(09-06-2021 09:55 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote: (09-06-2021 12:14 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: (09-05-2021 05:16 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote: (09-05-2021 02:22 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: Line opens at Rice +9.5 and O/U 54.5.
Line sounds about right with Rice at home (and UH down on their team so some last second fans might not show up now?). The O/U seems high when both teams struggled to score in the 2nd half last week. It's not like either defense gave up a ton of yards either. But maybe they're figuring on a lot more turnovers and short fields again.
I don't think there is much home field advantage for us. Neither team has to get on a plane, miss class or deal with unfamiliar weather. Plus the crowd will mostly be in red.
Home lockers are much more pleasant than the road ones. Plus they'll be in the sun and humidity for the first half at least.
Crowd might be slightly tilted to UH, but not as much as it would have been had they played well against Tech.
In any Rice-UH game, the home field advantage is, IMO, negligible. I think the biggest factor in HFA is that one team has to travel - leave campus on Thursday, fly or drive, etc. That has no place in this game. For both teams, their routine is essentially a home game routine. Nobody is going to tired from travel.
I don't think crowd has much to do with the HFA, but to the extent it does, Rice's anemic attendance doesn't help us much.
Familiarity with facilities - like home lockers - probably has some comfort value.
Taking all the factors into account, I think Rice's HFA in this game is about .25 points. Or less.
Might explain why the line is 9.5 instead of 10.
In any case, the job is the same - win. Overcome any and all negatives. I don't care of we are at U-Hou or at Rice - just win.
I think the line is still overweighted to the UH side, and if I were a betting man, I would consider putting some cash on Rice.