California vs UNLV LA Bowl Pick & Prediction 12/18/2024

The Art of Sport LA Bowl will take place on Wednesday night with the Cal Golden Bears taking on the UNLV Rebels at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA. Both teams hail from the Western United States in this matchup, though Cal playing in its home state figures to have an advantage. The Golden Bears are favored by one point going into this game, while the total has been set at 48.5.

Continue reading to get our breakdown of Cal vs UNLV along with our best bet for this game on Wednesday night. Using our college football model that has had plenty of success picking games this year, we bring you college football picks you can have confidence in, even during the turbulent bowl season.

Cal Aims to End Season Above .500

This season, the Cal Golden Bears got off to a strong start, winning their first three games of the year. But they struggled from there, going just 3-6 the rest of the way and 2-6 in the ACC in their first year in the conference. This week, Cal looks to finish its season on a high note and to get back above the .500 mark by the end of the campaign, with this week’s college football odds making Cal a slight favorite to do just that.

It will be interesting to see how the Golden Bears look offensively, as they face some question marks at the quarterback position going into this game. Starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza has entered the transfer portal and will not play in this game. And with backup quarterback Chandler Rogers suffering an injury in their regular season finale against SMU, the quarterback position is a huge concern for Cal going into the LA Bowl.

Can UNLV Secure 11th Win?

The UNLV Rebels won 10 games this season, playing in the Mountain West championship game. They lost that conference championship game to a Boise State team that earned a bye in the first round of the College Football Playoff. Here, the Rebels will look to get back on track and beat a Cal team that is dealing with a ton of uncertainty at the most important position on the field.

Of course, the Rebels are dealing with some uncertainty of their own going into this game. Head coach Barry Odom left to become the next head coach at Purdue, which means UNLV will have an interim head coach leading them in this game. As a result, it will be interesting to see what UNLV’s level of focus and discipline is like in the wake of all the upheaval in their program.

Cal vs UNLV Best Bet

Going into this Cal vs UNLV matchup, there are so many moving parts on both sides. Instead of picking one side or the other, we are going to look at the total. There, we like the over to cash, as the coaching disruption in the UNLV program could harm their defense, while their explosive offense should continue humming along to some degree.

Be sure to check out all our free NCAAFB picks here.