Who’s the best team from the ACC or the Big 10? From a betting perspective, the answer is the Maryland Terrapins – who enter Tuesday night as a strong favorite to continue their success this season against the spread. There is one certainty in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge: BetRivers has you covered.
While the unbeaten and Terps haven’t played the strongest of schedules to this point, they’ve outplayed the spread in five of their first six games, three times covering against double-digit numbers. Although that streak ended Friday in a 16-point victory over Coppin State (against a 23.5-point line), No. 22 Maryland is a very manageable 13-point favorite in its ACC/Big 10 Challenge matchup against Louisville. The Cardinals might be the worst team in all of major-conference basketball.
That’s not an overstatement. The Cardinals have been a unmitigated disaster in Kenny Payne’s first season as head coach. They stand 0-6 overall and against the spread entering Tuesday night’s game against Maryland. Louisville opened with three straight one-point home losses to lower-tier opponents. It then was bashed by 26, 32 and 19 by Arkansas, Texas Tech and Cincinnati respectively. The Cardinals are one of just six NCAA Division I teams without a win or push against the spread this season.
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ACC/Big 10 Challenge: BetRivers Odds Favor Big 10
Maryland is one of four Big 10 teams favored in Wednesday’s slate of six games in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. That challenge tipped off Monday when Virginia Tech beat Minnesota and Pittsburgh downed Northwestern. No. 16 Illinois is an 12-point home favorite over Syracuse. Wisconsin is a 5.5-point home favorite against Wake Forest. Iowa is a 16-point home favorite against Georgia Tech. The ACC favorites are Clemson -1.5 at home against Penn State, and No. 3 Virginia -4.5 at Michigan.
Syracuse, which has failed to cover in four of its past five, heads to Illinois on the heels of a home loss to Bryant. Wake Forest has covered two straight and three out of four, but the Deacons have played a weak schedule compared with the Badgers. They stand 5-1 overall and against the spread with a lone outright loss to No. 9 Kansas. Similarly, Georgia Tech’s 5-1 ATS record heading to Iowa has come against the likes of North Alabama and Northern Illinois.
Clemson has covered just twice this season – the most recent was a three-point loss to Iowa as an 8.5-point underdog. Penn State is 3-1 ATS in games involving lines of less than 10 points. Virginia and Michigan, meanwhile, are heading in opposite directions from a betting standpoint; the Cavaliers have covered three of four in a stretch that includes outright wins over Baylor and Illinois, while the Wolverines have lost four of five against the spread.
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Boilermakers Heating Up
The six ACC/Big 10 Challenge games set for Wednesday night include:
- No. 25 Ohio State at No. 17 Duke
- No. 18 North Carolina at No. 10 Indiana
- No. 5 Purdue at Florida State
- No. 20 Michigan State at Notre Dame
- Rutgers at Miami
- Boston College at Miami
The best bet of that slate might involve the Boilermakers, who are 6-0 overall, have covered three straight in a stretch that’s included wins over Duke and Gonzaga, and travel to face a Seminoles squad that’s 1-7 both overall and against the spread.
Ohio State visits Cameron Indoor Stadium at 5-1 overall and having covered two straight, most recently winning outright as a 1.5-point underdog against Texas Tech. Duke had a four-game overall win streak snapped in a loss to Purdue, and the Blue Devils have covered the spread just twice in their last six outings. North Carolina has lost two straight overall and covered just once this season – that against James Madison – and travels to play an unbeaten Indiana squad whose only notable opponent thus far is Xavier.
Boston College at Nebraska matches a pair of second-level conference squads with identical 4-3 marks against the spread. Miami and Rutgers, meanwhile, have each lost to the best teams they’ve played – Maryland in the case of the Hurricanes, Temple in the case of the Scarlet Knights. Though the State University of New Jersey heads to South Florida at 4-2 against the spread, they’ve built that record against opponents such as Sacred Heart and Central Connecticut State.