Bowl season in college football sees betting action between the #3 Florida State Seminoles facing the #2 Oregon Ducks in the 2015 Rose Bowl. Cappers Picks provides free college football handicapping tips all season long.
The 100th edition of the annual Rose Bowl game gets underway on Wednesday night with No. 5 Stanford taking on No. 4 Michigan who appears in the game for the first time in nearly three decades.
If you like tough, physical football, this is the matchup for you. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. is set to host the Stanford Cardinal and the Wisconsin Badgers, and both teams have quite a bit in common. Each squad runs the football and plays great defense, and while this won’t be the highest scoring bowl game this season, it will still be a battle of which team can assert their dominance from the start of the contest.
No. 6 Stanford Cardinal (8-2) vs Wisconsin Badgers
January 1, 2012
Rose Bowl, PASADENA, CALIF.
5:00 PM ET
Moneyline: Stanford -245, Wisconsin +205 from GTBets.eu
Spread: Stanford -6
O/U: 47
ATS Matchup Stats | Gambling Insight!
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The big question about the Wisconsin Badgers is whether or not they truly deserve to be in the Rose Bowl. An undefeated Ohio State and a rejuvenated Penn State both finished with better records than the Badgers, but because of bowl ineligibility, it’s Wisconsin who earns the nod despite being the No. 3 team.
But that being said, the Badgers are in, and they’ll look to prove that they can make the most of this opportunity.
Wisconsin’s defense is what propelled them to success in 2012. They’re ranked 19th in the country in points allowed, they’re 14th in total yards allowed, and they’ve been solid against both the run and the pass.
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But where this game is going to be won or lost is with running back Monte Ball. The senior tailback wasn’t able to re-create his 2011 Heisman-like season, but he is still the heart and soul of the offense. He’ll be matched up against one of the best run defenses in the country, so getting him going early is going to be a huge part of Wisconsin’s game plan.
The major storyline this season for the Stanford Cardinal was the insertion of Kevin Hogan into the starting quarterback spot. In four of his five appearances, the team scored at least 27 points, and his dual-threat abilities added a whole new aspect to Stanford’s offense. Running back Stephan Taylor also had a good year—he became the university’s all-time leading rusher—and he’ll be another player who looks to get Stanford going.
But the truth is that Stanford’s offense was just a mere footnote on a season that was carried the entire way by an elite defense. The Cardinal have one of the best front lines in all of football, and they showed it on a regular basis. In their statement win of the year—a road victory over No. 2 Oregon—they held Heisman hopeful Kenjon Barner to just 66 yards on the ground, and they’ll look to do the same thing to Monte Ball. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Stanford’s rushing defense was ranked third this season, as they allowed just 88 yards per game in that category, but their passing defense was just 85th in the country.
They don’t have to worry about Wisconsin throwing the ball too much, as the Badgers ranked 115th in the country in passing yards, but a weak defensive attack in that area could allow their opponent some breathing room.
If Wisconsin can come out and find success against Stanford’s defense, all the talks about whether or not they deserve this game will go away.
But if they can’t, and Stanford comes out prepared as they always seem to be, this one will belong to the Cardinal.
•Cardinal are 10-1 ATS in their last 11 non-conference games.
•Cardinal are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games after accumulating less than 170 yards passing in their previous game.
•Cardinal are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a ATS loss.
•Cardinal are 4-1 ATS vs. a team with a winning record.
•Over is 4-0 in Badgers last 4 games on grass.
•Over is 5-0 in Badgers last 5 games after allowing more than 200 yards rushing in their previous game.
O/U Pick: Over 47
Score Prediction: Stanford 27 – Wisconsin 20
Short of an appearance in the National Championship game, it’s always a privilege for a football program to play in the “Grand-daddy of ‘Em All”. Yet, the mere fact that 8-5 Wisconsin is representing the Big Ten in this year’s game, suggests just how zany the Big Ten Conference has been in 2012.
This is a match-up between two teams that have not met each other since the year 2001. The difference is that this time they meet in what many consider to be the Granddaddy of all Bowl Game–the 98th Edition of the Tournament of Roses.
The 2010-2011 CFB Season is marching on full steam ahead. Welcome to the CappersPicks.com college football weekly predictions pages! We KNOW you will find our FREE weekly college football picks, tips, betting advice, strategies, CFB gambling articles and more to help you become the best College football bettor on your block!!
Bowl Season of the 2010 CFB Season is here. Welcome to the CappersPicks.com college football weekly predictions pages! We KNOW you will find our FREE weekly college football picks, tips, betting advice, strategies, CFB gambling articles and more to help you become the best College football bettor on your block!!
All I really want to ask though is anything really FAIR when it comes to the BCS? And this folks is why College basketball is better than college football. All I want for starters is the 10 best teams in college football in 2010 and let them play in five BCS bowl games.
The College Football season may be 4-5 weeks away but our CFB Experts have been deep in study and will provide College Football Predictions on as many NCAA teams as he can before the 2010/11 season kicks off.
The Betting Numbers
This line has done very little. The Ducks opened most places as a -3.5-point favorite and that is the current number at most shops a week prior to the game. The juice opened -110 and fell to as much as +100 but failed to cross over enough to change the number. The total has gone down to 50.5 from its opening of 51.5.
As 2009 draws to a close, we find ourselves smack in the middle of the bowls. You shouldn’t be bowled-out, either, as they build to the crescendo that is the Texas/Alabama showdown for the national title.
You know it’s been a strange year in college football betting when many people are anticipating secondary BCS bowl games like the Orange Bowl more than the BCS title game. The Rose Bowl, which pits Oregon versus Ohio State, may not give us the prestige of the national championship game or the fireworks of TCU/Boise State, but it could showcase an exciting Ducks offense at the very least.
How They Got Here: Ohio State Buckeyes
Early on in the season, it didn’t look like the Ohio State Buckeyes would be BCS-bound. Although the Big Ten had a down year with teams like Michigan, Michigan State and Illinois falling short of expectations, the Iowa Hawkeyes rose out of the shadows to start 9-0.
All I really want to ask though is anything really FAIR when it comes to the BCS?
And this folks is why College basketball is better than college football. The gap between Texas and TCU was too great. Throw in the fact that Texas played a much harder schedule than TCU and they’re spot in the championship game is well deserved.
This is the most important week so far in college football betting, even if we only have 17 games on the FBS schedule. The results will determine who gets to play in the BCS National Championship Game and the four major bowls, not to mention the other 29 games on the bowl schedule – some far more prestigious than others.
It’s the start of the New Year and with that the signal that we are now getting to some of the best College Bowl Picks matchups of this season rendition of the “playoffs”. There has been some mild surprises thus far but none that I would consider an huge surprise. There’s been some exciting matchups and some not so exciting (just look at that yawner yesterday between Pitt and Oregon St).
