Washington State lost their coach Jake Dickert at the end of the season. He's going to Wake Forest and starting quarterback John Mateer is transferring to Oklahoma. If that's not enough to decide who to take in this game 25 Washington State players have entered the transfer portal. Meanwhile, Syracuse can get to 10 wins on the season and they have most of the players playing including Ohio State transfer Kyle McCord who had a great season passing for 4,300 yards. The question is how much Syracuse will pour it on because they can do so. McCord will have a big game and not care that it's against Washington semi-state. Syracuse to cover.

The law of gravity has been defied with this spread. It opened at less than a touchdown and has kept going up, up, up. Reason is, Washington State has not only lost nearly 30 players to the portal, including 10 starters, but its head coach and both coordinators also are gone. Still, given the unpredictability of bowls, perhaps none should carry a line this high. Syracuse was involved in nine games decided by one score and has covered as a favorite in one of the last six outings. Replacement Cougars QB Zevi Eckhaus was a standout in his past life, albeit at FCS member Bryant. An Orange crush might occur, but this inflated spread is unwarranted.

This doesn't look the same WSU we saw all season, now strafed by the portal, which, among other things, took star QB John Mateer (now Oklahoma). HC Jake Dickert also left for Wake Forest, leaving interim Pete Kalgis to use duct-tape in San Diego to field a team with little-used Zevi Eckhaus at QB. Note the Cougs were pounded 29-6 by Fresno in the LA Bowl in 2022 when dealing with heavy portal defections. Meanwhile, Syracuse has avoided a mass portal exodus as QB Kyle McCord (29 TDP) is expected to play along with other key Orange weapons such as TE Oronde Gadsen, WR Jackson Meeks, and RB LeQuint Allen, perhaps performing their last games for 'Cuse. Play Syracuse (Holiday Bowl at San Diego)

Syracuse is opting in while WSU is trying to field a team. Lived this at 13.5. Still like it here.

Will the last person left in Pullman, Wash., please turn off the lights? The Cougars have endured the most brutal month of December of any program. Coach Jake Dickert left nine days before the bowl to take the helm at Wake Forest. Offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski were hired away by Oklahoma. Most importantly, the Cougars lost quarterback John Mateer, who passed for 3,139 yards and 29 touchdowns against seven interceptions and also rushed for 826 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. Meanwhile, Orange quarterback Kyle McCord leads the country in passing yards per game (360.5) and faces a Cougars defense that ranks 116th in the country against the pass (255.3 yards per game). I'd play this up to +18.