Dollar General Bowl Prediction
The Buffalo Bulls and Troy Trojans will wrap up their 2018 seasons on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. ET in the Dollar General Bowl. Now just a 1-point underdog, are the Trojans a good value for bettors?
Game Snapshot
225 Buffalo Bulls vs. 226 Troy Trojans
7:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, December 22, 2018
Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Mobile, Alabama
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Bulls are 1-point favorites to beat the Trojans. The total, meanwhile, sits at 49.5 points. As of this writing, 63% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Bulls.
Buffalo Bulls
Buffalo redshirt senior WR Anthony Johnson was limited in the second half of the MAC Championship with a leg issue. Johnson (6’2/210) was dominant in the first half of the game, but Bulls HC Lance Leipold told reporters after the game that the leg issue limited his action in the final 30 minutes of the game; a game that saw Buffalo blow a 29-10 lead in the third quarter. There’s no word yet if this will cause Johnson to miss the Dollar General Bowl against Troy on December 22, but it’s something we’ll certainly be monitoring.
Troy Trojans
Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports reports that Kansas State is likely down to Troy HC Neal Brown or North Dakota State HC Chris Klieman for the open head coaching job. Brown has been viewed as an option for several jobs this offseason, and he’s gotten excellent reviews for the job he’s done at Troy. Klieman has kept North Dakota State as a power, and told reporters that he did interview for the open job on Thursday. Long story short, both are excellent candidates who have a good chance to succeed in Manhattan in place of Bill Snyder. We should have resolution here soon.
Betting Trends
Buffalo
The Bulls are 19-7 against the spread in their last 26 games overall but are 0-5 at the betting window in their last five neutral site games.
Troy
The Trojans are 12-3-1 against the spread in their last 16 games overall but are just 1-5-1 ATS in their last seven games versus MAC opponents.
Prediction
Perhaps I’m being shortsighted but I can’t get past Buffalo blowing a huge lead to Northern Illinois in the MAC championship game a few weeks back. The Bulls are allowing 32 points per game in their last three games and were gashed for 201.3 yards per game on the ground over that same span. Troy owns the better defense and special teams and while the value has been sucked out of this line (the spread was 3 when the bowl lines were released), I liked the Trojans to win anyway.
Dollar General Bowl Prediction: Troy Trojans +1