Wazzu is still out for respect after being left for dead when the Pac-12 dissolved — 28. The Ville — fresh off beating the brakes off Kentucky 41-0 — gets 34. These teams are coin-flip close, but Southern Miss’ steadier hand at QB merits a 15.

The two power-conference matchups in the College Football Playoff first round will likely be the best games of the opening round.

So before filling out your college football pool picks or making any college football bets, you need to see Casale's college football bowl confidence picks. He has analyzed each bowl matchup and ordered every game by level of confidence. He's sharing his picks over at SportsLine .

If the committee had followed my ranking process and my results, they could have avoided many of their problems.

The Cougars allowed just 20.2 points per game as part of a wide-open Pac-12 schedule and scratched into a bowl game under Jimmy Rogers, who left for the Iowa State job. Utah quarterback Bryson Barnes had 27 total touchdowns for the Aggies this season. This will be Bronco Mendenhall's first bowl appearance with Utah State.

The college football odds give you an idea of what sportsbooks deem as favorites and underdogs, but you'll need more than just those when making bowl confidence bets. Before making any college football predictions for bowl season,