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Christopher Boan is a staff writer for BetMichigan.com. He has covered sports and sports betting for more than seven years and has worked for publications such as ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Michigan Football Bowl Projections: Odds For Wolverines’ 2024-25 Bowl Game
A largely forgettable follow-up to a national championship season in Ann Arbor was injected with Big Game mojo on Saturday. The Maize and Blue, 6-5 entering Saturday’s rendition of its eternal rivalry, shocked the world and turned Michigan Wolverines football odds on their head by upsetting No. 2 Ohio State on the road, 13-10.
While Saturday’s season finale victory over the Buckeyes was anything but easy on the eyes, the Wolverines’ fourth straight victory over their rivals from Columbus bolstered Michigan’s status as a bowl team in 2024, with UM finishing 7-5 overall and 5-4 in the Big Ten.
Saturday’s upset came after Michigan was listed as a 20.5-point gameday underdog on FanDuel Michigan Sportsbook. Ohio State outgained the Wolverines 252-235, but UM won thanks in large part to two Buckeyes turnovers in the matinee.
At BetMichigan.com, we developed exclusive odds for which bowl game might invite Michigan. Here is our last projection before bowl pairings are announced on Sunday:
Michigan Football Bowl Projections: Odds For Wolverines’ 2024-25 Bowl Game
Bowl | Location | Conference Opponent | Odds | Pct. Chance |
Pinstripe Bowl | Bronx, NY | Vs. ACC | -150 | 60.0% |
ReliaQuest Bowl | Tampa, FL | Vs. SEC | +500 | 16.7% |
Duke’s Mayo Bowl | Charlotte, NC | Vs. ACC | +650 | 13.3% |
The Field |
|
| +900 | 10.0% |
These odds are exclusive to BetMichigan.com, but operators offering real money Michigan sportsbook promos also have wagers and props galore for every game during college football season.
Michigan Bowl Projections: Where Wolverines Might Go
A fourth straight trip to a New Year’s Six contest is out of the question for Sherrone Moore in his first full season as Michigan’s head coach. But we at least know that the Wolverines will go bowling this year.
Right now, our odds-on favorite to land Moore’s bunch is the Pinstripe Bowl, held inside Yankee Stadium in The Bronx. It’s a game UM has never played in, and we give the New York City contest -150 odds of landing the Wolverines this month. That would translate to a xxx probability if it were offered for Michigan sports betting.
Tampa’s ReliaQuest Bowl (formerly the Outback Bowl) has +500 odds on our board followed by Charlotte’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl at +650. These choices underpin how far the Wolverines have fallen from their national championship 2023 season.
Still, many UM football fans will gladly take a down year in exchange for a fourth straight victory over the Buckeyes, which is exactly what Moore pulled off after a 2024 season that was short on highlights for much of the year.
The current favorites to win the College Football Playoff at BetRivers Michigan Sportsbook are No. 1 Oregon (+350 odds), Texas (+400) and Ohio State, which is +475 despite the loss to the Wolverines.
Michigan Bowl Game History Since 2019
Year | Bowl | Result |
2023 | CFP Playoff | Win, 34-13 against Washington (also beat Alabama 27-20 in the CFP semifinal at the Rose Bowl) |
2022 | Fiesta Bowl | Loss, 51-45 against TCU (CFP semi) |
2021 | Orange Bowl | Loss, 34-11 against Georgia (CFP semi) |
2020 | No bowl game |
|
2019 | Citrus Bowl | Loss, 35-16 against Alabama |
Whichever postseason game lands the Wolverines, they will go to a bowl for the ninth straight full season (they were 2-4 in the COVID-shortened year of 2020) and give bettors at Michigan sportsbook apps one more chance to wager on them this season. The last full season in which UM was under .500 came in 2014, at 5-7 under Brady Hoke. That led the school to hire Jim Harbaugh as coach, revitalizing the Ann Arbor institution’s gridiron outlook.
UM qualified for the four-team College Football Playoff field in 2021, 2023 and 2024. They lost to Georgia (34-11 in 2021) and TCU (51-45 in 2022) before breaking through last season to win the national title.
Not only is the program’s first trip to the Bronx a possibility, but so is their initial venture to North Carolina for a postseason game. Florida, on the other hand, is very familiar for UM and its fans; the Wolverines have been to Tampa six times for the game now known as the ReliaQuest Bowl.
USA Today photo by Junfu Han
Notable Wolverines Matchups:
Michigan Bowl Projection FAQ
For the 2024-25 college football season, we project Michigan to play at the Pinstripe Bowl in the Bronx against an ACC team, at +100 odds.
Michigan does not have enough victories to be bowl eligible yet. The most recent bowl game for the Wolverines was the 2024 College Football Playoff Championship, in which they defeated Washington to win the national title.
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