Friday Gambling Rundown

The American League's four postseason teams and the ranked BYU Cougars will play the most notable contests on the Friday schedule. Here's your Daily Sports Roundup.

The Gridiron Spotlight

How good are the Mountain West's BYU Cougars? Good enough to be undefeated and ranked No. 8 in the country. Brigham Young's defense has been rock solid over their last two games, which they won by a combined score of 103-0 over UCLA and Wyoming. That doesn't bode well for Utah State, who are 1-3 overall and pegged as 28-point home underdogs in this Friday night matchup. The total is sitting at 59.5 points.

The other game on the college gridiron on Friday is a Big East/Conference USA battle between Cincinnati and Marshall. The Bearcats are 3-1 on the year, beating Eastern Kentucky, Miami (OH), and Akron, and getting thumped 52-26 by Oklahoma. Marshall sits at 3-2, but they were also pounded by a ranked opponent (51-14, by Wisconsin). Cincinnati is listed as a 3.5-point road favorite in this game, with the total at 51.5 points.

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Other Notable Events

The two National League playoff series are taking Friday off, so the baseball spotlight will be centered on the second games of the ChiSox/Rays and BoSox/Angels series.

In Tampa Bay it will be Scott Kazmir (12-8, 3.49 ERA) pitching at home against Mark Buehrle (15-12, 3.79 ERA). Kazmir is coming off a loss against the Tigers in which he gave up four earned runs over five innings of work. However, the Rays are 7-3 in the lefthander's last 10 trips to the mound. Buehrle picked up a clutch win vs. the Indians last time out, holding them to one earned run on nine hits over seven innings. The lefthander has surrendered three or fewer earned runs in each of his last six outings.

Out on the west coast it will be Los Angeles' Ervin Santana (16-7, 3.49 ERA) taking on Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka (18-3, 2.90 ERA). Santana will be looking to forget his last trip to the mound, in which he was knocked around for eight earned runs over just 5 2-3 innings of work. Still, the Angels have won five of the righthander's last seven outings. Dice-K has allowed more than three earned runs only once in his past 10 starts, which allowed him to drop his ERA under 3.00. Boston is 8-2 in his last 10 trips to the mound.

The Rest of the Schedule

The second game of the WNBA Finals goes on Friday night, with San Antonio once again hosting Detroit. The Shock cruised to a 77-69 win as a 5-point road underdog in Game 1 on Wednesday night, with Katie Smith picking up 25 points and nine rebounds. Taj McWilliams-Franklin added 24 points in the win, while Sophia Young poured in a team-high 21 points for the Silver Stars. Game 3 will be in Detroit on Sunday afternoon.

Also, it's B.C. (-10) at Toronto and Calgary (-3.5) at Saskatchewan in Friday CFL action.

News from the Wire

J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell both returned to the lineup for the Red Sox on Wednesday night . . . Titans QB Vince Young (knee) has returned to limited practice this week, but Kerry Collins still has a grip on the team's starting gig . . . Ravens RB Willis McGahee (ribs) has also been limited in practice this week, meaning LeRon McClain is likely to get a lot of work on Sunday . . . the Canucks designated G Roberto Luongo as captain.

A Peek at the Future

Oklahoma gets an outing as the top-ranked team in college football on Saturday afternoon when they play on the road against Baylor as 27-point favorites. Other Top 10 teams in action on Saturday include Kentucky at No. 2 Alabama (-16.5), No. 4 Missouri (-10.5) at Nebraska, No. 5 Texas (-13.5) at Colorado, No. 6 Penn State (-13) at Purdue, No. 7 Texas Tech (-7.5) at Kansas State, and also No. 23 Oregon at No. 9 USC (-16.5).

Who Won the Palin-Biden Debate?

It lacked the fireworks of Bill O'Reilly and Barney Frank, and had fewer mentions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the television ratings say America was watching.

Our sports betting expert and the nation's top political handicapper Joe Duffy tells us, "Biden won insofar as showing who is more ready today to be President if called upon." However, the Grandmaster sports handicapper said that Sarah Palin won as far as helping the ticket.

"The talking heads get so caught up in themselves and forget that Joe six-pack, especially those currently undecided, vote on other factors. From Jack Kennedy to Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, they had a lot of ethereal factors in their favor: charismatic, likeable among others. Palin's likeability was her biggest asset, but was canceled out by concerns about her competence because of stumbles in recent interviews.

Last night she won back the confidence of the American voters, putting her intangible benefits back into play."

The ultimate measuring stick, the political betting odds show little movement either way insofar as who won the VP debate. The Intrade odds moved in Obama's favor during the debate, but leveled off afterwards.