LAS VEGAS – Two teams ranked in the top 4 of the Don Best/Linemakers College Football Power Ratings face their biggest tests of the season this Saturday, and bettors have been wagering against them in early action at The Wynn. The unbeaten Alabama Crimson Tide and Oklahoma Sooners remain top contenders to win the 2015 national championship, yet both are being faded by the public as they open conference play.
The second-ranked Crimson Tide host the 16th-ranked Florida Gators in a key SEC matchup, before the fourth-ranked Sooners visit the 37th-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers later in a Big 12 battle. Alabama opened -19 and was bet all the way down to -14.5, before being nudged back you to 15; Oklahoma moved from -13.5 to -7.5.
“I know Alabama hasn’t looked that great – it’s hard to say really,” Johnny Avello, The Wynn’s Executive Director of Race & Sports Operations, told The Linemakers on Sporting News this week. “How much do you get up for some of these games? The West Virginia game they looked ok, first game of the year. Florida Atlantic and Southern Miss, they beat them both easily. But it’s hard to say how good the Alabama team is, we’ll find out this week.
“The Florida team last week struggled a little bit with Kentucky, (and needed) a couple overtimes to win that game. I think they’re a better team (than last season), but I don’t think they’re at Alabama’s caliber. I think you’ll see this game go back up. This game will probably close 17.”
Meanwhile, the Sooners have failed to cover the spread in the last three meetings with the Mountaineers, including a 50-49 win in Morgantown two years ago as 10.5-point favorites. Last year, West Virginia scored only one touchdown but still managed to cover in a 16-7 loss at Norman as a 21-point underdog. Oklahoma is coming off a 34-10 home win over Tennessee, covering as a 21-point favorite, while the Mountaineers pulled off a 40-37 upset of Maryland on the road as 3-point underdogs.
“They had that game in hand early, and they let Maryland back in the game – they almost lost that game,” Avello said of West Virginia. “I don’t think that Oklahoma team over the last two years is the same. This is a different Oklahoma team, a real good Oklahoma team. ... Their defense is solid.”
Read Matty Simo’s complete opening line report right here at The Linemakers on Sporting News.