College Football Lines – Northwestern Hopes to Be Big 10 Darkhorse

If you challenge the college football lines, you know that inter-conference matchups are always intriguing, and on Saturday the Northwestern Wildcats, hoping to be a darkhorse in the Big Ten this year, are favored over the Central Michigan Chippewas of the Mid-American Conference. The game is slated to begin at Noon ET on Saturday, at Ryan Field (natural turf) in Evanston, IL, just outside the Windy City. In the college football lines, Northwestern is laying 6.5 points in this game, with the total posted at 49.5 points.

Central Michigan Chippewas (2-1 SU, 2-0 ATS) at Northwestern Wildcats (3-0 SU, 1-1 ATS)

Live at Ryan Field

Evanston, IL

Saturday, September 25 — Noon ET

TV: Big Ten Network

College Football Lines:

Northwestern -6.5

Central Michigan +6.5

Total 49.5

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When talking about these teams in relation to the college football lines in the recent past, the focus has been on a strong figure at the quarterback position. But that is not the case this year. Central Michigan had to say goodbye to its legendary signal-caller, Dan LeFevour, who holds just about all the records at the school. LeFevour become the only player ever in NCAA football to throw for over 12,000 yards and rush for 2500 yards, and now he plays for the Cincinnati Bengals. Over at Northwestern, Mike Kafka, who once ran for 217 yards in a game, passed 3430 yards last season, and was 47 for 78 in the Outback Bowl against Auburn, as Northwestern lost but covered in the college football lines. He’s with the Philadelphia Eagles at the moment.

Here are some of the NCAAF betting trends as they involve the college football lines on this game:

• Central Michigan has won seven of its last eight games SU
• Central Michigan has won six of its last eight road games SU
• Central Michigan has played six of its last seven road games UNDER the total
• Northwestern has won six of its last seven games SU
• Northwestern has won four of its last five home games SU

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Northwestern’s situation at quarterback hardly became Kafkaesque, as Dan Persa has been near-perfect during the Wildcats’ 3-0 start (1-1 against the college football lines), completed 81.6% of his passes for over ten yards an attempt without an interception. It can be argued that he runs coach Pat Fitzgerald’s spread offense even better than Kafka did. Although they haven’t faced off against quality passing attacks, the Wildcats have picked off six passes and held the opponent to six yards an attempt.

Central Michigan suffered a three-point loss in overtime to Temple in their MAC opener (covering the 7.5 points in the college football lines), and Ryan Radcliff, who is going through his first year as a starter for CMU, tossed two interceptions in that game. The guy who’s really got to step up for him is Paris Cotton, who had 209 yards last week against Eastern Michigan (which allowed over six yards a carry last season) but will face a stiffer challenge this Saturday.

Northwestern is laying almost a full touchdown in the college football lines, and naturally that begs the question as to whether they’re a value at that number. We are confident that the ‘Cats can continue to move the ball, but CMU is more of an unknown quantity. Radcliff is good, but does he have the weapons to keep pace with a Northwestern attack that averaged 26 points last year, has veterans across the offensive line and a guy who looks sure of himself under center? Perhaps not. In a small recommendation, we’re going with Northwestern in our football betting prediction, as a 6.5-point favorite in the college football lines.

JAY’S PLAY: NORTHWESTERN -6.5 *

(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)