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Holiday Bowl 2012 picks and predictions: Fireworks expected between Bruins, Bears

Predictions are pretty split between Baylor and UCLA as they square off in the Holiday Bowl on Thursday night, but a lot of points are expected.

By Griffin Gotta
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The 2012 Holiday Bowl features the Baylor Bears and No. 17 UCLA Bruins, and while plenty of points are projected to light up the scoreboard, the pick as to who will actually win the game isn't as certain.

In their bowl game predictions, the Sporting News went with Baylor, citing its high-scoring offense as the main difference-maker, and that the Bruins may not be able to match them score for score. UCLA ranks 29th in the nation, scoring 35.1 points per contest, while the Bears possess the country's fifth-best scoring offense, putting up 44.1 points per game.

CBSSports.com's panel of six college football writers went 4-2 in favor of the Bruins, with only bloggers Matt Hinton and Jerry Hinnen going with Baylor to win.

Marc Doche of CollegeFootballTalk is expecting big nights for both offenses, which Doche adds has also become something of a Holiday Bowl staple, and he projects a 47-38 win for UCLA.

Kickoff is set for 8:45 p.m. CT and can be seen on ESPN.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.