GoDaddy.com Bowl: Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders (6-6) vs. Miami (Ohio) Red Hawks (9-4)

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011

Location: Mobile, Alabama

Time: 8:00 p.m. EST

In the midst of all the BCS bowls this week and two days after the Sugar Bowl is the GoDaddy.com Bowl with some nice value. Middle Tennessee State will take on Miami (Ohio) on Thursday. The Blue Raiders opened as a small -1.5 favorite, but the betting line has evened out since then. They won their final three games to become bowl eligible and finished third in the Sun Belt Conference. They are led by quarterback Dwight Dasher, who passed for 1,388 yards and six touchdowns. The senior had a season high 244 yards passing in the season finale win over Sun Belt Champion Florida International. The Blue Raiders are 1-1 in bowl games. Las season, Dasher set a New Orleans Bowl record with four rushing touchdowns in the win over Southern Mississippi.

Miami (Ohio) has more bowl experience with 10 games in school history, going 6-9. The Red Hawks won the East Division of the Mid-American Conference and then upset Northern Illinois in the MAC title game. Freshman quarterback Austin Boucher threw for 333 yards and a touchdown in that game. He finished with 831 yards and four touchdowns after starting the final three games of the season. The Red Hawks won their final five games after starting the season 2-2. It’s a big improvement from last season when they went 1-11 under then-first year coach Michael Haywood. He will not coach this game. He was hired to replace Dave Wannstedt at Pittsburgh but immediately lost the position because of a domestic violence arrest, which puts a couple of his Miami (Ohio) assistants who left their jobs to follow him to Pittsburgh in a bind.

My Pick: There is too much turmoil on the Miami (Ohio) sideline. Middle Tennessee State takes this one 28-21.

Money Line (odds provided by Titan Bet)

Middle Tennessee State: 7/10

Miami (Ohio): 21/20

Point Spread: 0

Over/Under: 48.5