College Football Bowl Betting Guide: Myrtle Beach Bowl (Marshall vs. UConn)
Just one bowl game is on tap for us on Monday, but it's an afternoon game (on the East Coast).
The 8-4 Marshall Thundering Herd are 11.5-point favorites against the UConn Huskies in a game with a low 40.5-point total.
What's the best way to bet this game (based on college football odds from FanDuel Sportsbook)?
Marshall vs. UConn
Marshall Thundering Herd Moneyline (-430)
Over 40.5 (-105)
Marshall enters on a four-game unbeaten streak over Old Dominion (12-0), Appalachian State (28-21), Georgia Southern (23-10), and Georgia State (28-23). Their marquee win, of course, was a 26-21 victory over Notre Dame in South Bend back in September.
Bolstered by a top-12 defensive unit by both SP+ and FEI, Marshall's dominance on that side of the ball has helped to cover up an offense that ranks, on average, 119.5 between those two metrics.
The last time we saw UConn, they lost 34-17 to Army on November 19th to snap a three-game win streak for the Huskies.
Their offense is 109th or worse by both SP+ and FEI, and the defense is far from elite, so it's no wonder that they enter this game as 11.5-point underdogs.
The expectation in this matchup should largely be rushing volume, as both sides rank 115th or worse in pass-to-run ratio.
Despite that, the over should take precedence for us if we don't want to get access to a double-digit spread or a big-money moneyline.
According to numberFire's model, the over is a five-star play out of five, largely due to the expectation that Marshall will be able to put up points on UConn and win this game pretty easily.
