The Cincinnati Bearcats from the Big East conference will face the Duke Blue Devils from the ACC conference in the Belk Bowl in an NCAA college football game on Thursday night December 27th. Kick off time from Charlotte North Carolina is scheduled for 6:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN.
The point spread opened up in the Belk Bowl with the Cincinnati Bearcats favored by -7 points with an over under line of 59 ½ points. Early money has shown on the side of the favorite as Cincinnati is now favored by -7 ½ points. The over under has moved up a ½ point to a current number of 60 points.
There have been no recent head to head meetings between the Bearcats and Blue Devils from college football. CFB Trend: Duke Blue Devils are 0-4 ATS in their past four games.
Cincinnati concluded regular season play with a record of 9-3 on the season. They were good to bettors this season with an against the spread mark of 8-3. They concluded play in the regular season with two straight wins. The Bearcats were tied with four Big East clubs for first place in the Big East at 5-2. Their losses in conference came to Rutgers at home and on the road to Louisville in overtime. Cincinnati’s third loss came to MAC school Toledo 29-23 on the road. The Bearcats have no notable wins outside of Big East play and faced two FCS schools this season. On the defensive side of the football the Bearcats were outstanding this season allowing just 17 points a game good for 17th in all of college football. In their past four games they allowed three of their opponents no more than 10 points per game. On offense the team averages 31 points a game and that’s in the upper half of college football. Head coach Butch Jones will not be with the team as he takes the job at Tennessee. It was announced that former Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville accepted the head coaching position at Cincinnati. Senior quarterback Brendon Kay threw for 6 touchdowns and 2 picks and completed 62% of his passes. Kay replaced former starter Munchie Legaux who was inaccurate.
The Duke Blue Devils concluded play in the 2012 regular season with a record of 6-6 on the season. They became bowl eligible way back on October 20th and then proceeded to lost four straight games thereafter. Duke has no notable wins and lost all their step up games badly in blowout style at Stanford, Florida St and home to Clemson by 36 or more points. Their defense was atrocious down the stretch giving up 42 or more points in their final four games. Duke offensively put up 31 points and 396 yards per game which was around the middle in all of college football. The teams profile was horrid on defense finishing in the lower quartile if most of the important categories such as yards and points allowed. They can’t stop the run or pass this season. Quarterback Sean Renfree a senior signal caller had 18 touchdowns and 8 picks on the year plus completed on 66% of his throws.