2005 Bowling Green Falcons Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Since Urban Meyer’s short but successful stint at Bowling Green, the Falcons have been one of the better respected Mid American Conference teams in the sports handicapping community and attracted much more attention than most of their league rivals. Bowling Green has not only beaten some high profile teams from Bowl Championship Series conferences of the years but has also covered the sports betting odds in close losses to such schools. The Falcons entered 2004 coming off of an 11-3 bowl season and were not your typically anonymous MAC team. In fact this attention began to hurt their overall sports handicapping value as Bowling Green dropped 12 of their previous 20 games dating back to the 2002 season as they began the 2004 campaign.

As well respected as Bowling Green was, at least for a MAC school, they were to be “dissed” by much of the sports betting community in their 2004 season opener at Oklahoma. If ever there was a name brand football team amongst the masses of asses it is the Sooners, which goes a long way towards explaining why the sports betting odds makers installed them as 33-point chalks. In no way was OU 33 points better than Bowling Green but PUBLIC PERCEPTION drives the final sports betting line. As a HUGE bargain for the smarter members of the sports handicapping fraternity, Bowling Green easily covered in a 24-40 loss. A few sports betting bloggers posted about their wisdom in having BGSU on their lists of football picks and it was hard to begrudge these winners from boasting.

After a non-lined win against SE Missouri State, Bowling Green had a MAC showdown at Northern Illinois as 1-point dogs, losing 17-34 and also giving away some of their hard earned sports handicapping respect in the process. They quickly got much, if not all, of it back in their very next game, a 70-16 statement maker at Big East doormat Temple as 7-point chalks. The Falcons now stood at 2-2 straight up and 2-1 against the odds as they headed into the meat of their conference schedule.

As it turned out, Bowling Green’s creaming of Temple was the springboard to an outstanding 6-1 run both straight up and against the odds. This run put them into a showdown at Toledo for a shot at the MAC West title and berth in the league championship game. Bowling Green’s streak took away their value, however, as they lost 41-49 as 4.5-point chalks. They won and covered against Memphis in the GMAC Bowl.