Opening Line: Indiana Heavily Favored in Season Opener Against Florida International

Indiana football is a 24.5-point favorite over Florida International in its first game under head coach Curt Cignetti.

Indiana's Donaven McCulley (1) celebrates his touchdown with Andison Coby (0) during the spring game at Memorial Stadium on Thursday, April 18, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Oddsmakers give Indiana a strong chance to start the Curt Cignetti era with a win.

Indiana is a 24.5-point favorite over Florida International, and the over/under is set at 50.5 points, according to the FanDuel Sportsbook. Indiana's moneyline odds are minus-3500, and Florida International is plus-1280 on the moneyline.

Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind., and the game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network. To find out what channel the game will be on based on your TV provider and zip code, check out the BTN GameFinder.

Florida International enters its third season under coach Mike MacIntyre. The Golden Panthers went 4-8 in each of his first two seasons and closed the 2023 season on a 1-7 skid. FanDuel has set Florida International's win total at over/under 4.5 wins with plus-12000 odds to win Conference USA.

Indiana's win total is set at over/under 5.5 wins, and FanDuel gives the Hoosiers plus-20000 odds to win the Big Ten, the12th best odds in the 18-team conference.

Indiana went 3-9 in 2023, which signaled the end of Tom Allen's seven-year tenure as head coach. The Hoosiers went 7-5 against the spread last season, capped off by covering a 6.5-point spread in a 35-31 loss at Purdue.

Close games like that became a recurring theme last season. Indiana lost five games by nine points or fewer, and it secured two wins by six points or fewer. The outliers were losses to Ohio State, Maryland, Michigan and Rutgers and its win over Indiana State.

Cignetti led James Madison to an 11-1 record in the 2023 regular season, which included five one-score victories and a three-point overtime loss. While oddsmakers predict Indiana to win by multiple touchdowns, end-of-game execution in close contests continues to be a major focus for Cignetti.

"I think that's what we throw all our time and efforts into," Cignetti said during fall camp. "I've got a philosophy, the assistant coaches preach the philosophy. We have a way of doing things. We have a way we play the game, so that at the end of the game in those moments we can play our best football."

"It's all about 11 guys doing what they're supposed to do, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. So they've got to have confidence and belief, be able to compartmentalize, put the last play behind with total focus on this play and then do it again and again and again, right. So we haven't done anything yet. We haven't even run out of the tunnel for our first game, right. But in the past, we've been really good in those situations and I expect us to be really good again."

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