The Pants Predicts: Iowa vs Illinois State

Hawkeye football is back! Iowa opens the year with a home matchup against FCS Illinois State. While the Redbirds went 6-5 a season ago, they enter 2024 with several All-MVC preseason honorees and hopes of playing spoiler inside Kinnick Stadium on Saturday.

Vegas thinks those odds are pretty low, however. Our friends over at DraftKings Sportsbook have #25 Iowa favored by 22.5 with the over/under set at 40.5 total points. There’s been minimal movement in the line this week as things opened Iowa -22.5 with an over/under at 41 total points. The updated line gives us an implied final score of Iowa 31.5, Illinois State 9.

Here at The Pants, we’re not far off. Our consensus prediction, incorporating…