Big Ten Preview: Week 4

I know this is a regular Thursday post, but with Michigan's off week, I moved it out to late Friday.

So how will the Big Ten fair this week after the disaster of last weekend? Let's hope much better as most of the cupcakes have been eaten and Michigan and Ohio State nurse wounds from their respected beat downs.

Troy at #13 OSU: Well after the trip to California, I would expect the Buckeyes to be looking forward to getting back to their winning ways. Troy is 2-0 coming off a 65-0 win over Alcorn State. Look Out! I don't expect The Vest and squad to overlook Troy but stranger things have happened. OSU is a 3 touchdown favorite in this one. OSU 28 Troy 14

Temple at #16 PSU: PSU has really put an impressive dessert schedule together but Temple is not as bad as you think. Either way PSU is much better and will run the Owl's all over the field, so much that even John Chaney and Bill Cosby will both lose thier cool and schedule some shuffle board time with JoPa. PSU is favored by 4 touchdowns in this one. PSU 33 Temple 10

Ohio at NW: Don't be fooled by Ohio's 0-3 record, they almost beat OSU in Columbus. So NW is going to have it hands full. But the flip side is NW has been playing well against tier 2 teams like Duke and others. Look for this one to be very close. NW 21 Ohio 17

Florida Atlantic at Minnesota: FAU got rained on in East Lansing last weekend and got shut out as they were my upset special of the week. Minnesota keeps winning games against teams from non-BCS conferences. This could be another close one, unless the Metro dome roof leaks. Minnesota: 31 FAU 30 (line: FAU+ 6.5)

Iowa at Pitt: This is a match up of two good coaches with two pretty poor teams. We have seen allot of that this year haven't we? I'm not sure what is going to happen in this one, but I expect there won't be a ton of scoring. Vegas has Pitt favored by 2.5. Pitt gets the edge for playing at an NFL stadium: Pitt 5 Iowa 3

Central Michigan at Purdue: Do these teams play every week? My goodness they just played in late December! This will be the third time in a year in a game where nobody plays defense. I think Purdue is still stinging after their loss last week on the kickers shank. CMU 51 Purdue 48 (purude is a 10 pt favorite at home)

Ball State at IU: This is an interstate match up that really means something. The current IU coach is the former head coach at Ball State. Ball State's head coach is a former coach at Michigan. Tie goes to Michigan. Ball State 21 IU 14 (vegas IU -3)

Big Ten Game of the Week:

ND at MSU: ND loves these back to back State of Michigan games. They get all up for the Michigan rivalry and forget to show up for next weeks game against MSU. The problem is, that usually happens in South Bend, this game is in East Lansing. I guess you need a compass for either town.

ND comes off the big Michigan win where they were able to throw short down passes for 28 points, while MSU shut out their opponent from Florida. Both teams played in the rain. Injury report is "Good Time Charlie" is a game time decision after blowing out his ACL and MCL. (every owner of "all you can eat" restaurants in East Lansing are mourning Charlie's lack of mobility). Expect something weird to happen in East Lansing against ND because it always does. But this time MSU is the winner of the good luck: MSU 24 ND 13 (vegas MSU -8.5)