Rutgers - UCF

St. Petersburg Bowl December 19, 8:00pm St. Petersburg, FL

Rutgers (8-4) ___________ BigEast _________ 102.84 ____ YPG = 297.7 (79%) ____________PPG = 24.3 (95%) → +12% dYPG = 336.4 (94%) dPPG = 20.2 (81%) ____ Wk Opponent oPts Score 1 Cincinnati 473.38 L, 15-47 2 Howard -508.75 W, 41-7 3 Florida Intl -235.04 W, 23-15 4 Maryland -282.65 W, 34-13 6 Texas Southern -543.74 W, 42-0 7 Pittsburgh 224.38 L, 17-24 8 Army -162.43 W, 27-10 9 Connecticut 100.28 W, 28-24 11 South Florida 79.25 W, 31-0 12 Syracuse -108.38 L, 13-31 13 Louisville -108.86 W, 34-14 14 West Virginia 240.94 L, 21-24

UCF (8-4) ______________ CUSA __________ 122.39 ____ +7% ← YPG = 353.9 (86%)__________ PPG = 26.2 (83%) -6% ← dYPG = 354.2 (88%)_________ -12% ← dPPG = 20.4 (69%)_________ ____ Wk Opponent oPts Score 1 Samford -507.42 W, 28-24 2 Southern Miss 18.75 L, 19-26 3 Buffalo -99.82 W, 23-17 4 East Carolina 177.10 L, 14-19 5 Memphis -278.07 W, 32-14 7 Miami (FL) 274.34 L, 7-27 8 Rice -295.50 W, 49-7 9 Marshall -30.18 W, 21-20 10 Texas 487.27 L, 3-35 11 Houston 213.71 W, 37-32 12 Tulane -246.99 W, 49-0 13 UAB -71.06 W, 34-27

Neither of these offenses are particularly inspiring - both are below average in points and yards. On defense they're pretty equal, both giving up around 340 yards and 20 points per game, but the Scarlet Knights did it against easier offenses in general. Overall though, the CUSA wasn't as tough as the BigEast this year, and UCF missed one of the more potent conference teams in SMU.

Both are pretty equal along the quality win front - UCF took down Houston, while Rutgers took down both UConn and South Florida. UCF may have a bit of a home-field advantage, playing in St. Petersburg, but maybe not. Tough call this one...

The Line: UCF +2.5

The Call: Rutgers by 4

The Result: Rutgers 45-24

As I've been saying about the BigEast... the Scarlet Knights are able to get it done, continuing their post-season success. An extremely quiet 9-4 this year - will they be able to make more waves in 2010? And the Golden Knights' bowl woes continue. Not only that, but they're only going to one every other year. Consistently good is wonderful, consistently bad is numbing, but inconsistency is just maddening.