2005 Northern Illinois Huskies Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Northern Illinois entered the 2004 season as an emerging Mid-American Conference power that was gaining the attention and respect of the sports handicapping fraternity. Their incredible opening night win over Maryland in 2003 sparked the interest of this up and coming program and the Huskies went on to a 10-2 straight up record in 2003. This newfound success, however, caused the Huskies’ value to increasingly deteriorate against the odds. In 2002 Northern Illinois went 9-2 against the pointspread and then covered their first three games of 2003 before the market corrected itself as more of the general sports betting public began to include the Huskies on their lists of football picks, and NIU dropped five of their final eight games of 2003 against the odds. Still, more online sports betting blogs featured posts touting the virtues of NIU and the Huskies were highly recommended at the top of many lists of a sports bettor’s football picks.

Northern Illinois opened their season at Maryland in a game that the Terrapins had been pointing to for an entire season. There were quite a few online sports betting blog posts about Maryland getting revenge, but the Terps barely beat the Huskies 23-20 as a whopping 16-point chalk in a clear case of rip-off sports betting odds based on the general public perception trumping solid sports handicapping reality.

The Huskies had a surprisingly tough time in their next game, at home versus 1-AA Southern Illinois in a 23-22 un-lined win. Next, Northern Illinois traveled to Iowa State and lost 41-48 as 4.5-road dogs to stand at a shaky 1-2 straight up and 1-1 against the number. At this point doubts about NIU were being raised at online sports betting blog sites.

NIU rebounded in their next two games at home, starting with an impressive 34-17 win over MAC power Bowling Green as 1-point chalks and then a 49-19 win over Akron as 17.5-point chalks. With their respect coming back from the sports handicapping fraternity, NIU went down to Central Florida and barely escaped with a 30-28 win as 17.5-point chalks. The Huskies rebounded from that close call, however, and won and covered their next two games. After barely escaping against Ball State, NIU hosted Toledo with the winner having the inside track to the Division title, but lost 17-31 as 6.5-point chalks. The Huskies recovered to win and cover both their season finale and bowl game to finish 7-4 against the odds.