Auburn Tigers (7-5) v Northwestern Wildcats (8-4)
Outback Bowl, Tampa Florida
Football : United States : NCAA
Friday, 1st January 2009 - Kickoff 11am ET / 4pm GMT

---

One of the biggest days of the '09 season is the first day of 2010 with five games and two top plays.

The first comes from Tampa, Florida where Northwestern takes on Auburn in the Outback Bowl.

The Tigers are favored by over a touchdown even though they won just seven games this year. They also finished the regular season losing five of their last six FBS contests.

Since the line opened at Auburn -4.5 points, it seems the betting public has put a lot of stock in the Alabama game as that was the last contest the Tigers played and it's fresh on everyone's mind.

If that's why folks are betting Auburn, they are making one heck of a mistake.

Northwestern won six of its last eight with huge wins over Iowa and Wisconsin. Furthermore, the 'Cats passing attack led the Big Ten completing 65% of their tosses and Mike Kafka threw just seven interceptions in over 400 attempts.

Meanwhile, Auburn was last in the SEC in scoring defense allowing 27 ppg.

The Auburn Tigers can score points in bunches but Northwestern has proven it can stay with high-powered offenses as shown in the Wisconsin game scoring 33 points while gaining over 400 total yards.

THe BETTING VERDICT

The Northwestern Wildcats are the better team and they'll prove it in Tampa with the outright victory.

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Northwestern plus the 8 points.