Northern Illinois Huskies vs Fresno State Bulldogs Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 12/23/24

Northern Illinois and Fresno State hook up at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. For Boise standards this time of year, the weather will be quite pleasant. We’ve seen disastrous conditions in this field in the past, during Boise State games, or in this bowl. However, the forecast calls for partly cloudy conditions with temperatures in the mid-40’s with winds of just 5-7 MPH. While the weather isn’t expected to affect the outcome, the transfer portal news will affect things considerably.

We have a very low total for this bowl game. In this day and age of college football, we could see 40 points scored in a half. However, portal news is why we’ll see both of these units struggle. Fresno State starting QB Mikey Keene, and starting WRs Jalen Moss and Raylen Sharpe are not expected to play. WR Tim Grear is also out, and RB Malik Sherrod is not expected to return from injury, either. For NIU, QB Ethan Hampton has hit the portal and already signed with Wake Forest, while star WR Trayvon Randolph is not expected to play. The team has several defensive players in the portal, and none are listed on the bowl depth chart, too. We’re going to see a lot of sloppy football, choppy offense and points should be at a premium.

Under 40 (-110) at time of publishing. Playable at that number.