Conference championship predictions for 2019 college football season
No. 20 Cincinnati Bearcats at No. 17 Memphis Tigers
American Athletic Conference Championship Game
Line: Memphis -9.5; Over/Under: 57.5; TV: ABC
Saturday, Dec. 7 at 3:30 p.m. ET; Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium; Memphis, Tenn.
Similar to the Big 12 matchup, this is a conference championship game that we just don’t need. The Memphis Tigers just beat the Cincinnati Bearcats. Why should they have to do it again in the same stadium to win the AAC? However, that’s how this is all set up, so to get the Group of Five invite to the New Years Six, this is what’s in front of them.
Mike Norvell’s team is rolling and is one bad call against the Temple Owls away from being undefeated right now. They have the distractions of everybody else looking at Norvell for a head coaching job right now, but his stock would actually fall some if he lost on Saturday.
Cincinnati is rolling under Luke Fickell, even with a loss last week. Should they win on Saturday, they could still be the team to get that New Years Six invite. So having a second chance against them is a big deal.
Prediction
The Tigers actually made a lot of mistakes in last week’s game. The line moving from 10, which they won by last week, to nine and a half, actually favors them. This time, their offense comes back to life, and they dominate in the rematch en route to this game hitting the Over, which it failed to do last week. Take Memphis to cover and score a lot.