South Florida had just an ok season by finishing 7-5 and only managed a 3-4 record in the Big East which was good enough for fifth. South Florida needed wins over Louisville, Cincinnati and Rutgers to become bowl eligible. Clemson finished 6-6, but the record could have been much better because four of Clemson's six loses were by a combined 17 points.
The quarterback for South Florida is being kept a quiet secret by South Florida head coach Skip Holtz. All the media, and players, know that is that Bobby Eveld and B.J. Daniels will both play but the starter is being kept a secret.
The quarterback for Clemson will be Kyle Parker who is making is last college start before joining the Colorado Rockies to start his baseball career. Neither team strikes me of being anything too special, but the edge has to go to Clemson since they played in the better league. Vegas feels the same way and has Clemson a six-point favorite.
Rivals - Three of the four writers take Clemson, but that may not be so reassuring for Clemson fans since the Rivals writers have been missing their picks more often then getting them right. As for the Yahoo public 74 percent of them are are going with Clemson.
CBS Sports - Clemson gets the nod again by three out of the four writers with yet again Adam Jacobi picking the underdog in South Florida. Jacobi maybe onto something since he was the only one to pick Washington to beat Nebraska.
USA Today - These writers must know something the consensus does not because five of the eight are picking South Florida.
Fanhouse - Brett McMurphy makes his picks by the spread and takes Clemson to cover.
AccuScore - The computer takes Clemson to win this matchup by an average score of 24 to 18.5 and has Clemson winning 65 percent of the time.
ESPN Bloggers - ACC blogger Heather Dinich predicts a 17-10 win by Clemson while Big East blogger Brian Bennett picks South Florida 14-13.
The Meineke Car Care Bowl kicks off at 10 a.m. (ET) on ESPN at Bank of America Field in Charlotte, N.C.