The initial lines for all of the 2014 college football bowl games are out. While we now have an idea of how Vegas expects each team to do this postseason, it also gives us an idea of how Vegas expects bowl season to go for each of the conferences.
The Big Ten is likely to face some heat once again. The conference isn't expected to win a game this postseason, according to Vegas, while the SEC is expected to win at least 75 percent of its games.
Bowl performance is not necessarily indicative of a conference's strength. For one, non-power conferences often pit their best teams against the worst bowl eligible teams in power conferences, so the MAC is not a better conference than the Big Ten even if it has a better winning percentage.
While the Big Ten is (probably) not going to lose every one of its bowl games this season, its mid-tier teams have failed to live up to the hype in recent years. For the league's reputation to change, teams like Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota are going to need to represent against the SEC, just like the league's top tier is going to need to have respectable showings. If not, the lines will continue to look like this each year.
For updated spreads throughout bowl season, visit OddsShark.
| Bowl | Favorite | Spread | Underdog | Over/Under |
| New Orleans | Nevada | 1 | Louisiana-Lafayette | 61 |
| New Mexico | Utah State | 11 | UTEP | 50.5 |
| Las Vegas | Utah | 4 | Colorado State | 58 |
| Famous Idaho Potato | Western Michigan | 3 | Air Force | 55.5 |
| Camellia | Bowling Green | 1.5 | South Alabama | 55 |
| Miami Beach | Memphis | 1 | BYU | 56.5 |
| Boca Raton | Marshall | 11 | Northern Illinois | 61.5 |
| Poinsettia | Navy | PK | San Diego State | 56.5 |
| Bahamas | Western Kentucky | 1.5 | Central Michigan | 65 |
| Hawaii | Fresno State | 2 | Rice | 59 |
| Heart of Dallas | Louisiana Tech | 4 | Illinois | 61 |
| Quick Lane | North Carolina | 3 | Rutgers | 65.5 |
| St. Petersburg | Central Florida | 3 | NC State | 49 |
| Military | Cincinnati | 3.5 | Virginia Tech | 49 |
| Sun | Arizona State | 9 | Duke | 59.5 |
| Independence | Miami | PK | South Carolina | 59.5 |
| Pinstripe | Boston College | 2.5 | Penn State | 39 |
| Holiday | USC | 4 | Nebraska | 62 |
| Liberty | West Virginia | OFF | Texas A&M | OFF |
| Russell Athletic | Clemson | OFF | Oklahoma | OFF |
| Texas | Arkansas | 5 | Texas | 45.5 |
| Music City | LSU | 7.5 | Notre Dame | 52 |
| Belk | Georgia | 7 | Louisville | 58.5 |
| Foster Farms | Stanford | 13 | Maryland | 49 |
| Chick-Fil-A | TCU | 3 | Ole Miss | 56 |
| Fiesta | Arizona | 4 | Boise State | 69 |
| Orange | Mississippi State | 7 | Georgia Tech | 59.5 |
| Outback | Auburn | 6.5 | Wisconsin | 61 |
| Cotton | Baylor | 1.5 | Michigan State | 70 |
| Citrus | Missouri | 6.5 | Minnesota | OFF |
| Rose | Oregon | 8.5 | Florida State | 71 |
| Sugar | Alabama | 9 | Ohio State | 58 |
| Armed Forces | Pittsburgh | 2 | Houston | 53 |
| TaxSlayer | Tennessee | 3 | Iowa | 52.5 |
| Alamo | Kansas State | 2.5 | UCLA | 59 |
| Cactus | Washington | 5 | Oklahoma State | 55.5 |
| Birmingham | Florida | 7 | East Carolina | 57.5 |
| GoDaddy | Toledo | 1 | Arkansas State | 66 |
And if each game goes as expected, these would be the conference records:
| Conference | Favored | Underdog | Pick/Off | Favored percentage |
| Pac-12 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0.875 |
| SEC | 9 | 1 | 2 | 0.833 |
| American | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.600 |
| MAC | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.600 |
| C-USA | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.600 |
| Big 12 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0.571 |
| MWC | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0.500 |
| ACC | 3 | 6 | 2 | 0.364 |
| Independents | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0.167 |
| Big Ten | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Sun Belt | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.000 |