This article is part of our College Football Picks series.
Kansas State 
vs. Alabama 
Sugar Bowl Betting Preview
The first matchup of Saturday's New Year's Six bowls features the Big 12 Champions Kansas State and the SEC West runner up Alabama as they face off in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. Kansas State comes into the Sugar Bowl riding a four game win streak to get them to 10-3 on the year. Alabama comes in following a dissapointing season to their standard finishing at 10-2. However, the Crimson Tide seem to be rallying together for the team's final game of the season as standouts and future top-five picks in this year's NFL draft Bryce Young and Will Anderson decided not to opt out as many other NFL prospects have.
Kansas State vs Alabama Betting Odds for Sugar Bowl
Spread: Alabama -7.0 (DraftKings Sportsbook)
Total: 55.5 (FanDuel Sportsbook)
Moneyline: Alabama -280; Kansas State +220 (FanDuel Sportsbook)
This line opened at Alabama -4.5 on FanDuel and went down to as low as Alabama -3.5, but following the announcement that Young and Anderson would be participating quickly went back up to -5.5 and has now gone up further to Alabama -7.0 as of Friday evening.
Kansas State vs Alabama Betting Picks for Sugar Bowl
Unlike many of the non-Playoff bowl games, this game will not be severely affected by opt-outs. The Crimson Tide will be hampered by 13 players entering the transfer portal including starting left guard Javion Cohen and impactful wide receivers JoJo Earle and Traeshon Holden. The Crimson Tide will have their depth tested at wide receiver although the group greatly underperformed this year as they didn't have a single receiver eclipse 650 yards this season and their leading pass catcher was running back Jahmyr Gibbs. Despite the issues with the Tide pass catchers Alabama has continued to be propelled by quarterback Bryce Young who threw for his second straight 3,000-yard season despite missing time with a shoulder injury.
The Big 12 Champion Wildcats offense is led by Deuce Vaughn who has totaled 1,803 yards from scrimmage this season, a number that is good for third in the country. Vaughn is a small but tough back averaging 5.3 yards per carry on the year and is also extremely dangerous catching the ball out of the backfield. The Kansas State offensive line has also been impressive this season as they averaged 209.6 rushing yards per game and have allowed just 19 sacks. The great offensive line play that has been displayed by the Wildcats will be imperative when facing an Alabama defense that boasts the back-to-back Nagurski Trophy winner Will Anderson coming off the edge.
Sugar Bowl Best Bet: Alabama -7.0 (DraftKings Sportsbook)
Kansas State vs Alabama Predictions for Sugar Bowl
When looking at the numbers here, both these teams matchup fairly well as they are both top-20 defenses in terms of scoring as Alabama allows 18.0 points per game on average while Kansas State averages 20.1. Offensively Alabama is averaging about 7 more points per game at 40.8 which is good for fourth in the nation while Kansas State is 30th, averaging 33.2.
Despite some of the issues Alabama has had at wide receiver throughout the year I think the slight edge they boast offensively and defensively in comparison to K-State shines through. With a month for Nick Saban to prepare for the Wildcats and the revitalization the Crimson Tide have gotten from the unexpected return of their leaders Young and Anderson I think the Tide roll and take this one fairly handily.
