By Chris Marler
Weeks 12 and 13 in the SEC are traditionally the least fun, and most mocked, weekend of the year for the league. Perhaps there is no better example of arguments for and against nine game scheduling than this week’s SEC games.
This weekend’s schedule is like people watching at Wal-Mart because you can see one of everything.
We’ve got some old, heated rivalries like LSU-Florida and Texas-Arkansas. We have multiple ranked matchups like Missouri-South Carolina and a top ten showdown between Georgia and Tennessee. And since it’s mid-November, we also get Cupcake Week for some teams playing Group of Five and FCS opponents like Alabama who is playing mighty Mercer–again.
There are eight games but only six have a point spread since most Las Vegas sportsbooks don’t release lines for games involving FCS teams. Underdogs in the SEC this season are 32-15-1 against the spread, which is the best record of any conference in the country. Road underdogs are 16-5-1 this season in the SEC, which is the best record for road underdogs in the league since 1990.
Here’s a look at the opening lines for each game in the SEC this Saturday:
Texas -13.5 at Arkansas
Louisiana Monroe at Auburn -24
LSU -4.5 at Florida
Missouri at South Carolina -12.5
Tennessee at Georgia -9
New Mexico State at Texas A&M -39.5
We will dive more into the lines, line movement, and best bets later in the week. But for now, my only take away – find someone who believes in you as much as Las Vegas continues to believe in Auburn.
