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Orange Bowl Pick – January 1st

For the first time, a member of the MAC is going to be playing in a BCS bowl game. On January 1st, the Northern Illinois Huskies will take on the Florida State Seminoles in the Orange Bowl, a game that is definitely going to be intriguing to NCAA football betting fans.

Northern Illinois is definitely the sweetheart team of America this year. The club finished out the campaign at 12-1, beating virtually everyone that the rough and tumble top of the MAC had to offer. This team is all about the play of QB Jordan Lynch though, and if he doesn’t have the game of his life against the Florida State defense, there just is no way that NIU is going to be able to stick around. Lynch was one of the top rushers in the nation with 1,771 yards and 19 TDs, and he also threw for 2,962 yards and 24 scores. He is going to join the elite club of quarterbacks that have thrown for and rushed for 20+ touchdowns in the same season, and he has an outside chance of throwing for 3,000 yards (a shoe in) and rushing for 2,000 (incredibly tough). WR Martel Moore did have 905 yards and 11 TDs this year for the Huskies, and they try to get the ball to the outside with Moore as often as they can.

The Seminoles have to be disappointed with the way that this year played out. They were considered amongst the preseason favorites to win the BCS National Championship this year, but their loss on the road to the NC State Wolfpack really killed any chances that they had. They were also beaten by the Florida Gators in the last weekend of the regular season, and struggled with several other teams like the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets down the stretch of the season. That being said, this is still a team that went 11-2 this year and won the ACC, and it is getting rewarded by playing in a very suitable bowl game, albeit against a less than suitable foe. QB EJ Manuel is going to be playing his last game in garnet and gold, and so too might a number of players from a defense that did its job for the most part this year, ranking in the Top 10 in virtually every major defensive category.

Prediction:

Head Coach Jimbo Fisher has done a brilliant job getting his team ready for a pair of bowl games since taking over in Tallahassee, and he is surely going to do a great job again this year. Northern Illinois is a nice story at 12-1, but it also is a team that darn near lost to Kansas. In the end, this game is going to look a lot more like the Georgia/Hawaii Sugar Bowl from a few years ago than the Boise State/Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl where the Broncos hit the map. Florida State 38 – Northern Illinois 17