Free Pick | NCAA | Thursday | Oct. 15

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#114 UAB +5.5 over East Carolina 6:30 PM CT

East Carolina has won seven in a row in this series but there has been a long gap since the last regular meetings between these teams. The Pirates held off Rice last week in the AAC opener, now with wins in three straight games since starting 0-2. This is a critical juncture in the season for a 3-3 UAB squad with last week’s result a setback after back-to-back wins, losing by 25 at Memphis. UAB is quietly 3-0 at home including an AAC win over Navy and historically Birmingham has provided home underdog success with a 31-19-2 ATS mark since 1999, including 22 S/U upsets. East Carolina’s two FBS wins this season came against Old Dominion and Rice, teams that are a combined 3-9 and the Pirates had modest scores in both games. Three turnovers aided things getting out of hand for the Blazers last week against a tough Memphis squad that has one of the best offenses in the conference. East Carolina has improved with Miami transfer Emory Williams taking over at quarterback but he has drawn a favorable path in the schedule and this will be his first road start.