Sun Belt Championship Game Prediction
The Appalachian State Mountaineers are laying 17 points in Saturday’s Sun Belt Conference Championship Game versus the UL-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns at 12:00 p.m. ET. Will the underdog keep the game respectable or will the Mountaineers roll?
Game Snapshot
313 Louisiana Lafayette vs. 314 Appalachian State
12:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, December 1, 2018
Kidd Brewer Stadium, Boone, North Carolina
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Mountaineers are 17-point favorites to beat the Ragin Cajuns. The total, meanwhile, sits at 58 points. As of this writing, 64% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Mountaineers.
UL-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns
Louisiana senior QB Andre Nunez completed 11-of-15 passes for 148 yards, three touchdowns and an interception in Saturday’s 31-28 win over Louisiana-Monroe. Nunez did all of his damage in the first half, throwing two touchdown passes in the first quarter and one more in the second quarter. Louisiana would take a 24-21 lead into halftime and hang on through the final two quarters of play. With the win, the Ragin’ Cajuns clinched their spot in the first-ever Sun Belt Championship Game. They will be opposed by Appalachian State in that Dec. 1 showdown for conference supremacy.
Appalachian State Mountaineers
Appalachian State redshirt sophomore QB Zac Thomas completed 12-of-24 passes for 113 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 33 yards with a touchdown in a 21-10 victory over Troy on Saturday. Good enough. Thomas threw two touchdown passes to Corey Xavier Sutton, and he ran in a score from 10-yards out to give him a big touchdown day despite being inaccurate in the passing game. We’ve seen Thomas have some extremely high completion percentages this season at times, so we’ll just call this an off day. And again, good enough. Appalachian State will be seen next in the Sun Belt Conference title game.
Betting Trends
UL-Lafayette
The Ragin’ Cajuns are 4-1 against the spread in their last five road games and have covered seven of their last nine overall.
Appalachian State
The Mountaineers are 8-3 against the spread in their last 11 conference games and have covered five of seven at home.
Prediction
The Ragin’ Cajuns are overmatched today and will have their work cut out for them against the Mountaineers outstanding defense. That said, UL-Lafayette hasn’t lost to a non-Power Five opponent by more than 10 points this year, including in its 27-17 loss to Appalachian State earlier this season. While the Mountaineers have dominated this series, winning the five previous meetings by a combined score of 177-54 (or an average of 25 points per game), this line feels inflated. The road team is 4-1 against the spread in their last five meetings between these two teams and I like the road dog to cover today as well.
Sun Belt Championship Game Prediction: UL-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns +17