2021 Bowl Game Results, Records by Conference: Pac-12 Goes Winless, SEC Closes Strong

2021 Bowl Game Results, Records by Conference: Pac-12 Goes Winless, SEC Closes Strong article feature image
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Bowl season has just about come to an end. Long live bowl season.

The Big 12, AAC and Mountain West were the unofficial conference winners, going a combined 11-5 with each winning 66% of its games.

The Big Ten saved its bowl season with Ohio State's 48-45 win over Utah. It left the Pac-12 winless in five bowl tries.

The SEC made up for its poor start with two more wins Saturday to finish 5-6, though Ole Miss dropped the Sugar Bowl to Baylor. And it put both teams in the national title game.

We tracked conference bowl performance both straight-up and against the spread (via Bet Labs).

2021 Bowl Records by Conference

ConferenceStraight-UpATS
Conference USA3-54-4
MAC3-54-4
AAC3-13-1
Independent2-21-3
Mountain West5-14-2
Sun Belt3-12-2
Pac-120-51-4
Big Ten6-45-4-1
Big 125-25-2
SEC5-75-6-1
ACC2-42-4

Results for Favorites/Underdogs

Straight-UpATS
Favorites27-1021-15-1
Underdogs10-2715-21-1
Overs/Unders18-19N/A

Results for Every Bowl Game

GameCover
Middle Tennessee 31, Toledo 24MTSU +9
Coastal Carolina 47, Northern Illinois 41NIU +11.5
Western Kentucky 59, Appalachian State 38WKU +2
Fresno State 31, UTEP 24UTEP +12.5
UAB 31, BYU 28UAB +5.5
Liberty 56, Eastern Michigan 20Liberty -9.5
Utah State 24, Oregon State 13USU +7.5
ULL 36, Marshall 21ULL -4.5
Tulsa 30, Old Dominion 17Tulsa -8.5
Wyoming 52, Kent State 38WYO -3.5
SDSU 38, UTSA 24SDSU -2.5
Army 24, Missouri 22Mizzou +7
Miami Ohio 27, North Texas 14MOH -1.5
UFC 29, Florida 17UCF +7
Georgia State 51, Ball State 20GSU -5.5
Western Michigan 52, Nevada 25WMU -7
Houston 17, Auburn 13Houston -1.5
Air Force 31, Louisville 28AF -1.5
Texas Tech 34, Miss. State 7TTU +10
Minnesota 18, WVU 6Minn. -5.5
Maryland 54, Va. Tech 10MD -4.5
Clemson 20, Iowa State 13Clem -1.5
Oklahoma 47, Oregon 32Okla. -7
South Carolina 38, UNC 21SC +13
Purdue 48, Tennessee 45Purdue +8.5
Michigan State 31, Pitt 21MSU -3.5
Wisconsin 20, Arizona State 13ASU +7.5
Wake Forest 38, Rutgers 10WF -17.5
Central Michigan 24, Wash. State 21CMU +6.5
Alabama 27, Cincinnati 6Bama -13
Georgia 34, Michigan 11UGA -7.5
Arkansas 24, Penn State 10Ark -3
Kentucky 20, Iowa 17UK -3
Oklahoma State 37, Notre Dame 35OKST -1
Ohio State 48, Utah 45Utah +4
Baylor 21, Ole Miss 7Baylor +1
Kansas State 42, LSU 20KSU -9.5

Bowl Performance Since 2005 

Records entering 2021 bowl season.

Against the Spread

The SEC had been the best conference in the country against the spread entering this bowl season, returning bettors 9.2% on their investment across every game.

The MAC has always been a popular fade in bowl season, and for good reason. They're just 31-45-4 against the spread since 2005.

ConferenceATS RecordROI
SEC88-70-19.2%
MWC49-40-06.8%
Independent23-17-010.9%
Big East23-18-19%
Big Ten66-63-1-0.2%
Sun Belt27-26-2-0.8%
CUSA52-50-1-1.3%
WAC13-15-1-10.7%
ACC72-71-3-2.2%
American Athletic22-31-0-18.6%
Pac-1250-59-0-10.6%
Big 1253-64-0-11.7%
MAC31-45-4-19.7%

Straight-Up Results

Using moneyline results gives us another look into conference performance. Again, the MAC has been a complete disaster — just 10 of 56 underdogs have won outright and favorites are 13-11.

The Sun Belt has actually been the best for bettors (of any active conference anyway — RIP Big East Football).

The Big 12 has been much better straight-up than against the spread, but is buoyed by a pair of huge upsets — Oklahoma (+613) over Alabama in the 2014 Sugar Bowl; Texas Tech (+644) over Arizona State that same year; and, Texas (+440) over an unmotivated Georgia team in 2019.

ConferenceStraight-UpROI
SEC101-58-011.7%
Big 1261-56-012.7%
Sun Belt33-22-026.8%
MWC51-38-015.4%
Big East27-15-028.8%
Conference USA50-53-06%
Independent22-18-014.2%
Big Ten57-73-0-1.4%
WAC12-17-0-18.5%
AAC20-33-0-22.5%
ACC64-82-0-11.6%
Pac-1255-54-0-17.5%
MAC23-57-0-40.7%
About the Author
Steve is a senior editor for The Action Network covering college football, among other things. He's a Penn State grad now based in Atlanta who enjoys great punting, clock-killing drives and turnovers in the red zone.

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