Minnesota at Illinois

The Golden Gophers are one win away from becoming Bowl eligible. At 5-4 with Nebraska and Michigan State left on the schedule, this becomes a very important game. It has been a tale of two seasons for Minnesota. They have not been up to task against the better teams but they have been better than the bad teams on their schedule. At 2-7, Illinois falls into the latter category. Illinois came out of the gate at 6-0 last season and then the wheels fell off, as they dropped their last six regular season games. They are now 1-13 in their last 13 regular season games vs. FBS teams and have not beaten a conference opponent in that time span. The fact is that they have not come within 11 points of their last eight conference opponents. Minnesota is now 16-7 ATS in their last 23 vs. a losing team while Illinois has struggled to a 7-20 ATS home mark vs. a team with a winning road record. Jerry Kill coached teams are 14-4 ATS vs. losing teams. Take Minnesota here.