College Football Insider Brett McMurphy of the Action Network has Penn State as a slight favorite over Utah, its likely Rose Bowl opponent.
My projected New Year's 6 bowls w/lines via @_Collin1
Peach: UGA -5 Ohio St
Fiesta: Michigan -5½ TCU
Rose: Penn State -1½ Utah
Sugar: Bama -6½ Kansas St
Orange: Clemson -1 Tenn
or Tenn -6½ UNC
Cotton: USC -5 Tulane
or USC -7 UCF— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 3, 2022
We don’t yet know if this will indeed be the Rose Bowl matchup. Even if that turns out to be the case— which it will if No. 2 Michigan doesn’t get upset by Purdue— we’re still weeks away from the game. A lot can happen.
Nonetheless, McMurphy has released his early lines for the Rose Bowl and other projected bowl games, and he has Penn State as a 1.5-point favorite over Utah.
Penn State and Utah each have 10 wins. Utah has three losses to Penn State’s two. Utah is going to the Rose Bowl after its 47-24 PAC-12 Championship upset over No. 4 USC Friday night in Vegas. The Utes doubled down on their biggest highlight of the season by beating USC for the second time. They also knocked the Trojans out of the College Football Playoff picture. Utah has won back-to-back PAC-12 titles after not winning the conference from its first season in the PAC-12 (2011) through 2020.
The outlet McMurphy works for, the Action Network, specializes in sports betting. Penn State did fairly well against the spread in the regular season, finishing 8-4. The team almost covered in its regular season finale against Michigan State at Beaver Stadium, but missed by half a point. Penn State beat Michigan State 35-16 as 19.5-point favorites. The week before that, Penn State beat Rutgers, 55-10, a 26.5-point win as far as sports betters were concerned.
Penn State will find out for sure Sunday afternoon.
The world will learn the Playoff rankings beginning at 12:15. The whole top 25, and the New Year’s Six Bowl pairings, will be revealed at 2:30.
