NCAA Football Wagering - Michigan State Spartans vs. Northwestern Wildcats
by Mike Rose
Two surprising teams at the top of the Northwestern Wildcats (5-0, 2-2 ATS). The Spartans hopped into the AP’s Top-25 this week, ringing in at #23. Northwestern garnered 78 votes, and will inevitably join the party if they can pull off this mild upset. When these teams hooked up in East Lansing last year, it was a good ol’ fashioned shootout. The Wildcats outscored the Spartans 48-41 in overtime, giving Northwestern bettors an easy victory as 15.5-point underdogs.
Michigan State bettors had to feel really good with their MSU (-6) ticket going into the 4th quarter against the Iowa Hawkeyes with a 16-6 lead. At the very end, it took a defensive stand on 4th down just to hold onto the outright victory. The Spartans squashed Iowa’s late rally and escaped with the 16-13 SU victory. RB Javon Ringer had a relatively quiet outing, but was still effective, running for 91 yards on 25 carries.
The workhorse now has 982 rushing yards and is tied for the most touchdowns in the country with 12. The story of the contest was Michigan State’s defense that has now held its L/5 opponents to an average of 11.8 points per game. October has been brutal for college football bettors who have backed the Spartans, as they’re just 2-7 ATS in their L/9 games in the month of October.
Northwestern was off last weekend. Its football bettors were just 1-4 ATS in its L/5 Big 10 showdowns before knocking off the Hawkeyes at Iowa 22-17 two weeks ago.
There are high hopes for the conference schedule in Evanston in 2008, and it all rests on the defense. Their 12.4 points per game allowed ranks 13th in the nation. It’s a far cry from the team that allowed 31.0 points per game a year ago. Teams are only converting on 3rd down 29% of the time against the Wildcats stingy stop unit.
Offensively, senior QB CJ Bacher leads the troops with 1,042 yards and six touchdowns. Last year against the Spartans, Bacher threw for 520 yards and five touchdowns. A victory against Michigan State will send the Wildcats to a bowl game for the first time since 2005.
NCAA football betting aficionados. Northwestern has covered the spread in five of the L/6 meeting between these Big 10 rivals. Even though they were underdogs in all but one of those games, the Wildcats are 4-2 SU in those six games, outscoring Michigan State by the average score of 37.2-29.7.
Oddsmakers have installed the unbeaten Wildcats as slim 3-point underdogs. BetUS Sportsbook is your home for all of the college football betting action this weekend, so whether you prefer betting sides, ‘totals’, or moneylines, get off the sidelines and get your college football bets down on all the upcoming Week 7 action!
