CUSA Championship Game Prediction
The UAB Blazers get another crack at the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Saturday when the two teams meet in the Conference USA Championship Game at 1:30 p.m. ET. Listed as a small favorite, will the Blue Raiders earn a conference championship by the end of the day?
Game Snapshot
307 UAB Blazers at 308 Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
1:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, December 1, 2018
Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Blue Raiders are 1-point favorites to beat the Blazers. The total, meanwhile, sits at 44.5 points. As of this writing, 65% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Blue Raiders.
UAB Blazers
UAB redshirt senior QB A.J. Erdely completed just 9-of-20 passes for 90 yards with an interception in a 27-3 loss to Middle Tennessee on Saturday. Yikes. Erdely was awful on Saturday, although you have to give a lot of credit to the MTSU defense. He also had negative 48 yards rushing, as he was consistently under pressure, and had to throw several passes away. Still, an ugly effort. Luckily for UAB, this game meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. They’ll have a rematch next week with MTSU for the conference championship.
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
Middle Tennessee senior QB Brent Stockstill threw for 261 yards and two touchdowns on 22-for-29 passing in a 27-3 rout of UAB on Saturday. The win gives the Blue Raiders the Conference USA East title, and sets up a rematch against UAB in the title game next week. Stockstill was superb against the Blazers on Saturday, throwing (almost) everything on time and accurately while picking up his 25th and 26th touchdown, respectively. IF Stockstill plays like this again next weekend, the Blue Raiders have an excellent chance of coming away with the Conference USA belt.
Betting Trends
UAB
The Blazers are 7-1-1 against the spread in their last nine games following a loss and are 18-7-1 against the number in their last 26 conference games.
Middle Tennessee
The Blue Raiders have covered the spread in six of their last seven home games and are a perfect 5-0 against the number in their last five games overall.
Prediction
There’s something fishy about this line. The Blazers were thoroughly dominated just one week ago by this same Blue Raiders team, which held UAB to 89 total yards and negative one rushing yard. Yet, Middle Tennessee went from nearly a field-goal favorite all the way down to -1 despite attracting most of the betting tickets. It would appear as though sharp bettors are on the underdog Blazers, who likely get their entire offensive line back for this game after being left with just two starting offensive linemen in their loss a week ago. UAB allows just 72 rushing yards per game in CUSA play and are tied for the CUSA lead in sacks with 37. In what should be a defensive struggle, I like the road dog Blazers to exact some revenge on the Blue Raiders today.
Conference USA Championship Game Prediction: UAB Blazers +1