BIG 10 Championship

[419gottamin]

Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts. Here's mine:

Here's Michigan State getting nine points vs. Wisconsin. Wow. Michigan State has already beaten Wisconsin in East Lansing by six. Granted, they won on a hail mary as time expired. MS, however, was coming off of a win over a vastly improved Michigan squad, a rivalry game, and Wisky was coming off of a blowout win over the worst team in the conference, Indiana. This game is on a neutral field. I also believe that you could make the argument that MS is better suited to play indoors on turf than Wisky is. Then, you also have the Russell Wilson factor. This will be the most important game Wilson has played in in his life. How will he respond? Kurt Cousins has been there, and is still smarting from that blowout last bowl season vs. Alabama. This is Cousins' shot at redemption. Michigan State is pretty quick on defense, and pretty good upfront. They should be able to slow down Wisky's ground game and make Wilson beat them in the air. I'm still not 100% sold on this guy. He stepped up a notch or two when he transferred into the Big Ten.

Am I missing something here? I'm not exactly predicting an upset here, but it certainly could happen. Nine points, in my opinion, is a pretty generous spread. We're all looking for value, right? Wisconsin has improved some since the meeting in East Lansing, as the competition has improved, but that's a big spread.

I say take the points and cash. Your thoughts?

[419gottamin]

I forgot to mention one more point. As far as coaching goes, I prefer Mark D'antoni over Bret Bielma. Bielma is the Big Ten's new version of Jim Tressel. Great coach, fabulous recruiter, but a little vanilla. D'antoni is not afraid to open up the playbook in a big game. Lest we never forget the fake field goal turned game winning touchdown pass last year vs. Notre Dame!

[Nicky Santoro]

I've come down to the same thoughts as you. 9 points, really?? Wisconsin can't cover playing away as they are 0-4 ATS and the last 3 games Sparty is putting it together. They are averaging 3 more PPG and 50 YPG. Cousins is playing well. All looks great. I always come back to the Badger running game, can MSU step it up again??

Another side note: Spartans are only averaging 18 PPG playing away. I know this is neutral but should this bother me?? No play for me either way with the 9. I do like the over at 55.