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The Ohio State Buckeyes are 27.5-point home favorites over the Florida Atlantic Owls, for their NCCA football season-opening game on August 31 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, according to USA sport betting sites.

Florida Atlantic Owls vs. Ohio State Buckeyes Odds by Xbet.ag

Team SP/RL TOTAL ML
Florida Atlantic +27½ (-110) 63 (-110 +2000
Ohio State -27½ (-110) 63 (-110) -4000
Bet Now on this Game

Betting Florida Atlantic Owls

Head coach Lane Kiffin’s Owls suffered the dreaded sophomore slump in 2018. Kiffin led, in his first year at FAU in 2017, the Owls to an 11-3 record (8-0 in conference play). FAU also went 10-4 ATS, per the best online sportsbooks. Moreover, the Owls finished first in the C-USA East Division. And defeated the North Texas Mean Green 41-17 in the conference championship game. Additionally, FAU beat the Akron Zips 50-3 in the Boca Raton Bowl. Florida Atlantic entered those two games as favorites and covered the USA sport betting sites’ point spread. Not too shabby. But it may have been a case of a new broom always sweeping well. As our Spanish-speaking friends are wont to say.

Last season, the Owls went 5-7 (3-5) SU and 4-8 ATS. FAU finished in 5th place in their division and failed to earn a bowl bid. Oddly enough, the Owls had, passing aside, one of the best offenses of the 2018 season. FAU ranked 14th in total offense (478.8 total yards per game). And 13th in rushing yards per game (241.8). The Owls may not have made the best of all those yards, though, averaging 31.1 points per game. Which was still good enough to rank No. 44 in the country. But not good enough when you allow opponents 31.8 points per game. So close and yet so far.

Betting Ohio State Buckeyes

It’s a new Day for the Buckeyes. Head coach Ryan Day, that is. ‘Pope’ Urban Meyers’s final season as OSU coach in 2018 saw the Buckeyes finish go 13-1 (8-1 in conference play). The Buckeyes won the Big Ten East Division, the Big Ten Championship, and the Rose Bowl. However, and this is what matters to USA sport betting sites’ users, OSU went 6-8 against the spread. Including a five-game ATS losing streak. Led by starting QB Dwayne ‘The Rock Johnson’ Haskins, Ohio State ranked 2nd in total and passing yards per game. The Heisman Trophy finalist threw for 4831 yards with 50 TDs. To the surprise of absolutely no one, Haskins was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft.

Those are, like Bozo the Clown’s, some very big shoes to fill. And Justin Fields transferred from Georgia to fill them. Fields passed for 328 yards with four TDs in 12 games in 2018 as Jake ‘Ethan’ Fromm’s backup. Fields was rated a five-star recruit and was the highest rated dual-threat QB in 2018 by ESPN, Rivals.com, and 247Sports.com. Day better hope against hope that that isn’t just hype. Either Fields is as good as or better than Haskins, or the Buckeyes defense better buck up. Ohio State allowed 245.2 yards through the air and 158.2 on the ground per game in 2018.

“It was really frustrating,” safety Jordan Fuller said. “You heard that we’re better than this and we have to tighten everything up, but things kept happening. It was bad vibes all around. It wasn’t fun. You wanted to play well. Every week you prepared so far, but it wasn’t panning out for whatever reason. It was a whole bunch of reasons.”

Florida Atlantic Owls vs. Ohio State Buckeyes Expert Pick

As bad as OSU’s defense was, it still allowed fewer points than FAU’s (25.5 points allowed per game). Furthermore, “much of the defensive scheme has been simplified so that there’s going to be a lot less to think about,” says the above cited source. Well, that will not eradicate the dumb jock stereotype. Basically, we have to believe that Fields is going to be a worthy replacement for Haskins. And that OSU’s dumbed-down defense is going to be successful. That’s a lot to take on faith, especially considering the 27-point spread. I think I’m going to have to fade Ohio State on this one.

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