The middle of October is when the College Football Playoff starts to come into focus and this weekend should provide even more clarity with a couple of SEC headliners taking place.
And while every fan will have their eyes on Georgia at Texas and Alabama vs. Tennessee, we’re not gathered here to talk about those contests. You can go anywhere for that.
Instead, we devote this space every week to our favorite Ugly Underdog and it brings me great pleasure to introduce you to this week’s entrant: the 0-6 Kent State Golden Flashes.
The first thing you need to consider for Kent State’s showdown Saturday with in-state rival Bowling Green (2-4) is that this is a game between two MAC schools.
Weird stuff happens in the MAC and that makes it very hard to stomach the idea of laying 20.5 points with any team in this conference.
That’s the current price on Bowling Green.
Kent State vs. Bowling Green Odds
| Team | Moneyline | Spread | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kent State | +900 | +20.5 (-105) | o54.5 (-110) |
| Bowling Green | -1600 | -20.5 (-115) | u54.5 (-110) |
And make no mistake, Bowling Green is a much better team than Kent State.
The Falcons were a trendy pick — if there can be such a thing — to win the MAC coming into the season and the early returns backed up that hype.
Bowling Green crushed Fordham in its opener and then lost to Penn State and Texas A&M — both on the road — by a combined 13 points.
The Falcons looked to be the class of the MAC before conference play started.
But then things started to sputter. Bowling Green lost to Old Dominion, 30-27, and barely scraped by Akron, 27-20, before falling to Northern Illinois, 17-7, at home.
Those results paint a very different picture compared to what we saw from Bowling Green in the first month of the campaign.
The game against Akron is especially notable since most college football power ratings would have the Zips power rated pretty closely to Kent State.
Another reason to be skeptical about Bowling Green’s ability to cover this large spread is the fact that they just don’t break off enough big plays.
If you’re laying 20.5 points, you’d hope that the team you’re backing can score quickly and wreck the game, but the Falcons just don’t to that. They’re 101st in the country in plays of at least 10 yards and 91st in plays of 20+ yards.
The Kent State defense has struggled all season and there’s certainly a chance that BGSU can run all over them, but there’s also a chance that the Golden Flashes are able to keep it respectable against an offense that is 89th in yards per play.
Betting on College Football?
There’s no hiding that Kent State has been one of the worst teams in FBS this season and its results — blowout losses to Penn State, Tennessee and Pitt, plus a 23-17 defeat to an FCS school — make the Golden Flashes a tough group to get behind, but their most recent games make things a little more palatable.
They were both losses to inauspicious opponents, but Kent State put up 68 points combined against Eastern Michigan and Ball State.
If they can bring some of that offensive momentum down I-80 with them this week, they should be able to keep this thing within this large spread.
BET: Kent State +20.5 (-105, BetMGM)
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff handicaps the EPL, NHL, golf and anything else that isn’t the NFL and NBA for the NY Post. He’s up 49.73 units betting EPL with a 7.17% ROI.
