Before any games in the Saturday slate could kick off yesterday, Ohio State already found itself as a 24-point favorite over the Iowa Hawkeyes a week ahead of the meeting between the teams.
Despite the Buckeyes ultimately finishing the day with a 38-7 primetime win over Michigan State on the road and Iowa sitting out on a scheduled bye, the line has already fallen by at least a field goal across multiple books. DraftKings — first to publish a spread — currently requires a 21-point cover from the Buckeyes, while FanDuel offers a narrowly shallower number of 20.5 points.
If those figures hold to close, the spread would serve as the smallest projected margin of victory in an Ohio State game thus far into the 2024 season. The Buckeyes closed as 23.5-point favorites over the Spartans yesterday after not witnessing any lines lower than 37.5 points in their favor across the team's first three games. Consequently, OSU at the moment owns a 2-2 record against the spread this year.
As for the total, oddsmakers offered an initial projection of 42.5 points between the teams that has yet to budge. After overs hit in all of Ohio State's 2024 nonconference games, the Buckeyes finally saw an under cash in one of their contests this season when the tally between themselves and MSU fell 3.5 points short of the line.
Iowa has also achieved a 2-2 record against the spread so far this year and most recently covered as three-point favorites over Minnesota in a 31-14 victory away from home. The Hawkeyes have somewhat shockingly seen overs take shape in all four of their games this season after earning a reputation for low-scoring slop-fests of late under the direction of head coach Kirk Ferentz. During the 2022-23 seasons, an under hit in 19 of Iowa's 25 regular season games, including a streak of eight in a row from October to December a year ago. This occurred despite the Hawkeyes facing projected totals set by bookies as low as 26 points in some extreme circumstances.
Ohio State's last meeting with Iowa saw the Buckeyes cover a 30-point spread in a 54-10 victory at home during the 2022 season while also achieving a 50-point total by themselves. In 14 total games against the Hawkeyes since 1995, OSU has failed to cover the spread five times. Prior to the result nearly two years ago, Ohio State had not covered a spread outright while facing Iowa since 2006 during Troy Smith's Heisman Trophy campaign. Six overs have manifested opposite three unders across the last nine games dating back to the 2003 season.
The Buckeyes will return to Columbus to play their first game of October and will host the Hawkeyes at 3:30 p.m. ET for a CBS viewing audience next weekend.
Were heading back to the Horseshoe for a B1G TIME showdown on the banks of the Olentangy!
— CBS Sports College Football (@CBSSportsCFB) September 23, 2024
Watch @HawkeyeFootball at @OhioStateFB on Oct. 5 at 3:30 PM ET on @CBS and @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/ssbkVbFzjM
