Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, Louisville Vs. Southern Miss Pick: Golden Eagles Should Edge Cardinals

The 2010 college football postseason kicks back into gear today and it's time to place all your money set aside for Christmas shopping on ridiculous, half-assed bowl games played by largely inept football teams. Degenerate gamblers, start your engines. Now playing: Louisville and Southern Miss in the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl.

The line: Leaning slightly Cardinals-ward at the moment, with Louisville favored by about a field goal.

Notable Louisville units: The redbirds' standout group is their defense, which ranks fifth nationally in sacks and ninth in pass defense, good for a No. 12 ranking in overall defense. These guys are the ones keeping Louisville competitive, more often than not; the 15th-ranked scoring defense can cover a lot of ground the anemic offense just can't manage to plow on their own.

Notable Southern Miss units: The Golden Eagles' offense should provide solid opposition in St. Petersburg this evening. Southern Miss' ground game ranks 21st nationally; its total offense 15th, and they're also 15th in scoring. Underrated at times is their 13th-ranked run defense, which will square off against a possible future Sunday player in Bilal Powell, if Louisville doesn't decide to just wing it all night against the nation's 103rd-ranked pass defense.

The pick: Line aside, I like Southern Miss here. Three of their four losses were very close ones, and they have too many offensive options to be contained very neatly on the scoreboard.

The 2010 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl kicks off at 8 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on ESPN.