The Maryland Terrapins (8-4) play the Purdue Boilermakers (8-5) tonight, Dec. 29 in the 2006 Champs Sports Bowl from Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando, Fla. The game will be televised live nationally in prime time on ESPN with kickoff at 8 p.m. (EST).
Maryland comes into the bowl game after dropping its final game of the regular season, 38-24, to Wake Forest. Despite a 119-yard rushing effort by Keon Lattimore, the Terrapins could not recover from deficits of 21-7 and 28-14 in losing to a Wake Forest team that went on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and its requisite trip to the Orange Bowl. The Terrapins are seeking their third straight bowl victory, an accomplishment that has never occurred at Maryland.
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Purdue tied for fourth in the Big Ten Conference and closed its regular season with a 42-35 defeat at Hawaii. In a fourth-quarter shootout that saw the two teams combine for 43 points in the final period alone, the Rainbows scored on two touchdown passes in the final 4:48 to erase a 35-27 Purdue lead and earn the victory. Purdue won three straight games in early November to earn the eight-win season, winning at Michigan State and at Illinois before beating Indiana at home to post a 5-3 mark in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers are making their ninth bowl appearance under head coach Joe Tiller and the 14th in school history.
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The game is listed at Caesars Palace Sportsbook and Casino in Las Vegas as a PICK while fluctuating offshore as a PICK to -1 favoring Maryland to -1 favoring Purdue. The line has changed twice since the writing of this preview began. One thing that seems to be a constant is the total currently set at 53. According to the betting trend information provided for offshore betting, Maryland is getting 58% of the betting action while 79% of public money likes the OVER on the 53 total.
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