Thursday, September 1st
(TC) Buffalo at Connecticut, 7:30 EST
Buffalo - 0-6 ATS vs. non-conference opponents
Connecticut - 6-1 ATS first two weeks of the season
Oregon at Houston, 7:00 EST ESPN2
Oregon - 12-26 ATS as a favorite of 3.5 to 10 points
Houston - 5-1 ATS in weekday games
Eastern Michigan at Cincinnati, 7:00 EST
E Michigan - 2-14 ATS vs. non-conference opponents
Cincinnati - 15-3 Under vs. non-conference opponents
(TC) Vanderbilt at Wake Forest, 7:00 EST ESPNU
Vanderbilt - 9-3 Under first half of the season
Wake Forest - 1-7 ATS as a favorite
Central Florida at South Carolina, 7:30 EST ESPN
Central Florida - 2-10 ATS in road games
South Carolina - 6-2 Over in home games
Temple at Arizona State, 10:00 EST
Temple - 13-27 ATS in September
Arizona State - 7-2 Over as a favorite
Idaho at Washington State, 10:00 EST
Idaho - 0-5 ATS in their first game
Washington State - 7-3 Under as a favorite
Minnesota at Tulsa, 10:15 EST ESPN2
Minnesota - 8-3 Over on artificial turf
Tulsa - 6-0 ATS as a home underdog
** (TC) Denotes Time Change
Friday, September 2nd
Indiana at Central Michigan, 7:30 EST ESPNU
Indiana - 6-1 Under last seven games with a posted total
Central Michigan - 4-12 ATS vs. non-conference opponents
Arizona at Utah, 8:00 EST ESPN
Arizona - 2-7 ATS in road games
Utah - 10-0 ATS vs. non-conference opponents
Minnesota at Tulsa
Friday September 1, 10:15 EST
(Matchup)
The Gophers open the 2005 season with a trip to Skelly Stadium in Tulsa to take on the Golden Hurricane. Minnesota hosted Tulsa back in 2003 and it wasn’t really a game as the Gophers buried the Hurricane 49-10 getting the money as 30-point favorites.
Glen Mason enters his ninth year and he has 15 returning starters back from last years 7-5 squad. As usual, Mason’s troops started the season off by blowing out their first five opponents and covering in four of those five. Then they hit the meat of their schedule and lost four of their next five games. They were able to end the season with a victory defeating Alabama 20-16 in the Music City Bowl.
Minnesota loves to run the football and they should be able to grind it out on the ground again this season. With eight returning offense starters, including Laurence Maroney, Minnesota will once again be one of the top rushing teams in the country. Last year they ranked fifth nationally averaging over 250 yards per game.
Here’s a trivia question for you, who is Tulsa’s head coach? You college football experts would know that it’s Steve Kragthorpe. He came to Tulsa in 2003 and took over a team that had won only two games total the past two years. That’s right, 2-21 SU in 2001 and 2002. It wasn’t much better against the number as they covered only five times in 17 lines games.
In 2003, his first season, he made a miraculous turn around. They won eight games for the first time in a long time and were a very impressive 7-4-1 ATS. However, last year they just couldn’t outscore everyone as they did the previous season and ended up 4-8 SU and 4-7 ATS. Their defense couldn’t stop anyone allowing 38 or more points six times.
Tulsa returns half of their team from last year and Kragthorpe is hoping that most of them will be standing after their first two games, this one against the tough Gophers and next week at Oklahoma.
The Sportsbooks opened this game with Minnesota favored by 14-points. The public thinks that the Gophers will run all over Tulsa as they moved the line up to 15.5-points. A high scoring game is expected with a total of 59 points.
Before you make a move on this game you might like to know that Tulsa has covered all six times as home dogs over the past three seasons.
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Indiana at Central Michigan
Friday September 2nd, 7:30 EST
(Matchup)
There’s a new man in Bloomington this season as Terry Hoeppner takes over the reins of the Hoosiers. Hoeppner came over from Miami Ohio where he was on the Red Hawks staff for 19 years. Hoeppner received a lot of credit for mentoring Pittsburgh Steelers QB Big Ben Roethlisberger.
When we last checked Indiana’s roster we didn’t see any QB’s that resembled Big Ben. In fact, we’re not sure at this time who the starter will be, but Hoeppner has his hands full taking over a team that’s won only eight times in the last three years.
At least he’ll get a chance to notch a couple of wins before starting the rugged Big Ten schedule, opening with a weak Central Michigan team and then facing Nicholls State. Last year Indiana was favored in only game all season and that was against these Chippewas who they crushed 41-10.
It’s been a long time since Central Michigan has posted a winning season. You have to go all the way back to the 1998 season when they finished one game over .500 at 6-5. Central Michigan starts out the season by playing two of their first three games against Big Ten teams (at Penn State in week 3) and going to face a tough Miami Ohio team next week.
One bit of good news for CMU is that they return seven offensive starters including QB Kent Smith. However, if they are going to improve they need to improve a defense that ranked 104th in the country in points allowed surrendering 34.4 tallies per game.
The betting public believes that the lines makers made a mistake when they opened Indiana as an 11-point road favorite. They came in quickly on Central pushing the game down to an 8-point number
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JT Sneaks |