The Money Bet of the Century, Week #8- The Double Down Special!

Greetings Money Betters-

I'm writing the Money Bet of the Century this week from Salt Lake City, Utah and am titling the post this week "The Double Down Special". Those of you that were watching the MBOC game last week, you'll know that a last second bomb ended up making that game a push. So...I'm not going to start off this week apologizing....you got your money back in what was a strange twist in the end of that game. After all, if you double down this week with the money you got back last week....you are going to be a happy camper this week. Thus "The Double Down Special" was born....

This week, we are heading back to a destination we've already traveled to....East Lansing, Michigan (not the picture on the left, although that's a good place too). With employment reaching 14.7% in the state of Michigan this past August, they'll be plenty of people with nothing to do on Saturday....you can expect a big crowd in attendance to see this perennial Big 10 show down. You can also bet the house there will be plenty of boozing on behalf of the downtrodden economy and Spartan season. Starting off the season with 3 losses, it's been a tough season so far. "We've battled back from a 1/3 start, and that's not easy to do," Spartans coach Mark Dantonio said. They seem to have righted the ship with a three game winning streak against Michigan, Illinois, and Northwestern. One does have to question how strong this team is, with just 10 point victories over Illinois and Northwestern, and it took a lucky end zone interception to beat Michigan (an unlucky game for the MBOC) in overtime. Illinois and Northwestern (along with Purdue) are bringing up the rear of the Big 10 Conference. Kirk Cousins, Michigan State's Quarterback, probably summed it up best when he said "Iowa right now is playing as the best team in the Big Ten. They're going to come here and have to go through us, obviously. We expect a great game from them. We're going to have to play better than we've played any week this season in order to have an opportunity to beat them."

This week Iowa is looking to do something they haven't done in the 120 year history of the school....start the season 8-0. They also have had a tough time in East Lansing, losing the last 4 in a row here (last win was in 1995, 21-7). They'll definitely have their work cut out for them as they march into 'Sparty'. The Hawkeyes have used a stout defense and a plus-11 turnover margin to overcome several significant injuries, holding six of their seven opponents under 18 points. With a win last week at Wisconsin (20-10), Iowa has proved that they can win on the road AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, win in a big environment when they are not favored. (they were 2 point dogs to Wisconsin, and it ain't an easy place to play).

You can believe Iowa will be ready to play in the game this weekend, this is for school history!! Once again, they are not favored to win, and are 1.5 dogs to Michigan State. It's been a rough season for Sparty, and you can bet this will be a very close game....but look for the Hawkeyes to swoop away with a victory against the Green and White.

Iowa by 7!!