ready to go for today’s games by visiting Sports Hub’s college football bowl picks page. 

We also get treated to a Saturday NFL game and it’s a good one. Saturday is always a big day in the NHL and the NBA serves up enough games to make today’s schedule a solid one. It’s the last weekend of the year. Strap in. It’s going to be a great one.

Here’s a look at today’s schedule.

1. Saturday NFL: NFC North champion Detroit travels to Dallas to take on the Cowboys. Dallas needs a win to stay in contention for the NFC East title. 
2. Peach Bowl: No. 10 Penn State takes on No. 11 Ole Miss in today’s Peach Bowl in Atlanta. 
3. Music City Bowl: Down in Nashville, it’s Auburn from the SEC taking on Maryland from the Big Ten in the Music City Bowl.
4. Orange Bowl: Yes, the Orange Bowl is today’s feature game. It starts at 4 p.m. ET. There are half a dozen picks for this game in our database already. 

5. Arizona Bowl: Today’s primetime bowl game is the Arizona Bowl. MAC champion Toledo (11-2) take on Wyoming (8-4) from the Mountain West Conference. 
6. NHL: There are nine games on tap today on the ice. New Jersey, which has won three straight, plays at Atlantic Division leader Boston.
7. NBA: The NBA has six games on the schedule today. Luka Doncic and Dallas play at Golden State at 8:30 p.m. ET.
8. World soccer: It is another huge Saturday in soccer. The Premier League and Italian Serie A have multiple matches today. There are several dozen matches from leagues all over the world today. Check our database for soccer picks.
9. Tennis: As stated yesterday, men’s and women’s tennis is back. Both are playing right now in the Brisbane International in Australia and the ASB Classic in New Zealand. 
10. College hoops: It’s another day full of dozens of CBB games. No. 2 Kansas is up today.

It’s a great schedule for the last Saturday of the year. We’ve got a little bit of everything for bettors. That means there’s value out there somewhere. If you can’t find it, our Sports Hub expert handicappers can. Let them help. Members can access all of their picks. If you’re not a member, become one. It will pay off in the New Year.

That’s it for today. Have a great one and check back tomorrow as we fire up a Sunday full of NFL football ! Until then.