Late Sharp Action Hitting Northern Illinois-UAB Spread in Boca Raton Bowl

For the past two weeks or so, the line movement for tonight's Boca Raton Bowl has been anything but exciting. Until late last night, the UAB Blazers hadn't budged from a 2.5-point favorite for about 12 days.

Overnight, the Blazers fell to -2, but by the morning they were right back at +2.5.

With the line so close to a key number, surely some NIU bettors — and perhaps the sharper ones — were hoping for +3 before placing their bets. But as game day rolled around with still no sign that books would be granting them a field goal, the question became whether or not those potential sharp bettors would still be willing to pull the trigger.

Late this afternoon, we got our answer.

A Sports Insights Bet Signal was triggered on the Huskies around 3:30 p.m. ET, sending their line down from +2.5 to +1.5, and even +1 at a handful of books.

The move backs up the sharp indications coming from the betting market throughout the past couple of weeks. While UAB has been the more popular pick, drawing 57% of bets, the Blazers have generated only 46% of dollars.

That means bigger bettors — the ones more likely to be sharp — have been leaning toward NIU since lines opened.