Thursday, February 9th, 2012
The Minnesota Golden Gophers will travel in Big Ten conference play when they face the Iowa Hawkeyes in a college football game on Saturday afternoon. Kick off time is scheduled for 12PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the home team Iowa Hawkeyes opened as a 13 point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has come in on the road underdog, as the Iowa Hawkeyes are currently a 10-point favorite. The over under is currently lined at 43 ½ for the bettors to play into. College football money line bettors can make a play on the favored Iowa Hawkeyes are –385 with the road underdog Minnesota Golden Gophers returning +325 to win without the aid of getting points.
When they met in 2008 the Iowa Hawkeyes pounded Minnesota 55-0 as a 7-point road favorite. Iowa was able to gain 482 yards on the Golden Gophers defense and benefited from 3 turnovers. The Iowa Hawkeyes are losers of two straight games but industry pundits still have the Hawkeyes pointed to a BCS Bowl game in the Fiesta Bowl should they win this game and finish 10-2 on the season. USC’s loss to Stanford may have made millions of dollars for the Big Ten conference. Iowa is coming off a 27-24 loss to Ohio St, which cost the Hawkeyes a Rose Bowl berth. Freshman quarterback James Vandenberg hit on 20 of 33 passing last week with 233 yards two touchdowns but three interceptions in their defeat. Starting quarterback Ricky Stanzi is out at least for this game but may return for Iowa’s bowl game. Freshman running back Adam Robinson is averaging 4.5 yards a carry on the season. Iowa has played very well defensively this season allowing just 17 points per game. Iowa is third in the Big Ten conference in total defense allowing just 294 yards per game on the season. Minnesota got a victory last week against lowly South Dakota State that qualified the team for a bowl game. It wasn’t easy as the Golden Gophers squeaked out a 16-13 win at home to become bowl eligible. The pundits have the Golden Gophers pegged for the Insight Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Junior quarterback Adam Weber has been very erratic on the season. Webb has been only 46% accurate in 4 of his past 5 games including just 47% passing against South Dakota St last week in a game the team needed desperately to become bowl eligible. Webb has 12 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions this season. On the ground the Golden Gophers are struggling averaging just 3.1 yards a carry this season. Defensively Minnesota ranks 8th in the Big Ten conference allowing 381 yards a game.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Iowa Hawkeyes are 7-1 ATS in their past 8 meetings with the Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Wagerline consensus has 63.3% of the CFB bettors on Iowa -10
The Wagerline consensus has 51.5% of the CFB bettors playing under 43 1/2
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