Bowl predictions: The Athletic staff picks every college football bowl game

It’s bowl season, which also means it’s bowl pick ’em season. Opt-outs, transfers and coaching decisions make predicting bowl games difficult, but several members of The Athletic’s college football staff have made picks for every bowl game and the four first-round College Football Playoff games.

The home teams are all favored by at least a touchdown in the four CFP games, and our pickers mostly agree with that sentiment. The home teams (Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame and Ohio State) got a lot of love. Out of nine pickers, Penn State got six picks to beat SMU, Ohio State had seven to beat Tennessee, just one picked Clemson to win at Texas and not a soul was brave enough to take Indiana to win at Notre Dame. Will that play out, or will Hoosier fans be coming for us?

Speaking of unanimous picks, there are six more games with the same pick (get your angry screenshots ready):

Memphis to beat West Virginia in the Frisco Bowl
James Madison to beat Western Kentucky in the Boca Raton Bowl
Pitt to beat Toledo in the GameAbove Sports Bowl
Kansas State to beat Rutgers in the Rate Bowl
Syracuse to beat Washington State in the Holiday Bowl
Army to beat Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl (Initially eight pickers had Army beating Marshall before the Thunder Herd withdrew.)

Standings through Dec. 17 games

	Record
Matt Baker	2-0
Scott Dochterman	2-0
Mitch Light	2-0
Austin Mock	2-0
Dan Santaromita	2-0
Chris Vannini	2-0
Chris Kamrani	1-1
Daniel Shirley	1-1
Audrey Snyder	1-1

College Football Playoff picks

No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Notre Dame

No. 11 SMU at No. 6 Penn State

No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Texas

No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Ohio State

Salute to Veterans Bowl

South Alabama vs. Western Michigan

Frisco Bowl

Memphis vs. West Virginia

Boca Raton Bowl

Western Kentucky vs. James Madison

LA Bowl

Cal vs. UNLV

New Orleans Bowl

Georgia Southern vs. Sam Houston

Cure Bowl

Ohio vs. Jacksonville State

Gasparilla Bowl

Tulane vs. Florida

Myrtle Beach Bowl

Coastal Carolina vs. UTSA

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

Northern Illinois vs. Fresno State

Hawai’i Bowl

South Florida vs. San José State

GameAbove Sports Bowl

Pitt vs. Toledo

Rate Bowl

Rutgers vs. Kansas State

68 Ventures Bowl

Arkansas State vs. Bowling Green

Armed Forces Bowl

Oklahoma vs. Navy

Birmingham Bowl

Georgia Tech vs. Vanderbilt

Liberty Bowl

Texas Tech vs. Arkansas

Holiday Bowl

Syracuse vs. Washington State

Las Vegas Bowl

Texas A&M vs. USC

Fenway Bowl

North Carolina vs. UConn

Pinstripe Bowl

Boston College vs. Nebraska

New Mexico Bowl

Louisiana vs. TCU

Pop-Tarts Bowl

Iowa State vs. Miami

Arizona Bowl

Miami (Ohio) vs. Colorado State

Military Bowl

East Carolina vs. NC State

Alamo Bowl

BYU vs. Colorado

Independence Bowl

Army vs. Louisiana Tech

Marshall withdrew from this game and was replaced by Louisiana Tech. Even before the swap, eight of nine picks were for Army.