Army vs. North Texas, Heart of Dallas Bowl 2016: Schedule, scores, and more

We all understand that bowl season is a bit more volatile than the regular season. Here’s one way of illustrating that.

Over the last six weeks of the regular season, about 18 percent of games were decided within 3.5 points of the spread, and about 25 percent were decided 21 points or further from it.

The Heart of Dallas Bowl featured a rematch between North Texas and Army, who played each other in late October this season. The Mean Green won that game 35-18, but the Black Knights exacted some revenge from that loss with a 38-31 overtime victory on Tuesday afternoon. With the victory, Army saw its best season since 1996.

Late in the fourth quarter, North Texas got the ball back with just over two minutes to go after stopping an Army fourth-down conversion attempt. The Mean Green managed to make a 37-yard field goal on its final drive to tie things up at 31 and send the game into overtime. The drive marked the second big comeback of the day for UNT.

North Texas running back Jeffery Wilson scored two touchdowns in the first half of the Heart of Dallas Bowl against Army on Tuesday. He also projectile vomited twice on the same drive — staying in and blocking anyway.

The first puke totally caused quarterback Alec Morris to miss the snap and lose 13 yards, if you watch closely. North Texas scored anyway, with Wilson throwing a huge block on the next play to set up a 27-yard passing touchdown that pulled North Texas within three points of Army at halftime.

It’s already been a pretty big year for the Army football program. Jeff Monken’s Black Knights beat Navy for the first time in 15 years — the culmination of a years-long, top-secret plan — to create one of the season’s enduring images. But Army also won five other games and qualified for a bowl for the first time since 2010. Now the Knights will play North Texas in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Tuesday.

The Mean Green are playing in the Heart of Dallas for the second time in four years, having qualified for a bowl in their first year under new coach Seth Littrell. They missed bowl season every year from 2012 to 2015 and only went 5-7 this year. But they had the second-best APR score, a measure of academic progress, among 5-7 teams, so they got a bid because of a shortage of six-win bowl qualifiers. And while 5-7 is not much, it looks better in light of the Mean Green’s 1-11 mark in 2015.

Bowl games are good. There are too many of them. Both things are true.

We’re holding steady at 41 on this year’s schedule, counting the National Championship, and again have multiple 5-7 teams that made it in because we ran out of 6-6 teams (Mississippi State and North Texas this time).

All wagers at -110 odds unless otherwise noted. Visit Odds Shark for updated lines throughout each game week.

College football bowl games are a different beast for bettors. Sure, the typical handicapping elements apply. Offense and defense matter. But there are some key elements at play that don’t apply as much during the regular season.

College football’s bowl season is upon us. A full schedule is here.

There are 40 bowl games spread from Dec. 17 to Jan. 2, with the National Championship on Jan. 9. Unless you’re watching on multiple monitors and are really committed, you won’t catch all of them. (If that is your plan, more power to you.)