Indiana-Cincinnati Prediction

Cincinnati’s quest for a berth in the College Football Playoff continues in Bloomington on Saturday as the Bearcats the Hooisers, and BetRivers is here to provide the Indiana-Cincinnati prediction, odds and public trends. Cincinnati scored easy victories over Miami (OH) and FCS program Murray State. The Bearcats won’t get many chances to score style points playing in the AAC, which makes their road trip to Indiana, as well as their date with Notre Dame in South Bend next week, so important. Indiana did not look great in Week 1 against a very good Iowa team, then beat up on Idaho by 42 points in Week 2. The Hoosiers have covered the spread in seven of their last eight home games.

Longtime college sports writer Rob Dauster, the co-founder of The Field of 68 and The Field of 12 Network is here to break down the tantalizing matchup and provide his Indiana-Cincinnati prediction for Week 3 of the college football season.

WEEK 3: NOTRE DAME-PURDUE | PENN STATE-AUBURN | FLORIDA-ALABAMA |

INDIANA-CINCINNATI PREDICTION:

INDIANA HOOSIERS (1-1) vs. #8 CINCINNATI BEARCATS (2-0)
GAME: 12:00 p.m. ET, ESPN
MONEYLINE: Cincinnati -182 ML, Indiana +145 ML
SPREAD: Cincinnati -4
TOTAL: 50pts

INDIANA-CINCINNATI PUBLIC TRENDS:
Cincinnati ML: 92% handle, 68% bets
Cincinnati Spread: 80% handle, 74% bets
Over: 54% handle, 67% bets

So just how good do we think Indiana is right now?

They entered the season as one of the Big Ten’s darling. But after getting completely bludgeoned by Iowa in the season opener, the Hoosiers looked fine against Idaho, winning 56-14. But two of their touchdowns came via special teams, and Michael Penix — who was not good against Iowa — threw for just 68 yards.

Perhaps the better question here is: Just how healthy is Penix?

Because if he’s still coming back from the rehab and still recovering from the surgery, then Indiana just is not the same caliber of team as we expected them to be this year.

Cincinnati, on the other hand, got off to a slow start against Murray State last week, but they eventually won by 35. Desmond Ridder has looked every bit the part of a Heisman Contender. This, and the game at Notre Dame in two weeks, is the kind of resume win that Cincinnati HAS to get if they are going to have any chance of making it to the college football playoff this year.

I think they will, and I think they’ll get it done fairly easily. I’ll lay the points and ride with the Bearcats.