2025 Bowl Mania: Cure Bowl and 68 Ventures Bowl Preview

Say what you want about the relevance of bowl season, but there’s really not many things better than turning on the television after a long day at the office and finding out that there is live sports already in progress.

Our midweek slate delivers this reality.

Let’s take a look at the bowl matchups occurring on Wednesday.

StaffDNA Cure Bowl

Old Dominion vs. South Florida (Wednesday, 5 PM ET – ESPN)

The trend of bowl game opt outs hit this game particularly hard, with star players on each side choosing to forego the final game of the season. No absence will be more glaring than that of Byrum Brown, the South Florida quarterback that was one of the most dynamic players in the country, let alone within the G5 ranks. The Bulls will also be without former head coach Alex Golesh, who has left his post for the same role at Auburn. But Old Dominion will be without its own star at quarterback, Sun Belt OPOY Colton Joseph, who racked up 34 total touchdowns this season and was top five in the conference in both passing and rushing yards.

The two teams will take different approaches to replacing the absences left by the aforementioned signal callers. South Florida will go with experience, at least in theory. Gaston Moore is a fifth-year senior who is really more of a journeyman, spending four years at Tennessee before transferring to South Florida this season. Like Brown, he has the ability to do damage with his legs, but will face a stout Old Dominion defense in his quest to fill Brown’s shoes. The Monarchs will look to the future, presumably, to fill the gap. Redshirt freshman Quinn Henicle is a much closer comparison to Colton Joseph than Moore is to Brown, and Henicle may even be a bit quicker than Joseph. Like Moore, Henicle must contend with a Bulls defense that has been strong against the run this season. While South Florida seemingly loses more juice from its offense and doesn’t necessarily have a direct replacement for the losses like Old Dominion does, the Bulls have faced better competition this season and the Monarchs struggled to defend the stronger teams on their schedule. If South Florida prepared adequately for this game, it should be able to get enough stops on defense to win.

My Pick: 24-20 South Florida

Bowl Mania Confidence: 35 points

68 Ventures Bowl

Louisiana vs. Delaware (Tuesday, 8:30 PM ET – ESPN)

The Blue Hens will be making their FBS bowl debut in their first season at this level of college football. While a victory would be icing on the cake, it has already been a terrific season for Ryan Carty’s crew, which wasn’t expected to be this competitive in its first year in FBS. The Ragin’ Cajuns are making their seventh straight bowl game appearance, though this season could be viewed as something of a disappointment, given that Louisiana was pegged as a Sun Belt title contender before the season began. Ending a current three-game losing skid in the postseason would raise spirits heading into the offseason, however.

Many of Louisiana’s struggles this season could be traced back to what has been a relatively pedestrian offense, which struggles to move the ball but especially so through the air. Dead last in passing yards per game in the Sun Belt and with more interceptions on the season than touchdowns thrown, the Ragin’ Cajuns may not have the stomach nor ability to take advantage of a Delaware defense that struggles to defend the aerial attack. Rolling the dice won’t be an issue for the Blue Hens, however, who have been riding the mostly positive wave of their swashbuckling quarterback Nick Minicucci. The junior is fun to watch, fearless and delivers performances to back up his personality. When Delaware needs a play to be made, expect Minicucci to step up to the plate ready to swing. The Blue Hens should be excited to have a chance to lift a trophy this season and so despite the defensive shortcomings, I don’t think Louisiana will be able to exploit that enough to prevent Delaware from becoming a bowl game winner in its first FBS season.

My Pick: 31-28 Delaware

Bowl Mania Confidence: 2 points