North Texas Mean Green vs. Rice Owls: Preview, TV, Streaming, Start Time, Betting Line, Prediction

Start Time: 1:30 p.m. Central

Location: Apogee Stadium, Denton TX

TV/Streaming: Not much.  Local Dallas/Denton affiliate.

Records: Rice (1-1), North Texas (0-1).  Rice leads the all-tie series, 3-2.

Live Stats: Here

Betting Line: Rice -7.5, O/U 55

North Texas Outlook

Look at that line.  Rice by 7.5?  Last week it was SMU by 5.5  When you see a line like that, this is the sports betting community typing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ in all caps.  To be fair, most sports bettors don't care about the Underdog Dynasty teams, but that's why we're here, to take some of the guessing out of the game.

The fact of the matter is North Texas looked terrible in their opening game against SMU, managing one decent quarter against a team who managed one decent half against Baylor.  Andrew McNulty completed less than half of his passes (16/34 for 128 yards), UNT's leading rusher had ten carries for fifty yards.  This weeks line seems a bit low, but this could also be the fact that UNT has only played one game so far.  Still, if you look at last weeks box score, it will make you feel physically sad.  This is all a very long-winded way of saying,  "Outlook not so good."

Rice Outlook

MEANWHILE, at a school where things like "acing your SAT" are considered normal, students and faculty alike have every reason to be thrilled to the gills.  The team led in every statistical category last week, as phenom Driphus Jackson threw for 139 yards, going 16/29.  Yes, those numbers look similar to McNulty's, but those numbers were against TEXAS, the largest and most prestigious University in the country (bring it, Buckeye fans).

Samuel Stewart carried 25 times for 130 yards.  If not for a few long bombs from a UT QB who barely threw, and three interceptions by the UT defense, Rice had this one.  This team is stacked and utterly terrifying and I sure wouldn't want to play them this week-- oh.  Crap.

This is all a very long-winded way of saying, "Yes, definitely."

Predictions

Against Rice last week, Texas had five catches ALL DAY, though to be fair they only threw the ball ten times.  If you believe in your heart of hearts that UT will be pretty good this year, then Rice is terrifying.  If you believe UT is in the midst of choking, that's still pretty impressive, and the Owls should pretty much shred the North Texas O all day long.

Last week in this space, we predicted SMU over UNT by 14.  SMU won by 18.  This week we're saying rice by thirty, and we're being kind.  Tune in to this one to showcase Rice's dark horse status, and also to watch UNT get dunked on.

Of course, we've been wrong before, and injuries can always change the game.

But there's a reason you can't get this game anywhere, and it's not Rice.

Dammit, Rice.