Welcome to another week of midweek MACtion! There’s nothing better to do on a Tuesday and Wednesday evening than sit down and watch, and of course bet on the Mid-American Conference Football game. It gives us that Degen feel as we await another weekend of College and NFL football. We’ve got six stellar games lined up for Week 11. Let’s dive in and take a look at this week’s midweek MACtion picks and best bets for the kickoff of College Football Week 11.
Get the double screens out right away on Tuesday night. At 7:00 ET, Kent State takes on Bowling Green on ESPNU. With the same 7:00 ET kickoff on CBS Sports, Western Michigan visits Akron. At 8:00 ET, it is the Battle of Ohio on ESPN2, where the Ohio Bobcats take on the Miami-Ohio RedHawks. Heading into Saturday, what better way to celebrate the great veterans of this country than a triple header, all kicking off at 7:30 ET. We’ve got Buffalo at Ball State on ESPN2. Sacramento State at Central Michigan on ESPNU. And UMASS takes on Toledo on CBS Sports.
Kent State Total Rushing Yards Over 102.5 (-114)
This one is all about this Bowling Green rushing defense. They are terrible, to be honest with you. Bowling Green allows 206.3 rushing yards per game. This has them ranked 129th out of 138 FBS teams. Last week Western Michigan racked up 191 yards on the ground. Buffalo’s Messiah Burch alone ran for 184 yards against this defense the week before. Burch’s teammates added another 67 yards. The week before, Ball State totaled over 200 yards on the ground.
Kent State isn’t what you’d call a heavy rushing team, but they can. That will also be their key to not only covering this game at +6, but pulling off the outright upset. It’s still up in the air if Mason King will play or not, but between Brandon White and dual-threat quarterback Dru DeShields, the Golden Flashes will be just fine. That’s what makes this line on FanDuel so appealing. You don’t have to pick who it’ll be. Just the team, against one of the ten worst rushing defenses in the country. I also love Deshields over 13.5 rushing yards, and the Flashes to cover the spread in this one.
Ohio Bobcats -1 (-113)
It’s the 103rd edition of Battle of the Bricks between these two Ohio schools. Miami holds the all-time series lead 56-44-2. But it has been Ohio that has come out victorious the last two times these schools have played, and in 15 of the last 20 meetings. Ohio sits atop the MAC on a six-game winning streak coming into this game. Miami lost a heartbreaker last week to the Buffalo Bulls.
Ohio quarterback Nick Poulos will be the difference in this game. Poulos still has yet to throw an interception this season. Wide receiver Dom Dorwart has really come into his own over the last two weeks with 233 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Miami sits dead last in the MAC in passing yards allowed per game at just about 280. Look for Poulos to pick this defense apart and protect the football.
Messiah Burch Over 82.5 Rushing Yards (-117)
Messiah Burch is probably my favorite College Football player right now. He’s a workhorse who just keeps on getting it done. He went up against a stout Miami-Ohio defense and was held to 56 yards. The one good thing about that, it brought his total down drastically. Last week he was set at 105.5 yards, around 130 the week before. He’s been tearing the MAC apart on the ground this year. Prior to last week, over the Bulls’ last five games, Burch had 127 carries for 754 yards. That’s an average of 150.8 yards per game, and almost six yards per carry.
He’s gone over 100 yards in all five of those games, including 184 yards against Bowling Green and 172 against UMass. Ball State ranks 101st in the nation, allowing 179.4 rushing yards per game. And that’s before they’ve played against Burch.
