Meineke Bowl Betting: West Virginia vs. North Carolina

The Meineke Car Care Bowl kicks off the bigger of the college bowl season games December 27.  Meineke Bowl betting this year features West Virginia vs. North Carolina.

The Mountaineers and Tar Heels flirted near the top of their respective conferences for a good chunk of the season, and appeared on course to play in the Orange Bowl before faltering late, Stats.com points out.

"The Mountaineers have proven to be a very talented and formidable team this season," Meineke Bowl executive director Will Webb said on Dec. 6 after West Virginia (8-4) wrapped up its season with a 13-7 victory over South Florida.

This is North Carolina's second bowl since 2001 and first since 2004. Meanwhile, West Virginia is coming off five straight New Year's Day bowls, including two BCS wins in the past four seasons. This season, though, the Tar Heels have blown out two Big East bowl-bound teams (Connecticut and Rutgers) and look to spoil WVU quarterback Pat White's final college game on their home-state turf in Charlotte. -- Brian Bennett.

West Virgina was a -1 ½ favorite coming into this one at SBG Global, which was offering a ton of College Bowl game betting cash bonuses.

These two teams have only played each other in 1997 where North Carolina managed a 20-13 road win.  But that was more than a decade ago.  A lot has changed since then.

More recent trends show us that the Mountaineers are 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games following a S.U. win.  They are also 3-10 ATS in their last 13 vs. ACC.

The Tar Heels meanwhile are 9-2 ATS in their last 11 games as an underdog of 0.5-3.0.

Tar Heels are 11-3 ATS in their last 14 games as an underdog.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned Division I-A post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually at 73,367-seat Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina (the NFL home of the Carolina Panthers), since 2002. 

Bowl officials announced on Tuesday that more than 73,000 tickets have been sold for the Dec. 27 game between North Carolina and West Virginia. It marks the third sellout in the bowl's seven seasons at Bank of America Stadium.  Both teams have huge loyal fan bases and are within driving distance of Charlotte.