This is Rice's lone September home game and I expect the Owls to perform well. After losing to Texas A&M and Notre Dame on the road, the Owls not only finally get to play at home but step way down in class. Rice has covered seven of its past 10 home contests. Rice is 5-2 ATS as home chalk. The Owls, by the way, outgained Texas A&M and had five more first downs than the Aggies.

I respect Old Dominion's offense, but the Monarchs are new to Conference USA moving up to Division I level. Rice has some rebuilding, but the Owls won the league title last year earned a bowl bid for the second consecutive year. There's a certain confidence level that goes with that.

It raises a red flag about Old Dominion that the Monarchs struggled to beat Eastern Michigan, a terrible MAC team, last week.