The best bets for the first week of college football bowl season

Gasparilla Bowl: Temple (-7.5) vs. Florida International

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The pick: Temple -7.5

The logic: First and foremost, I feel obliged to pick my alma mater. But more importantly from a gambling perspective, the Owls have now made their third straight bowl game after never making it to the postseason in consecutive years in school history.

Unfortunately, Temple is 0-2 the past two years in their bowl games, meaning there are seniors on this team who were snubbed from a bowl game their freshman year, and then lost twice in the final game of the season. They needed to win three of their final four games to get bowl eligible this year, including a big upset win over Navy.

They’re going to want this win.

When to watch: 8 p.m. Thursday, December 21 on ESPN