Thursday, February 9th, 2012
It will be a Conference USA match up when the Houston Cougars travel to face the Tulane Green Wave in a college football game on Saturday afternoon. Kick off time in Tulane is set for 3:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by CBS College Sports. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the Houston Cougars opened as a 21-½ point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has come in on the Tulane Green Wave, as the Houston Cougars are currently a 16-point favorite. Totals bettors will find the current over under lined at 67 ½. College football money line bettors can make a play on the favored Houston Cougars at –900 with the underdog Tulane Green Wave returning +650 to pull off the home straight up victory without the points on their side of the ledger.
Houston enters this Conference USA match up with a 4-1 record this season. They own road victories this season against a high profile teams such as Oklahoma St, winning 45-35 and winning at home to Texas Tech 29-28. Junior quarterback Case Keenum who has passed for 69% completion percentage on the season and 17 touchdowns with just 4 interceptions leads the team on offense. He has posted quality numbers against the high profile teams on his schedule. The concern for the backers of this team and laying such a huge number on the road is on their defense. Houston is 9th in total defense in Conference USA allowing their opponents 450 yards per game. The Cougars are 8th in their conference in scoring defense allowing the opponent to average 30 points a game. Tulane is 2-3 on the season and is coming off a 31-10 home loss to Marshall. The Green Wave is a team that is haunted by turnovers as they have committed 13 in their 5 games including 4 last week in defeat to Marshall. Tulane is 9th in Conference USA in total offense averaging just 329 yards per game. Sophomore quarterback Joe Kemp is hitting on 64% of his passes with four touchdowns and five interceptions on the season. Tulane is second in the league on third down conversion at a clip of 44.6%. So ball possession and security will be a key for the Tulane backers because the Green Wave would like to keep Case Keenum and his explosive offense off the field. Houston is 11th in opponents third down conversion attempts allowing a conversion rate of 50%.
Tony T’s opinion: At first glance playing Houston may look like a play. But after careful research we have found the possibility of Tulane of shortening the game by moving the sticks up and down the field on Houston’s bad defense. This play would most likely not be on my card, as I believe the game could land on the number.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Houston Cougars are 5-0 ATS in their past 5 meetings
The Wagerline consensus has 75.7% of the CFB bettors on Houston Cougars -16
The Wagerline consensus has 52.0% of the CFB bettors playing over 67 1/2
Tags: college football betting odds, houston cougars versus tulane green wave college football betting odds pick preview
