College Football Odds – Ball State vs Purdue

The Ball State Cardinals travel to Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette to take on the Purdue Boilermakers. Both teams are 1-1 on the season, but the Purdue Boilermakers come into this game as heavy favorites.

The college football odds have the Boilermakers as -16½-favorites and a bet on the underdog Cardinals to win straight up will pay college football bettors +500 on the moneyline. The game total is set at 49 points. 

College Football Betting Lines
September 18, 2010

Ball State Cardinals          +16½ -110            +500     
Purdue Boilermakers     -16½ -110             -700      
Game Total         49

Location: Ross-Ade Stadium – West Lafayette IN
Game Time: 12:00pm
TV: Big 10 Network

Ball State began the 2010 splitting a pair of game against teams from the college football’s subdivision, beating Southeast Missouri State 27-10 but then dropped a game 27-23 game to Liberty. The Liberty game should have been an easy win as the Cardinals came in as -10½-point favorites.

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That doesn’t bode well against Purdue this Saturday. Going back to 1985, Ball State hasn’t beaten the Boilermakers in seven tries. 

Cardinals coach Stan Parrish intends to play both Kelly Page and true freshman Keith Wenning at quarterback against Purdue. Wenning looked solid after he replaced Page in the Liberty loss, completing 13 of 18 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions.

They will need to cut down on their penalties if they stand a chance of covering the spread this Saturday. Ball State hasn’t won a game ATS this season. In their loss, they had 81 yards called against them and had a touchdown negated by a penalty. Had they played with discipline, we would be talking about the 2-0 Cardinals.

Purdue lost their opener to Notre Dame but kept the game within the 11.5 pointspread. The following week, they beat Western Illinois but didn’t come close to covering the 31.5-pointspread.

Offensively, Robert Marve has 391 passing yards on the season and a 1/3 touchdown to interception ratio.  Dan Dierking leads the team with 158 yards and a couple of touchdowns.

Defensively, the Boilermakers are letting their opponents move the chains too easily. On third downs, Purdue’s opponents have converted 44% percent of third down chances, this is especially disconcerting as this was Purdue’s Achilles heel in 2009 and the number is worse through two games.

Neither team inspires much confidence for future success. In Saturday’s game, Purdue should win by a couple of touchdowns but not cover the spread against Ball State.

NCAAF Betting Pick: Ball State Cardinals +16½