By @Sidelines_BYU
MATCHUP: Austin Peay vs Central Arkansas
WHERE: Cramton Bowl, Montgomery, AL
FIELD SURFACE: UBU Speed S5 Synthetic Turf
WHEN: Saturday, August 29th
TIME: 9:00pm EST
TV: ESPN (Matt Barrie and Mike Golic, Jr in Bristol, CT, Lauren Sisler on site)
STREAMING: ESPN App
Austin Peay Radio: Governors Sports Network (Brian Rives and Van Stokes)
Central Arkansas Radio: UCA Radio Network (Justin Acri, Chris Kane, RJ Hawk)
WEATHER: Cloudy with a chance of a stray shower or thunderstorm. Low 76. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 miles per hour. Chance of rain 20%
ODDS
Central Arkansas: -4.5 -200 ML
Austin Peay: +4.5 +157 ML
Over/Under: 44.5
ALL TIME RECORD: 2-0 (both meetings were won by Central Arkansas)
LAST MEETING: 9/17/19 (Central Arkansas won 24-16)
WHAT TO KNOW:
Austin Peay: History will be on the line, as a victory will give the Gov’s their 300th win in program history. They enter the game ranked 13th (STATS FCS). In addition, this will be the first game for interim head coach Marquase Lovings Howard, who was named interim coach on July 7th. He was the DL coach for team last season. Austin Peay returns 14 starters from last year. In addition, this will be the first neutral site game for the Gov’s since 1952!
Central Arkansas: UCA is just 7-7 in season openers since moving up to D1, but 2-0 all time against Austin Peay. The Bears are also ranked 11th in the STATS FCS rankings. UCA returns 17 starters from last season.
NICK’S FORECAST: Originally this game was going to be played in Conway, Arkansas, but the game was moved to Montgomery. With not every FCS conference planning on playing football in the spring, this is a great opportunity to see two top FCS teams in the lone Week 0 game that will hopefully draw some good ratings.
Austin Peay should be the stronger team on the field, and I do think this will be a close, low scoring game, but I feel Central Arkansas has enough to pull it off at the end. They are my pick to win the first college football game of the 2020 season!
NICK’S PICK: Central Arkansas
NICK’S BEST BET: Under 44
CFB Select 