Betting college football action for the weekend begins on Friday with a crucial Big East Conference matchup of the Cincinnati Bearcats at the Louisville Cardinals. Sbgglobal opened with Cincinnati as a 2.5 point road favorite in college football betting online for the ESPN telecast that is set to kickoff at 8:05 PM Eastern.
Ready to Roll?
The Cincinnati Bearcats have a college football betting online record of 2-3 both straight up and against the spread. The Bearcats are coming off a most encouraging 45-3 home win and cover over Miami-OH in their best performance by far this season. Quarterback Zach Collaros passed for 216 yards and 3 touchdowns. Collaros has a stellar 12 touchdown passes with just 1 interception. It has been a rough head coaching transition from Brian Kelly to Butch Jones but last week’s big win is sparking speculation with handicappers that the Bearcats are ready to make a serious run for their third consecutive conference title. Keep in mind that Collaros was a key factor down the stretch last year in the Bearcats title run and has proven big game experience.
Improvement Shown
Louisville is off to a good start for new coach Charlie Strong as they are 3-2 both straight up and against the spread and coming off a huge 56-0 betting college football payout over Memphis last week. Strong was a highly respected and successful defensive coordinator at Florida and that is being reflected at ‘The Ville’ where the Cardinals are ranked a solid 32nd in the country for points allowed. The offense is ranked 21st nationally thanks to a top shelf running game that is led by Bilal Powell, who already has 689 yards. Quarterback Adam Froman has completed 60% of his passes and has a solid 8.5 yards per attempt average to balance out the offense. Strong has made the Cardinals tougher and more fundamentally sound than they were under predecessor Steve Kragthorpe.
The Edge
This one looks as even as it can get. The winner will have plenty of momentum for the race in a weak Big East.
The Numbers
Cincinnati has gotten the money in just 2 out of their last 10 games overall while Louisville has covered just 2 out of their last 12 Big East Conference games. In this college football betting online head to head series the favorite has covered the number in 10 out of the last 13 matchups.