The Central Florida Knights from Conference USA will face the Ball St Cardinals from the MAC conference in the Beef O Brady’s Bowl in an NCAA college football game on Friday night December 21st. Kick of time from Ball St is scheduled for 7:30PM Eastern Time from St Petersburg Florida with national television coverage provided by ESPN.
The point spread opened up in this Beef O Brady Bowl has the Central Florida Knights favored by -7 points with an over under line of 61 ½ points. Early money has landed on the side of the Knights as Central Florida has been bet up to a -7 ½ point betting favorite. The total has moved down to 60 points.
This will be the first meeting between these schools on the college football field since way back in the 2004 season where Ball St earned the 21-17 home win as a -3 ½ point favorite. The game landed under 49 ½ points. CFB Trend: Ball St Cardinals are 5-1 ATS in their past six games.
Central Florida will play in the Beef O Brady’s Bowl in their home state. They are 9-4 on the season and come off an overtime loss in the Conference USA Championship game against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane 33-27 as a +3 point road underdog. The team has lost two of their past three games all to the same Tulsa club. The Knights have historically been a good defensive club and in 2012 they finished 29th in points allowed at just 22 points a game. Teams throw for only 217 yards against them. On the offensive side of the ball the team puts up 35 points a game. Central Florida bet up a lot of weak teams this season as Conference USA as a whole has seen better seasons. They have a five point loss home to Missouri and by 15 on the road to Ohio St. Quarterback Blake Bortles a sophomore has 22 touchdowns and 7 picks on the year with a 62% shooting percentage. He has not thrown a pick in his past five games.
The Ball St Cardinals finished up play in the 2012 regular season with a 9-3 overall record. They went 5-2 straight up on the road. They went 6-2 in the MAC conference west trailing by two games to eventual champion Northern Illinois. After consecutive losses to Kent St and Northern Illinois the Cardinals have won six straight games. A notable win during that streak was a 34-27 win at Toledo. Ball St is a good offensive team as the club averages 471 yards per game which is 22nd best in the nation. The team pushes across 35 points a game. On defense it was a struggle for the Cardinals as the club allows 459 yards and 31 points per game. They are 104th in all of college football in total defense. Junior quarterback Keith Wenning has 22 touchdowns and 10 picks on the season.
