With the 2015-16 NCAA Football Regular Seasons winding down, we come to many conference playoffs and this Saturday the 5th of December we have the Big Ten Title game with the No. 5 Spartans of Michigan State (Big Ten East 11-1) playing the No.4 Hawkeyes of Iowa (Big Ten-West 12-0) with the game being played at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana with the kick-off scheduled for 8:20 PM ET and seen on FOX TV.
The opening odds for those that Bet on College football finds the Spartans of Michigan State favored at -3 ½ with the Over/under at 53 and -170 on the Money Line, while the Hawkeyes of Iowa are listed as the underdogs at +3 ½ and +150 on the ML.
Football fans will be focused on this Big Ten Championship game and the winner will not only win the Big Ten Title but also a very important spot in the College Football Playoffs 2016. The big question is whether the Hawkeyes can continue with their undefeated season and win their 1st ever Big Ten Title, or will the Spartans spoil the Hawkeyes festivities this weekend?
If you happen to be a Spartans fan of Michigan State who is 11-1 this season and ruled the Big Ten-East since the beat the Buckeyes of Ohio State who also finished the season at 11-1. The Spartans finished their season with a huge win over the Nittany Lions of Penn State 55-6 this past Saturday. Their appearance in this Big Ten Title game is their 3rd appearance in 5 seasons to date.
In that game against Penn State their star was QB C. Cook who was coming back from injury and had a good return as he completed 29 of his 26 passing attempts for some 249 yards and 2 touchdowns and became the schools all time passing leader in his last home game of his career at Michigan State.
In the Title game QB Cook will have the opportunity to extent his career statistics against the defense of the Hawkeyes that has not been overpowering to date an in their last 4 games allowed some 400 yards of total offense each game and gave up an average of 26 points in each of those 4 Big Ten games.
To take this title game QB Cook will also need their trio of RB’s in L. Scott, M. London and G. Holmes to step up their performances against the Hawkeyes. The same trio in the Penn State game combined for 126 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns. That will not be an easy task for the Spartans since the Hawkeyes are ranked 6th in the nation in rush defense in 2015, and only allowed opponents to average a mere 110 yards each game. In their ultimate 6 games the Spartans are with 5 wins and 1 loss.
Then the fans of the Hawkeyes of Iowa that is 12-0 and led the Big Ten-West with their undefeated record, as they come off their final season regular game remaining undefeated with close game , but victory over the Huskers of Nebraska 28-20 in last Fridays game.
Yes, it was another good performance for the Hawkeyes as they had their 1st undefeated regular season in the past 93 years to date. In their 12 games this season they averaged winning by some 15 points in each of those games.
The success of the Hawkeyes season belongs in a big part to their excellent play from their QB C. Beathard who has a QB rating of 139.5 as he this season passed for some 2,355 yards and had 14 touchdowns passing with only 3 interceptions for the season. Surely he’s thankful to his offense who only allowed some 20 sacks in 2015.
Another bright spot on the Iowa team has been RB J. Canzeri as he accumulated this season 965 yards rushing while score 12 touchdowns to date. In their last game against Nebraska he scored 2 touchdowns while rushing for 142 yards in the game. Iowa will need another good game from him if they want to stay undefeated and beat the Spartans for the Big Ten Title. That will not be an easy task since Michigan State ranks 16th in the nation for defense against the rush, while allowing only 118 yards rushing each game this 2015 season.
That may not concern the Iowa team as they have performed well against some of the Nation’s best rushing defenses, as like 4 of the top 25 in defense against the rush with Nebraska, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh and Northwestern. In those 4 games they combined for 10 touchdowns and 698 yards rushing.
The online betting prediction for this game is that the Spartans of Michigan State will win this game 31-24 over the Hawkeyes of Iowa covering the spread, and they take the Big Ten Championship and get a berth in the CFP.