GMAC Bowl Expert Free Pick – Central Michigan Chippewas vs. Troy Trojans
by Tim Furious
Often called the “Game Nobody Cares About So You Can Recover From Your Bowl Series Hangover To Get Ready For The BCS Championship Drinking Bonanza Bowl”, the Sun Belt Conference Champion Troy Trojans will take on CMU coming off their best college football betting season of all time. With a 25th ranking in the country, the 11-2 SU Chippewas will try to put a feather in their cap with a victory and cover a tight line.
Success for the Chippewas has unfortunately come with a price. Head coach Butch Jones has bolted for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats to fill the void left by Brian Kelly, who left unceremoniously for the post at Notre Dame. Associate coach Steve Stripling will be coaching the team as the interim coach in the meantime.
Without Butch, CMU has lost a big player, but they still have their biggest. Quarterback Dan LeFevour threw for 27 touchdowns this season and ran for 14 more to help CMU average a 17th ranked offense that scores 33.2 points per game. The Chippewas have a distinct advantage over Troy, which gave up 418.0 yards per game on defense and ranked way out of the top-50 with 28.6 points allowed per game.
Troy Trojans (9-3) vs. Central Michigan Chippewas (11-2)
Wednesday, January 6th
Ladd Peebles Stadium, Mobile --- 7:00pm EST
NCAAF Betting Line: Central Michigan -3 (63)
Troy has gone 8-2 ATS in their last 10 games and 9-1 SU over that same stretch. They’ve been a very reliable bet for the second-tier teams this season, and a large reason for that is a high powered passing game that averaged 331.0 yards per game. Their paltry defense has been gutted by teams on a regular basis, but was largely let off the hook by their passing game led by quarterback Levi Brown, who ranked second in the nation in yards per game.
Of course, Troy has to play some serious competition throughout the year and that gives them quite an edge. One of the main reason their points against stats are so inflated is because they had to play Florida (56-6) and Arkansas (56-20). However, the rest of their schedule is pretty soft, and they only held opponents to single-digit points once in the entire season.
The CMU Chippewas are a full throttle offense that has a quarterback that can effectively scramble and pass quite well. His top receivers, Bryan Anderson and Antonio Brown, both proved to be effective red zone targets and dangerous chain moving weapons. The Chips went 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games and their defense kept the UNDER in 5 of their last 7 games. I expect a similar result for the GMAC Bowl.
Furious Free Pick: CMU -3 (UNDER)
