Friday, May 25th, 2012
The Penn St Nittany Lions will look to grab a win on the road when they face the Michigan St Spartans in a college football game on Saturday afternoon. Kick off time in Michigan St is scheduled for 3:30PM Eastern Time with regional television coverage provided by ABC. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this contest and the Penn St Nittany Lions opened as a 3-½ point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has come in on the home underdog Michigan St Spartans, as the Penn St Nittany Lions are currently a 3-point favorite. The over under is currently lined at 47 ½ for the bettors to play into. College football money line gamblers who would like to make a play on the favored Penn St Nittany Lions will find them lined at –155 and the home underdog Michigan St Spartans bringing back +135 to pull off the home upset victory without the points on their side.
In their meeting last year it was Penn St winning big 49-18 as a 16 ½ point favorite to secure a berth in the 2009 Rose Bowl. In that game the Nittany Lions torched the Spartans secondary for 419 yards through the air in victory. Michigan St earned a hard fought 40-37 road win at Purdue, which qualified the Spartans for bowl eligibility. Despite allowing 524 yards to Purdue the Spartans were able to make stops late in the ball game to secure bowl eligibility. Sophomore quarterback Kirk Cousins was not very accurate hitting on 11 of 25 but made the most of those 11 completions for 208 yards, three touchdown passes and no interceptions. Cousins has hit for 62% of his passes with 17 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions on the season. Michigan St is just an average rushing team averaging 139 yards rushing a game ranking 6th in the Big Ten conference with a 4.2 yards a carry average. On the defensive side the Spartans are allowing 23 points a game and 350 yards a game ranking 6th in the league. Penn St is 9-2 this season and pundits have them pegged for the New Year’s Day Capital One Bowl. With a loss it could be the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day so the Nittany Lions are looking at a bowl game on January 1st. With the Buckeyes clinching a spot for the Rose Bowl, Penn St has not much to play for in this road contest. Senior quarterback Daryll Clark is coming off a 17 of 28 passing performance with a touchdown and interception in a 31-20 win at home to Indiana. The Nittany Lions signal caller has struggled against the two top defenses in the league hitting on 37% against Iowa and 42% against Ohio St in defeat. Fortunately the Michigan St Spartans defense is not an elite unit. Junior running back Evan Royster is coming off a 94 yard rushing performance last week against Indiana. Royster is averaging 5.7 yards a carry this season. Penn St is outstanding on defense allowing just 11.6 points per game to their opponents. The Nittany Lions will need to be good covering the pass and Penn St allows only 178 passing yards per game ranking third in the Big Ten conference.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: The Over is 7-2 in their past 9 meetings
The Wagerline consensus has 63.9% of the CFB bettors on Penn St -3
The Wagerline consensus has 51.3% of the CFB bettors playing over 47 1/2
Tags: college football betting odds, penn st nittany lions versus michigan st spartans college football betting odds pick preview
