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MOTOR CITY BOWL
12/26/07
CENTRAL MICHIGAN VS PURDUE
Can you imagine having to play in this garbage bowl the day after Christmas? A trip to Detroit for the holidays? No offense to Detroit natives, but this is hardly a destination that should qualify as a reward for a fine season. Heck, Central Michigan doesn't even get to leave their own state and they have to play a team that already spanked them once this year!
Not much in the way of motivation for Purdue either. When Purdue starts a football season, their sites are set on Pasadena. Not Detroit. Here they have to go and play a team they already beat. What's there to prove?
Purdue is the superior team here. How much better are they? Well, they led the first game between these two 38-0 at one point. They have also played the likes of Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State and unlike Central Michigan, when Purdue played teams they were supposed to beat, they won. Central Michigan lost to Eastern Michigan and barely got by Akron, Western Michigan and Kent and they were blown off the field when they stepped up in class. They lost 52-7 to Kansas, 45-22 to this Purdue team and 70-14 to Clemson.
The difference in the quality of opponents here, and the way each team played against different levels of opposition, is night and day here folks. The problem comes in the motivation to be playing in this garbage Bowl. For Purdue, there is ZERO in the way of motivation. They don't want to be here. As a Purdue player, I can't imagine having to get up for this game. Who cares?
For Central Michigan, they at least have the motivation of revenge for earlier in the year and the chance to prove that they can play with the big boys from the Big 10.
It's a very dangerous set up for Purdue here. For that reason, we are going to make a very small play here. Purdue can win it and cover if they want to but they're are set up to fail here. So, for the sake of making a prediction here, we'll take the superior team, but in the real world, we're not touching this one.
1* PURDUE -8