Louisville vs. NC State: Pick 'Em & Open Thread

Our current record in bowl pick 'em as a blog is 6-3 (.667)

7-5 (5-2) T-1st Big East

Belk Bowl Bank of America Stadium Charlotte, NC 7:00 pm CST TV: ESPN

7-5 (4-4) 4th ACC Atlantic

Though Louisville is playing in the lowly Belk Bowl on a Tuesday night in December, they're Big East Co-champions along with Cincinnati and West Virginia. All three of those teams finished 5-2 in conference and had 1-1 records against each other so West Virginia proceeded to the BCS as the highest ranked among them (per Big East tiebreaker rules) while the other two went to play in bowls more appropriate for Big East teams. Louisville started the season off badly going 2-4 and losing to the likes of Florida International and Marshall (Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl represent!) they managed to turn it where they went 5-1 over the last half of the season. Their offense isn't very good, but the defense has help opponents to an average of 19.2 points per game and that's what's allowed them to hang around and be conference co-champions. Their worst loss was by 9 points to Cincinnati. Their best win was against West Virginia.

NC State, on the other hand had their heads handed to them a couple of times courtesy of Cincinnati and Florida State (they lost by 30 and 34 respectively.) Despite losing Russell Wilson to Wisconsin, QB Mike Glennon has stepped in and thrown 28 TD passes this season (though he's also tossed 11 INTs.) Statistically speaking, NC State is pretty middle of the pack in major offensive and defensive categories save rushing where they're a dismal 107th. The Wolfpack's best win was over Clemson. NC State is a 1.5 point favorite.

Current Bowl Records by Conference: