Sugar Bowl Betting

Florida Gators (12-1) vs. Cincinnati Bearcats (12-0)
Opening Line: Gators -13 / Bearcats +13 O/U 57.5
Time: 8:30 PM EST Friday January 1, 2010 on FOX

The undefeated Cincinnati Bearcats face the Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl and even though this is s great match up the big storyline has been about Florida head coach Urban Meyer. Meyer shocked the college football world saying this would be his last game due to health reasons, but he recently backtracked and said he will be going on leave and plans to coach the Gators next season. Well, back to the game itself. Florida and their awesome running attack led by Heisman winner Tim Tebow face Tony Pike and their dynamic offense, which should put Florida's great defense to the test. Both teams narrowly missed out on playing in the BCS title game, as Florida lost to Alabama in the SEC title game and Texas kicked a last second field goal in the Big 12 title game, which dashed the National Championship hopes of Cincinnati.

This season Cincinnati was 3-0 against ranked opponents and 6-5 ATS and Florida was 1-1 against teams ranked in the top 25 and 5-6-1 ATS.

Florida lost their last game of the season 32-13 against Alabama, which cost them a shot in the BCS title game, while Cincinnati came back to beat Pittsburgh 45-44 in a barnburner, which gave them the Big East title and a shot in a BCS bowl game.

The Gators have the nation's 12th ranked offense and 10th ranked rushing offense and Tebow is THE guy, as he is not only a legit throwing QB (2,413 yds 18 TD 5 INT), but he is also the Gators leading rusher (859 yds 7 TD). The Gators also feature RB Jeffery Demps (738 yds 7 TD), who averaged an impressive 7.7 yards per carry this season. While Tebow does have a solid receiving corps Florida's strength is running the ball and if they can do that in this game they will be very tough to beat. The Bearcats rank 47th in the nation on defense and their rushing defense ranks 56th. They cannot allow Tebow and the Gators to have a big game on the ground because if they do Cincy will have to put up a lot of points on the scoreboard.

The Bearcats' offense ranks 6th in the nation and their strength is their passing offense, which averages 326.5 passing yards per game, and is led by QB Tony Pike (2,350 yds 26TD 6 INT). WR Mardy Gilyard had over 1,100 receiving yards this year and averaged over 14 yards per reception and he is Pike's big play guy. The Gators' defense has to have solid coverage on him and not let him make the big play down field. RB Isaiah Pead (758 yds 9 TD) leads the Bearcats' 65th ranked rushing offense and if he can have a solid game running the ball it will take a lot of pressure off Pike. The Gators' have the 4th ranked defense and they are solid against both the pass and the run. They have to get to Pike and put pressure on him and they did rank 20th in the nation with 35 sacks this season.