NC State an early 1-point favorite over UCLA in Holiday Bowl matchup

An early line from DraftKings has the Holiday Bowl as pretty much a toss-up: NC State is favored by one point to beat UCLA in San Diego later this month. It’ll be interesting to see how that line shifts over the next few weeks, since I’m assuming there will be players opting out on both sides.

SP+ suggests that NC State should be closer to a touchdown favorite—the Wolfpack is No. 13 in the latest ratings, while UCLA is No. 38. The Bruins do have a top-15 offense, though, and it is an exhibition game we’re talking about here, so who knows really.

UCLA doesn’t have a bad loss this season but doesn’t exactly have a headlining win, either: I think the Bruins’ win over LSU (SP+ No. 61) was their best of the season. They were competitive in losses to Fresno State and Oregon but got beaten badly by Arizona State and Utah. NC State is ranked ahead of all of those teams in SP+.