Tuesday Hawkeyes Reading Room

A lot of wise-guy football bettors hit the Las Vegas casino sports books on Mondays, once the betting lines have been posted on college and pro football games have been posted.

Some games don't attract much attention. Some might as well be posted in bright red block letters. Iowa-Ohio State falls into the latter category.

Here's what happened at the M Resort in Las Vegas on Monday:

At 7:24 p.m. (Pacific time) Sunday, the line was posted on Iowa-OSU, and the Buckeyes were made a 13-point favorite.

At 11:52 a.m., the number went up to 13.5. That means someone or ones put enough money on the Buckeyes for the casino to adjust the number to try to get equal betting on both sides. It didn't work.

Three minutes later, the line was adjusted again, to 14.5 points.

Within the next hour, it was pushed up another point, to 15.5.

At 6:07 p.m., the line went up yet another point, to 16.5.

That's 3.5 points in just over six hours. That doesn't happen to just any old game.

The line went up accordingly all over Vegas. It wasn't posted at most casinos until Monday afternoon, and at OSU by 15 points. It was raised to 16 or 16.5 nearly everywhere by Monday evening.

If you want to see how the lines moved on this game at various Vegas resorts, click here.

In less-seedy matters, The Wall Street Journal was plenty bummed that Iowa lost to Northwestern Saturday.

The WSJ clearly had a feature ready on what would have been the 10-0 Hawkeyes, then reworked it for today's edition for a 9-1 Iowa team. Flattering, it is, as you can tell by the article's headline, "Why Iowa is Good for College Football." An excerpt:

What's remarkable about the Iowa program is its relative isolation. The ride to campus in Iowa City cuts through endless farmland. "I mean, a lot of corn on the drive up," says Iowa tight end Tony Moeaki. The lack of population puts the team in a peculiar fix. Other top football schools fill their rosters with scholarship players from their home states-roughly 59% of Florida's recruits the past five years were from Florida, and a whopping 93% of Texas's were from the state, according to Rivals.com. The Hawkeyes have taken only 22% of their recruits over this period from Iowa, which is one of the smaller states to have a major-conference football program.

Here's the lead to Teddy Greenstein's story on Northwestern in Tuesday's Chicago Tribune:

Asked to name their biggest rival, the three Northwestern players at the podium Monday did not hesitate.

Corbin Bryant: "Illinois."

Marshall Thomas: "Illinois."

Sidney Stewart: "Illinois."

What about Iowa? Since former NU coach Gary Barnett openly declared his disdain for the Hawkeyes, the Wildcats ended a 21-game losing streak and have won eight of the last 13 meetings.

"No, we just like beating them," Bryant said, eliciting some chuckles.

Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com is like me in that he hadn't considered Iowa a BCS bowl candidate if it goes 10-2, but has been mildly swayed by others that it isn't impossible. Says Rittenberg at this blog post:

Still, the more I think about it, Iowa, Penn State and maybe even Wisconsin remain in the BCS at-large mix. Ohio State won't have a chance if it suffers a third loss against Iowa.

If Iowa loses to Ohio State but beats Minnesota, it finishes 10-2 with three wins against BCS top 20 teams (Arizona, Penn State and Wisconsin). Plus, the Hawkeyes travel extremely well, and that's what matters most to the bowls.

Michigan cornerback Troy Woolfolk is focused this week. But on Ohio State? Michigan plays Wisconsin this week. It doesn't face the Buckeyes until Nov. 21. But Woolfolk said this to the Detroit Free Press on Monday:

“The main thing I want for our seniors is to beat Ohio Sate, which will result in going to a bowl game. That's the main thing. Wisconsin, I want to beat them, too. But Ohio State, we haven't beaten them in five years. That would be a good accomplishment. As bad as this season is going, it would be redeemed if we beat Ohio State.”

Maybe this is part of Michigan's problem. It doesn't look toward its immediate opponent. At 5-5 after consecutive losses to Big Ten second-division dwellers Illinois and Purdue, the Wolverines are going to Wisconsin to play an 8-2 team that wants to get to 10-2.

Refocus, Woolfolk, refocus!

Back in Columbus, two Ohio State employees claim an OSU building has made them sick.

A previous mice infestation may be to blame. It may not be fair to single out all rodents, but the Minnesota Gophers did play at Ohio State a few weeks ago.