Florida International and Toledo off on a tropical getaway to play in today's Bahamas Bowl. Which tropical getaway are they heading to, pray tell? Turks and Caicos.
Nah, you guessed it — the Bahamas.
Since they're playing in a popular vacation spot, one would imagine that weather would not be an issue. However, they'd be dead wrong.
The story of the whole game may just be the weather.
Don't expect a hurricane to sweep on through. In fact, it should be dry with temperatures hovering around 80 degrees. Nice and balmy.
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However, the wind speeds are off the charts. With less than four hours until kickoff, the forecast is calling for average breezes of 25-26 mph. Gusts of over 40 mph are also expected, according to Weather.com.
Teams don't want to attempt field goals in one of those gusts, I reckon.
With such ridiculous winds expected, the over/under has dropped like crazy.
Since this is a bowl game, the opening total of 66.5 was posted way back on Dec. 3. By Dec. 10, it was up to 68.5. Monday, however, folks caught wind of the forecast (wind pun), driving it down to 59.5.
On Thursday, Florida International quarterback James Morgan was surprisingly ruled out of today's game due to a sore throwing arm, kicking the total down to the current number of 57.
So is this a Bahamas thing? Is it always windy as the dickens down there? I wouldn't know because I've never been there, but Bet Labs knows.
The wind speed in the four other games Bet Labs has on file ranged between eight and 13 mph, so this is just a wee bit more.
Historically, unders in games with average wind speeds of 20+ mph have cashed at a 63.5% rate in nearly 110 regular and postseason games since 2005.
The under has gone 11-5 in games in which the total dropped at least five points from open to close.
