Author
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.
The Battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy is officially upon us for football fans and Michigan sports betting customers. Unranked defending champion Michigan hosts in-state rival Michigan State inside the Big House on Saturday evening.
When the two 4-3 teams meet in Ann Arbor at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on the Big Ten Network, it’ll mark the 117th showdown between the two rivals, with the Wolverines seeking a third consecutive victory in the series. Last year, the Wolverines shut out the Spartans, 49-0, the first shutout in the series since Michigan beat the Spartans 31-0 in 1985. This year’s game should be a much better contest all around.
With both teams in line for the postseason this season, it’s worth remembering that you can find our Michigan State Spartans bowl projections as both of the state’s Big Ten teams jockey for postseason position.
At BetMichigan.com, we developed these exclusive odds for which bowl game the Michigan Wolverines will go to in the 2024-25 season:
Bowl | Location | Conference Opponent | Odds | Pct. Chance |
ReliaQuest Bowl | Tampa, FL | vs. SEC | +100 | 50.0% |
Music City Bowl | Nashville, TN | Vs. SEC | +400 | 20.0% |
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl | Orlando, FL | vs. SEC | +450 | 18.2% |
The Field/No Bowl |
|
| +750 | 11.8% |
You can compare operators and see the movement on the point spread, over/under and moneyline wagering for this week’s game with our Michigan vs Michigan State odds page, exclusively at BetMichigan.com.
Right now, we foresee a trip to Tampa’s ReliaQuest Bowl as the most likely landing spot for Michigan this bowl season, with the longstanding bowl game coming in at +100 odds (a 50% chance).
There’s also a shot that UM heads to Nashville’s Music City Bowl for the first time ever in 2024, currently at +400 odds.
Outside of that, Michigan has decent odds of making their first trip to Orlando since the 2019 Citrus Bowl, with the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl being the only other bowl game listed this week, coming in at +450.
The odds that UM either plays in another bowl game not listed above or misses out on the postseason entirely by going 5-7 or worse are currently listed at +750, illustrating how far the Wolverines have fallen from their national championship heights of a year ago.
These odds are exclusive to BetMichigan, but Michigan sports betting apps offer a wide variety of wagers on every game this college football season, plus futures bets and much more.
For now, the Wolverines are tasked with earning their fifth win of the year when the Spartans come to Ann Arbor on Saturday evening, with the Great Lakes State’s most accomplished football teams meeting inside the Big House in primetime this weekend.
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 |
Since 2019, the Wolverines have made a bowl game in each of the non-COVID seasons and qualified for the four-team CFP in 2021, 2022 and 2023. They lost to Georgia (34-11 in 2021) and TCU (51-45 in 2022) before breaking through last season.
The 2019 Citrus Bowl was Michigan’s last non-CFP bowl game, one which the Wolverines lost 35-16 to Alabama to cap a 9-4 campaign.
Check out Michigan Wolverines odds throughout football season at BetMichigan.com.
USA Today photo by Junfu Han
Notable Wolverines Matchups:
For the 2024-25 college football season, we project Michigan to play at the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa against an SEC team, at +100 odds.
This early in the season, Michigan is not scheduled to play in a bowl 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.
Author
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.
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