Independence Bowl Betting: Missouri And North Carolina Have Much To Prove
By Blake Frazier
The 2011 Independence Bowl offers a matchup between two teams who can certainly use a momentum boost heading into the 2012 offseason. Urgency defines this clash on the Bayou.
Missouri Tigers vs. North Carolina Tar Heels – Monday, December 26
Sports betting line: Missouri -5
Why Missouri Will Win
When you do your homework and assess your sportsbook review on this game, look at this interesting little factoid: Missouri lost each and every one of its games to teams that – while not finishing the year in the top 25 – were ranked at the time they took on the Tigers. The list includes at Arizona State, at Oklahoma, at Kansas State, Oklahoma State and at Baylor. The Big 12 Conference was the deepest top-to-bottom league in the country, making Missouri’s 7-5 record a lot better than a number of other teams’ 7-5 records. Mizzou quarterback James Franklin had an impressive 7.75 yards per attempt average, which resulted in a 141.3 efficiency rating. If Franklin plays up to his potential or at least avoid untimely fumbles that dogged him during the regular season, Missouri has more weapons than North Carolina.
Why North Carolina Will Win
The college football betting experts who are looking at this contest have to be mindful of the “grumble factor,” or when a team doesn’t want to play in a particularly low-rent bowl game. For a season that started with high expectations, the Missouri Tigers probably didn’t land in the postseason destination they had hoped for. Coach Gary Pinkel’s team was selected to play in the Independence Bowl this past Sunday. Sadly for the Tigers, Shreveport, Louisiana, is a familiar location for the Missouri faithful. This will be the third time in nine years that the Tigers will be playing in the Independence Bowl. And people wondered why the higher-ups in Columbia were looking so hard to get out of the Big 12 Conference.
The thing that is extra hard for people in Missouri to wrap their heads around is that their Tigers were passed over by four Big 12 bowl games that selected teams with worse or identical records. This should come as no surprise to Missouri fans, who have gotten used to being left behind when bowl selection time comes around. If you really want to get a Missouri Tiger’s blood boiling just bring up the BCS bowl selection process in 2007, when Mizzou beat Kansas late in the season but got passed over for the Orange Bowl by the Jayhawks.
Despite all of this, there is still a football game that needs to played against a very competitive bunch from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Hopefully there are no Christmas hangovers for both teams, since the game between the Tigers and coach Everett Withers’ Tar Heels is the day after Christmas. However, a Missouri hangover is exactly what could give North Carolina a win.
Who Will Win
After a month off, James Franklin – the player, not the coach at Vanderbilt University – should play well. If that happens, Missouri should win this game. Period.
College Football Betting Pick: Missouri