The College Football Playoff will begin to come into focus in mid-October and this weekend should provide even more clarity as a number of SEC headliners take place.

And while every fan will have their eyes on Georgia at Texas and Alabama vs. Tennessee, we’re not gathered here to talk about those games. You can go anywhere for that.

Instead, each week we dedicate this space to our favorite Ugly Underdog and it’s my great pleasure to introduce you to this week’s contender: the 0-6 Kent State Golden Flashes.

The first thing to keep in mind for Kent State’s showdown Saturday with in-state rival Bowling Green (2-4) is that this is a matchup between two MAC schools.

Strange things are happening in the MAC and it makes it very difficult to stomach the idea of ​​scoring 20.5 points with any team in this conference.

That’s the current price in Bowling Green.

Kent State vs. Bowling Green Odds

And make no mistake: Bowling Green is a much better team than Kent State.

The Falcons were a trendy pick – if such a thing exists – to win the MAC this season, and the early returns backed up that hype.

Bowling Green crushed Fordham in the opener, then lost to Penn State and Texas A&M – both on the road – by a combined 13 points.

The Falcons looked to be the class of the MAC before conference play started.

But then it started sputtering. Bowling Green lost to Old Dominion, 30-27, and was narrowly scraped by Akron, 27-20, before falling 17-7 at home to Northern Illinois.

These results paint a very different picture compared to what we saw in the first month of Bowling Green’s campaign.

The game against Akron is especially notable because among most college football power ratings, the Zips’ power ratings are quite close to Kent State.

Another reason to be skeptical of Bowling Green’s ability to cover this wide spread is the fact that they simply aren’t breaking off enough big plays.

When you score 20.5 points, you would hope that the team you are supporting can score quickly and destroy the game, but the Falcons just don’t do that. They rank 101st in the nation in plays of at least 10 yards and 91st in plays of 20+ yards.

Kent State’s defense has struggled all season and there’s certainly a chance BGSU can run all over them, but there’s also a chance the Golden Flashes can keep it respectable against an offense that ranks 89th in yards per play .

Betting on college football?

There’s no hiding the fact that Kent State has been one of the worst teams in the FBS this season and its results – huge losses to Penn State, Tennessee and Pitt, plus a 23-17 loss to an FCS school – have Making Golden Flashes a tough group. are behind, but their most recent games make things a little more enjoyable.

They were both losses to unfavorable opponents, but Kent State combined to score 68 points against Eastern Michigan and Ball State.

If they can carry some of that offensive momentum into I-80 this week, they should be able to keep this thing within this wide spread.

BET: Kent State +20.5 (-105, BetMGM)

Why trust New York Post betting

Michael Leboff handicaps the EPL, NHL, golf and everything else that isn’t the NFL and NBA for the NY Post. He is up 49.73 units betting on EPL with an ROI of 7.17%.