Autozone Liberty Bowl – Cincinnati vs Vanderbilt
The Big East’s Cincinnati Bearcats close-out 2011 with a trip to Memphis to take-on the Vanderbilt Commodores from the SEC in this season’s Liberty Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
AutoZone Liberty Bowl – Cincinnati Bearcats (9-3) vs. Vanderbilt Commodores (6-6)
Date/Time: Saturday, December 31 3:30 p.m. (ET)
Venue: Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, Memphis, TN.
Broadcast: ABC
Bearcats vs. Commodores lines by BetOnline.com
Point spread: Commodores -1.5
Over/Under: 48.5
The kick-off for this clash is set for 3:30 p.m. (ET) and the game will be broadcast nationally on ABC.
Cincinnati competed for this season’s Big East title right through the final game of the season, but lost out to West Virginia on a BCS-ranking tie-breaker. The Bearcats finished 9-3 straight-up overall and 7-5 against the spread. They went 5-2 SU in conference play and the total went 5-7 in their 12 games this year.
The Bearcats should get a boost for this game with the return of quarterback Zach Collaros, who missed the final three games of the season with a broken ankle. Cincinnati will also rely heavily on a defense that held its opponents to 20 points a game to notch a victory over the Commodores.
Vanderbilt lost three of its last five games to squeak into this bowl game with an overall record of 6-6 SU, but it finished a profitable 9-3 ATS. It went just 2-6 SU in the brutal SEC and the total went 7-5 in its 12 games overall. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
The Commodores should also get a couple of key players back from the injury list on defense, which should help an already stout unit that gave-up an average of 20.8 points a game including a total of 42 points combined in its last three games. The offense will look to Zac Stacy to come up big against the Bearcats after rushing for 1,136 yards and 13 touchdowns on the year.
Cincinnati is 0-4 ATS in its last four bowl games and the total has stayed ‘under’ in six of its last eight bowl games.
Vanderbilt is 6-1 ATS in its last seven games overall and 4-1 ATS in its last five non-conference games. The total has gone ‘over’ in six of its last seven games overall.
These teams appear to be evenly matched on paper, but the battle-tested Commodores’ huge advantage in strength of schedule will pay dividends with a win over Cincinnati that easily covers the 1.5-point spread.
The Pick: Vanderbilt 27 Cincinnati 17
