There's something that I've noticed in this bowl season and I wanted to share it. There were 8 bowl teams that finished top 10 in the nation in time of possession (Rice and UTEP did not make bowls). Let's take a look at how these teams did.
#1 Stanford - 45-16 win over Iowa, won by 29, covered by 22.5
#2 Western Michigan - 45-31 win over C. Michigan, won by 14, covered by 10
#3 Arkansas - 45-23 win over Kansas State, won by 22, covered by 9
#4 Georgia Southern - 58-27 win over Bowling Green, won by 31, covered by 35.5
#5 Wisconsin - 23-21 win over USC, won by 2, covered by 5.5
#6 Alabama - 38-0 win over Michigan State, won by 38, covered by 28
#9 Michigan - 41-7 win over Florida, won by 34, covered by 30
#10 San Jose State - 27-16 win over Georgia State, won by 11, covered by 9
These teams went 8-0 SU winning by an average of 22.63 ppg as well as 8-0 ATS covering by an average of 18.69 ppg. I think we live in an era where fewer teams care about time of possession. Nowadays, it's all about no-huddle, up tempo and leaving your defense out to dry. But I think if your goal is to go out there, control the clock and keep the ball out of your opponent's hands, it helps during bowl season.
NOTE: These are post-bowl stats but as someone who follows time of possession the rankings seemed to change very little over the last couple of weeks of the season.