The Illinois Fighting Illini will travel to Iowa City, Iowa to face the 16^th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday afternoon in a battle of two Big Ten West rivals with kickoff scheduled for 3:30 PM ET in week 12 of the college football season and the game will air on Fox Sports 1.

Illinois enters this game with a record of 5-5 and has a record of 3-4 in the Big Ten, however, they are on a two-game winning streak and have won three of their last four games including a 48-45 overtime win at home against the Indiana Hoosiers last week and are in 2^nd place in the Big Ten West, trailing the Iowa Hawkeyes by two games. The Fighting Illini will need to win one of their next two games if they are going to make a bowl game for the 2^nd season in a row. The scoring offense and scoring defense has been below-average this season as they enter the game allowing 29.3 points per game while averaging 23.8 points per game and things won’t be any easier on Saturday afternoon when they face the 3^rd best scoring defense in college football when they travel to face the Iowa Hawkeyes.

With a win in the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday afternoon, the Iowa Hawkeyes will win the Big Ten West Division and will be playing in the Big Ten Championship game for the 2^nd time in the last three seasons. The Hawkeyes enter this game with a record of 8-2 and a record of 5-2 in Big Ten Conference play which puts them in 1^st place in the Big Ten West and are on a two-game winning streak following a 22-0 shutout win at home against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights last Saturday. The success Iowa has had this season can be attributed to their scoring defense which is allowing the 3^rd fewest points per game this season with an average of 12.3 points per game. However, their scoring offense has been one of the worst in the Big Ten as they are averaging 18.8 points per game which is well below the national average of 27.96 points per game.

BookMaker has the Iowa Hawkeyes listed as 3-point favorites at home against the Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday afternoon in week 12 of the college football season. Iowa has won eight of the last ten and two of the last three meetings while going 6-4 ATS in the last ten and 2-1 ATS in the last three games in the series. The Illinois Fighting Illini are 2-8 ATS overall, 2-2 ATS on the road, 2-3 ATS as an underdog, and 2-5 ATS in conference games this season while the Iowa Hawkeyes are 5-4-1 ATS overall, 3-2-1 ATS at home, 4-3-1 ATS as a favorite, and 3-3-1 ATS in conference games on the year.

Iowa has dominated the series against Illinois as they have won eight of the last ten meetings while going 6-4 ATS in the last ten and 2-1 ATS in the last three matchups. The Fighting Illini have been one of the worst teams at covering the spread this season in college football as they enter this game with a record of 2-8 ATS and are 2-5 ATS in conference games. Lay the points with the Iowa Hawkeyes in this Big Ten matchup in week 12 of the college football season.