Lines on College Football Fave UAB Hosts UTEP

The lines on college football odds fave UAB Blazers host the UTEP Miners this Saturday, Oct. 16th.

The Blazers are only 2 ½ point favorites to hand the Miners their second loss of the season.  That’s right.  The football handicapping odds makers have created one of the strangest lines on college football for any football game, college or pro, this week by making the 5 and 1 straight up Miners underdogs versus the 1 and 4 straight up UAB Blazers.

Are the odds makers right?   

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UTEP Miners vs. Alabama-Birmingham Blazers

Where:  Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama

When:  October 16th, 2010 at 4:00 pm EST

TV:  TBD

NCAAF Betting Lines

UTEP Miners                          +2 ½ -110

UAB Blazers                           -2 ½ -110       

The lines on college football betting trends favor neither team in this game.

• The UAB Blazers are 4 and 0 ATS in their last 4 games at home versus a team with a winning record.
• The UAB Blazers are 2 and 5 ATS in their last 7 games overall.
• The UTEP Miners are 19 and 9 ATS in their last 28 games in October.
• The UTEP Miners are 1 and 6 ATS in their last 7 games following an ATS victory.

According to the odds makers, the Blazers should hand UTEP their second loss of the season.  The lines on college football odds makers acknowledge that UTEP might be a better team than UAB, or else the Miners would be -3 point favorites in the sportsbook instead of -2 ½, but UTEP’s gaudy 5 and 1 record doesn’t impress them.

It doesn’t impress me either.  UTEP is 5 and 1, that’s a fact that I can’t deny, but they haven’t exactly played against the cream of the crop.  They’ve been playing against the insect infested part of the crop.  In their only game against a decent team, the Houston Cougars, the Miners were spanked 24 to 54 as 20 ½ point dogs.

The Miners are only 3 and 3 against the spread having failed to cover spreads against Arkansas Pine-Bluff and Memphis.  The 16 to 13 victory over Memphis is particularly disturbing because UTEP beat a team that has been outscored by a combined 104 to 7 in their last 2 games versus Tulsa and Louisville respectively.

UTEP also beat New Mexico State 42 to 10 and New Mexico 38 to 20.  Both of those teams are horrible. 

So, UTEP is prone to being beat this Saturday, but can UAB do it?  The 1 and 4 Blazers have been at times incredibly impressive and then, at other times, down right ugly.  UAB almost pulled off a shocker when losing to the Tennessee Volunteers, in Knoxville, 29 to 32 as 14 point lines on college football dogs, but then they came back in their next game and was trounced 7 to 42 by Central Florida as only 11 ½ point favorites.

Which UAB team is going to show up on Saturday? The one that almost pulled the upset over the Vols or the one that let Central Florida turn them into a rag doll?

I’m going to go with the one that showed up in Knoxville.  In UAB’s lone 2 home games this season, they played very tough losing 31 to 32 to Florida International and upsetting Troy 34 to 33.  They should play tough again versus the Miners on Saturday.

Playing tough might be enough for the Blazers to cover the 2 ½ point lines on college football spread for this game.  I’m backing the Blazers. 

Get all of this week’s lines on college football in the sportsbook, click here!