College Football Odds: International Bowl

Although South Florida's last game was a loss to Connecticut, the Bulls are still favored to win the 2010 International Bowl by -7 at Bodog. (AP Images)

Saturday’s International Bowl has something that no other college bowl game can offer: an international location – if you can call Toronto that. And it’s not exactly the most glamorous matchup of 2010 as South Florida (7-5, 5-6 ATS) and Northern Illinois (7-5, 6-6 ATS) face off, with the Bulls as 7-point favorites on Bodog’s college football odds.

Neither team is playing very well entering this game. South Florida, which was ranked a few times this year, lost its final two games of the regular season and five of its final seven. It’s the fifth straight bowl for USF, and it has alternated losses and wins in the previous four. Northern Illinois also lost its final two games of the season. This is the first time the Huskies will play in bowl games in back-to-back years – they lost in the Independence Bowl in 2008.

South Florida does have a potential future star in freshman QB B.J. Daniels, but he has been up and down this season since taking over. In 12 games overall (he played mop-up duty in a few before starter Matt Grothe got hurt), Daniels ran for a team-high 798 yards but completed only 53 percent of his passes for 1,766 yards with 12 TDs and nine picks. When Daniels was good the Bulls won, and when he wasn’t they didn’t – in the four games Daniels rushed for at least 110 yards, USF was 4-0, including beating Florida State and West Virginia. NIU has a better run defense than pass defense.

NIU is a ground-oriented team (N0. 109 in passing), leading the MAC by rushing for 202.4 yards per game. Running backs Chad Spann, a first team All-MAC pick, and Me’co Brown combined for 1,590 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns. South Florida is 49th in the nation in run defense, allowing about 138 ypg.

When making your college football bet at Bodog on this game, expect USF to dare Northern Illinois to throw the ball. In games this season that NIU posted more rushing yards than passing yards, it went 7-1 – and that loss was by just a point.

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