College football odds: Ohio State heavy favorite vs. Northern Illinois

After passing a tough test against Virginia Tech in its opener and dispatching Hawaii with relative ease, No. 1 Ohio State is likely to have little trouble against North Illinois in Week 3, entering as a heavy favorite.

In 22 games against opponents from the Mid-American Conference since 1997, the Ohio State Buckeyes are a perfect 22–0 straight up. The Buckeyes are heavily favored to extend that win streak to 23 games this Saturday when they host the Northern Illinois Huskies.

Ohio State is a 34.5-point betting favorite in Saturday’s game according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The Buckeyes have the longest current winning streak in the nation with a 15–0 SU record in their last 15 games.

This season of college football is being projected by many as a difficult one to predict, but the one constant in everyone’s mind seems to be that Ohio State will return to the playoff. After taking care of Virginia Tech 42–24 as a 13.5-point road favorite, OSU doesn’t appear to have any real threats on its schedule until late November at home against Michigan State.

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The Buckeyes are going to put up a lot of points and win games, as they did last week in their 38–0 win over Hawaii. It will just be up to bettors to determine the games Ohio State will do enough to cover the spread, which the Buckeyes didn’t do as 42.5-point favorites last week.

Ohio State is just 2–5 ATS in its last seven home games as a favorite of 30 or more points per the OddsShark College Football Database.

The Huskies are obviously not in Ohio State’s league from a talent perspective, but they have played well both in their own conference and in games against top conferences. The Huskies are 9–1 ATS in their last 10 games against Big Ten opponents and 9–1 SU in their last 10 games overall. Northern Illinois is off to a 2–0 SU start in 2015 and is averaging 47.5 points per game.

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Saturday’s total for the Northern Illinois vs. Ohio State matchup is set at 66.5 points. The OVER is 8–1 in Northern Illinois’s last nine September road games.

Unlike Hawaii last week, Northern Illinois packs some punch on offense. If Ohio State gets lazy, this one could end up being a high-scoring affair. But as will be the case in most of their games this season, the only team that can beat the Buckeyes is themselves.