{"id":9371,"date":"2010-10-21T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=9371"},"modified":"2010-10-21T02:30:34","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T07:30:34","slug":"free-college-football-picks-michigan-state-vs-northwestern-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-college-football-picks-michigan-state-vs-northwestern-predictions-9371\/","title":{"rendered":"Free College Football Picks: Michigan State Vs Northwestern Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michigan State Spartans at Northwestern Wildcats
\nSaturday, 10\/23\/2010, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan State -6.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan State -5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 51.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 53.5
\nCurrent Moneyline: \u00a0Michigan State -215 \/ Northwestern +185<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Northwestern Wildcats are a dangerous home underdog and will look to capitalize on it during homecoming.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michigan State is 7-0 for the first time since 1966 when the Spartans won their first nine games and it marks the sixth time in school history.\u00a0 \u201cNot a big deal\u201d, head coach Mark Dantonio stated.\u00a0 The Spartans picked up a 26-6 Homecoming win over Illinois last week and the squad is ranked in the AP top 10 for the first time since October 26, 2003, currently sitting at No. 8 nationally.\u00a0 It\u2019s also important to point out that the team is ranked No. 7 in the Bowl Championship Series Standings, which were released over the weekend.\u00a0 In posting a 26 points versus the Fighting Illini, Michigan State failed to score at least 30 points for the first time this season.\u00a0 MSU has gone 5-2 ATS this year and the total is 3-3 Over\/Under in those contests.<\/p>\n

The Spartans are led by a rushing attack that ranks fourth in the Big Ten and 26th-nationally in averaging 206.1 yards per game.\u00a0 Sophomore Edwin Baker (100.9 ypg) and freshman Le\u2019Veon Bell (80.3 ypg) rank fifth and sixth, respectively, in the conference in rushing.\u00a0 Michigan State has also benefited in ranking seventh nationally in creating 18 takeaways and has a fantastic +1.14 turnover ratio.\u00a0 Michigan State totaled only 14 takeaways during the course of the 2009 season.\u00a0 Defensively, the team is surrendering just 16.6 points per game and allowing 325 yards per game in total offense.\u00a0 The secondary is a major strength for the unit, collecting three interceptions in each of the last two games and 12 total for the year.<\/p>\n

Northwestern begins the second half of its schedule with a monster matchup and is looking to bounce back from a disappointing 20-17 loss to Purdue on October 9.\u00a0 The Wildcats had won eight consecutive regular-season games before the defeat, its longest winning streak since the 1995 Rose Bowl team that won nine.\u00a0 Northwestern enjoyed three weekdays away from the field during its bye week, but now must refocus for Saturday\u2019s homecoming clash.\u00a0 Until last season, the visiting team had dominated this series in winning four straight games before the Spartans\u2019 24-14 win at Spartan Stadium.\u00a0 With one more victory, the program will be come bowl-eligible for a fourth consecutive season.\u00a0 Over the last three seasons, NU is a perfect 6-0 as an underdog of 3.5 to 10 points and 33-14 ATS in this situation in its last 47 tries.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats rely heavily on the passing of quarterback Dan Persa due to the team failing to have a 100-yard rusher in 19 straight games.\u00a0 \u201cThis is what we do here,\u201d Persa said.\u00a0 \u201cWe throw it around.\u00a0 We\u2019re perfectly comfortable throwing it every down if we have to.\u00a0 The short passes are an extension of our running game.\u201d\u00a0 He ranks among the nation\u2019s top five in total yards (326.3 ypg) and passing efficiency (173.27).\u00a0 On defense, Northwestern must start creating turnovers again, picking up just three in its first two league contests.\u00a0 The unit forced 12 takeaways in the club\u2019s four non-conference games.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested to find that the Spartans are 9-4 ATS in their last 13 games as a favorite of 3.5 to 10 points.\u00a0 Northwestern is a dismal 2-7 ATS in its last nine home games, but 8-1 ATS as a home underdog of 3.5 to 10 points.\u00a0 For our free winner we are going to take the points with the Wildcats, we considered releasing this as a premium pick but after the line moved we lost a little too much value to give it out as one of our 7 plays, but it is still worth a small wager at +5.5.<\/p>\n

You can get more free advice on our free college football picks page by signing up for our email pick newsletter.\u00a0 A great easy way to pick up a few extra winners this NCAA football season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michigan State Spartans at Northwestern Wildcats Saturday, 10\/23\/2010, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan State -6.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan State -5 Opening Total:\u00a0 51.5 Current Total:\u00a0 53.5 Current Moneyline: \u00a0Michigan State -215 \/ Northwestern +185 Michigan State is 7-0 for the first time since 1966 when the Spartans won their first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":8368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[3442,3445,3443,3444,3238,500,3119],"class_list":["post-9371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-dan-persa","tag-edwin-baker","tag-leveon-bell","tag-mark-dantonio","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-northwestern-wildcats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9371"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9540,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9371\/revisions\/9540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}