Friday, May 25th, 2012
The Illinois Fighting Illini from the Big Ten Conference will travel to face the undefeated Big East conference team Cincinnati Bearcats in a college football game on Friday afternoon. Kick off time is scheduled for 12PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ABC. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the Cincinnati Bearcats opened as a 16-½ point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has come in on the home team, as the Cincinnati Bearcats are currently a 21-½ point favorite. The over under is currently lined at 57 ½ for the betting public to play into. College football money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Cincinnati Bearcats at –1400 with the road underdog Illinois Fighting Illini returning +900 to win this game without the point spread a factor in the wager.
Cincinnati is a perfect 10-0 on the season and have an outside shot at making the BCS Championship game should they win out and Texas suffers a loss in their next two games. Cincinnati has a huge game next week at Pittsburgh for the Big East title. The winner next week will make a BCS bowl game and the loser will most likely not. Next week is the biggest game of the Bearcat season and we will see if that creates a dull performance against Illinois on Friday. The Bearcats have had two close calls over their past two games with a 47-45 home victory over Connecticut three weeks ago and a 24-21 home victory to West Virginia two weeks ago. Cincinnati enters this game off a bye week. The Bearcats defense was torched the past two weeks allowing over 200 rushing yards in those contests. It has been announced that Tony Pike will start this game for Cincinnati. Pike has missed 3 games with an injured wrist and in the West Virginia game threw only 4 passes. The senior quarterback is hitting on 64% of his passes this season with 17 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Sophomore running back Isaiah Pead is the leading ball carrier for the Bearcats with a 6.8 yards a carry average on the year. Pead is coming off a 175 yards rushing performance last week against the Mountaineers. Cincinnati is 5th in the Big East in total defense allowing 335 yards a game. It’s been a bad year for Illinois as the team sits with a 3-7 record and eliminated from a bowl berth. This is the second straight year without a bowl for the Fighting Illini. The team is coming off a 21-16 loss two weeks ago to Northwestern. The Wildcats gained over 300 yards passing and torched Illinois through the air. Prior to that loss the team had won two straight including a road win at Minnesota. Senior quarterback Juice Williams is expected to start for the Fighting Ilini in this game. Williams did not play in the teams’ loss at Minnesota and was the starter in the teams’ two recent victories. Williams is hitting on 57% of his passes with 6 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Williams is a dual threat quarterback who will take off and run with it. In the win against Michigan, Williams rushed for 97 yards. The Fighting Illini has gotten good production from both of their running backs as Mikel LeShoure averages 6.1 yards a carry and Jason Ford 6.7 yards a rushing attempt. Illinois has struggled on the defensive side allowing 26 points a game. Illinois is 10th in the Big Ten conference in total defense allowing 400 yards a game.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Illinois Fighting Illini is 5-1 to the under this season
The Wagerline consensus has 59.2% of the CFB bettors on Cincinnati –20 1/2
The Wagerline consensus has 55.9% of the CFB bettors playing over 57 1/2
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