This has been a strange year for college football, with some perennial contenders looking really bad, or struggling with bad competition. That’s led to some pretty crazy opening lines in week seven that we couldn’t have predicted a month ago. Among them are these two eye-poppers, via OddsShark:
Michigan and Washington are favored to beat Michigan State and Oregon, just like we all predicted
These spreads would have seemed impossible a month ago.
- Michigan is favored by 7 against Michigan State.
- Washington is favored by 2 against Oregon.
It’s not that those lines don’t make sense. It’s just incredibly surprising given what we’ve known about those rivalries in recent years, and even what we thought we knew before the season. Michigan State is still ranked higher than Michigan in the polls, but the Wolverines look like College Football Playoff contenders after three consecutive shutouts, and it’s not difficult to see why Vegas is high on Jim Harbaugh’s team in this game. Washington might not be great, but the Huskies beat USC last week, while Oregon looks like a complete disaster, most recently losing to Washington State in overtime. Washington hasn’t won a game against Oregon in 12 years, but it’s not crazy to think this is the year that streak ends.
Elsewhere in college football, there are favorites that would have made sense early this year, but point spreads that are much closer than anyone could have imagined:
- Alabama is favored by 3 over Texas A&M.
- LSU is favored by 6.5 over Florida.
- South Carolina is favored by 7 over Vanderbilt.
- Oklahoma is favored by 4 over Kansas State.
- Ole Miss is favored by 10.5 over Memphis.
College football is about to get a lot crazier — or a lot clearer — this week.
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