Sports Then and Now

Central Michigan may have only a 3-4 overall record, but they are 6-0-1 against the spread so far in 2015.

Guess who the best bet in college football has been so far in the 2015 season. They’re a program that’s never been to a major bowl game. They have serious problems on offense. There’s only a couple marginal NFL prospects on defense. Heck, they don’t even have a winning record. Meet the Central Michigan Chippewas. Their 6-0-1 against the spread (ATS), making them the only team in major college football not to lose a bet for their backers in Las Vegas.

Central Michigan is 3-4 overall. Their quarterback, Cooper Rush, plays a high-percentage game, completing 68.5% of his passes with a 16/6 TD-INT ratio. Rush only gets 8.02 yards-per-attempt, a nice average. But there is no running game to speak of—the team’s leading rusher has just 228 yards. The result is an offense that’s 131^st in the country in scoring in spite of playing almost half their games against fellow Mid-American Conference members, a league noted for its wide-open styles.

That’s what makes Central Michigan so interesting from a handicapping perspective. ATS records have a strong tendency to find their way back to the middle as bettors adjust and the oddsmakers shift the line. But Central Michigan’s low public profile and the fact they won’t play any signature games the rest of the season means the betting public is not going to be in action…which means they might continue to slide under the radar.

This coming week is going to be a test case of Central Michigan’s continued ATS viability. They have to go on the road as a favorite—more than a touchdown no less, giving (-7.5) at Ball State. It’s not against good competition, as Ball State is 2-5, but quietly covering a game like this would be a good sign that the Chippewas will continue to be a good bet.

Central Michigan might be the only unbeaten ATS team, but there are five others who have only lost one game against the number. Here’s the rundown…

Notre Dame (6-1 ATS, 6-1 overall): We move from a low profile school to the school with perhaps the highest brand-name recognition. Because of that, Notre Dame usually isn’t a good bet. But years of subpar performances and a collapse at the end of last year’s regular season finally took the wind out of the Irish’s sails. Read the rest of this entry →

Notre Dame played under the lights in South Bend for the first time against Michigan in 1982.

The Michigan Wolverines make history this Saturday night when they play the first ever night game at Michigan Stadium against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

But this is not the first time that Michigan and Notre Dame have played a historic night game.

On September 18, 1982, the Fighting Irish hosted the Wolverines in the first night game ever played in Notre Dame Stadium.

It was the season opener for the Irish who were coming off their first losing season in 18 years, a 5-6 affair in the first season under head coach Gerry Faust who had spent 19 seasons as the head coach of Moeller High School in Cincinnati.

As for the Wolverines, they entered their showdown with Notre Dame ranked #10 in the nation following a 20-9 win over Wisconsin in their season opener.

Michigan was led by two-time all-American wide receiver Anthony Carter, who rewrote the record books during his time at Michigan and was a candidate for the Heisman Trophy in 1982.

The Wolverines got the ball to start the game but turned it over on the third play of the game when quarterback Steve Smith was sacked by defensive lineman Bob Clasby, who stripped Smith of the ball leading to a Notre Dame recovery at the Michigan 22-yard-line.

The Irish converted the turnover into three points with a 35-yard field goal by Mike Johnston to give Notre Dame an early 3-0 lead.

Later in the first quarter, Smith fumbled the ball again when he collided with tailback Lawrence Ricks and the Irish converted the fumble into more points when Larry Moriarty scored on a 24-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter to increase the Notre Dame lead to 10-0. Read the rest of this entry →

Zultan predictions for Week 3 of the college football season.

For Big Ten Plus

Finally order has been restored in the college football world.

Zultan would be as perfect as the Iowa Hawkeye defense were it not for the losses endured by Golden Gophers and the Fighting Irish.

These two teams conspired both weeks to trip up the mighty one.  Perfidy!

This week these two teams continue to try to stymie the All-Seeing One as he ponders the depths with his crystal ball.

The cloudy images of upcoming football clashes displayed in vivid but runny colors will come into focus once the last whistle blows on Saturday. It is Zultan’s innate power that allows him to read the indistinct images and predict the college football future.

Last week Zultan nudged perfection at 10-2.

There were a lucky 13 of you who managed to outguess the mighty one with 11-1 records. These super prognosticators will be listed at the end of the article so as not to distract from the important task at hand, picking the winners in Week 3.

Is this your week to surpass Zultan? Are you ready to step out on the lucky limb of chance?  If so click here and make your picks.  We shall see who has the superior powers.  Get ready to feel a sense of loss as you go against the power of mighty Zultan.

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The scoreboard tells it all as JMU becomes the second I-AA team ever to defeat a ranked Division I-A opponent.

While the teams at the top of the rankings were able to pull out victories in the second week of the college season, there still were some big surprises and interesting stories during the weekend. Of course the biggest was the shocking upset of Virginia Tech by I-AA James Madison University, but other teams are starting to provide some interesting storylines for the 2010 College Football season.

JMU KNOCKS OFF VIRGINIA TECH AND BOISE STATE IN ONE GAME!

When the James Madison Dukes became the second Division I-AA team ever to defeat a ranked Division I-A team with their 21-16 victory over Virginia Tech, they didn’t just knock out the Hokies, they likely took potential BCS bowl buster Boise State down with them.

Given the overall poor performance of the ACC in the early season, even if Virginia Tech is able to turn things around and run the table within the conference, their power ranking isn’t going to be high enough to give Boise State the boost they are going to need if they hope to score many points for strength of schedule come BCS formula time.

Consider that while Boise State needed a late touchdown to defeat the Hokies by three points at a neutral site, James Madison led for nearly all of the fourth quarter to win by five points in a game played in front of Tech’s home crowd.

With Georgia Tech losing to Kansas, Miami getting knocked around at Ohio State and Florida State getting blasted by Oklahoma, it is very possible that the ACC won’t have a team ranked in the top 20 in the next poll. That doesn’t help Boise State at all as their hope for earning a spot in the BCS title game was in part based on Virginia Tech being considered a top 10-15 team throughout the season and the ACC being given some overall respect. Read the rest of this entry →

Zultan predicts college football fortunes in Week Two.

Zultan should be very humble after week one of his vaunted football predictions.

He was tempted to supersede his All-Seeing Powers and was punished for his arrogance. He became human, sad to say…

The NCAA football gods, therefore, struck him down.

Hordes of you outguessed Zultan who quivers in shame and humiliation with a mere 10-4 record in week one.

The mighty one has learned two valuable lessons in predicting the outcome of football contests.

(1) When in doubt in projected close contests, always pick the home team. For example do not pick Connecticut to overcome Michigan in Big Blue’s house or Purdue to get the best of the Irish in South Bend no matter how much the crystal ball tempts you.

(2) Also always make sure that the team you select is going to be playing––Zultan did not realize that half of the North Carolina team would be sitting on the sidelines when he made his ill-fated prediction that NC would win this contest.

Besides that, the Gophers have always been a thorn in the side of the all-seeing one.

So now you think Zultan is an easy mark. If so, try him again this week and learn your lesson as Zultan did––the hard way!

Zultan senses redemption coming his way this week big time. Click here to pit your puny powers of prognostication against the mighty Zultan for a chance to win a prize.

See the end of this prediction for a comprehensive list of all of you who smote the Zultan, scorched his crystal ball in week one.  Do the hokey-pokey one time around the room and come back for week two!

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Colt McCoy and the Texas Longhorns held on to defeat the Oklahoma Sooners and remain undefeated.

None of the top three teams in college football looked all that dominating this week, but they all took home the “W”, which is really all that matters.

With the first official BCS rankings coming out this week, we will get a sense of where everyone stands, but the reality is that Florida, Texas and Alabama all have their destiny in their own hands. The rankings will merely give us a better idea of which teams will step forward if any of the frontrunners stumble.

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