College GameDay Heavily Picks Illinois Over Indiana

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana football is favored to beat Illinois by a touchdown, according to most sportsbooks, but ESPN's College GameDay crew largely disagrees with oddsmakers.

Four of College GameDay's five on-air cast members — Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and guest picker Matthew Tkachuk, who stars for the NHL's Florida Panthers — picked Illinois to win.

Howard chose Illinois as his "super dog," or the betting underdog who he believes will win Saturday, while Tkachuk touted the quality of the Fighting Illini's defense.

Saban, who worked with Indiana coach Curt Cignetti from 2007-10 at Alabama, also likes Illinois to win.

"I think they may have a little better defense," Saban said, "and I think they may be the more physical team."

Herbstreit described Saturday's game as a "battle of culture

"Both these teams kind of pride themselves on playing with a chip on their shoulder," Herbstreit said. "I think coach (Saban), what you're saying, the line of scrimmage, I think Bielema, that's his kind of game. I think the fact Illinois has not turned it over once all year, that's got to continue for them to win."

The only GameDay picker who chose Indiana is Pat McAfee, who noted in his analysis it's the first ranked matchup between Indiana and Illinois since 1950.

"It's a special time in the Big Ten for these two teams," McAfee said. "Give me the home team, Indiana, down there in beautiful Bloomington."

The No. 19 Hoosiers (3-0) and No. 9 Fighting Illini (3-0) kick off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday inside Memorial Stadium, marking only the sixth top 20 home matchup in Indiana history and the first since 1987.

Related stories on Indiana football