Bettors Favor Tigers
The 2007-08 college football season will conclude when the Ohio State Buckeye’s and LSU Tigers battle for the BCS Title on Monday. Despite the arguments for a playoff system or the fact many think USC or Georgia are the best in the land, as of now this game is what will decide who is crowned the champion of college football.
Oddsmakers at online sports book Bodog, opened the betting line for the title game with LSU as -6 point spread favorites with an over/under of 50 total. Currently the point spread on this matchup is down to LSU -3.5 and 48 for the side and total due to early “wiseguy action” backing the Ohio State Buckeyes and the under.
With the beating the SEC’s Florida Gators gave the Big 10’s Ohio State in last year’s Championship game and factoring in Ohio State’s 53-day layoff, over 60% of the public money being wagered on this game is on the LSU Tigers according to our College Football Public Betting Information.
Experts agree Ohio State will be coming into this year’s title game more focused and not overwhelmed by their own hype and media coverage. Many agree the Buckeyes matchup better against LSU than they did Florida since the Tigers tend to play closer to a Big 10 style of football. Many people are pointing to the fact this is a “home game” for LSU, but as in their past BCS games, expect 35,000+ Ohio State fans to represent the Big 10 and Ohio State and help offset the fact the game is being played in the Super Dome.
The key matchup to watch in this game will be the front 7 of LSU against the Buckeye’s running back Chris Wells and his 121.9 rushing yards per game. It will be imperative that Wells open up the ground attack to allow Ohio State quarterback Todd Boeckman and his corps of wide receivers to move the ball through the air.
The one matchup we are most excited to focus on will be the return men of both teams as both Ohio States Hartline (punt returns), and LSU’s Holliday (kickoff returns) should add tons of excitement to the special team’s portion of this contest.
We have heard the argument over and over about the SEC dominance over the Big 10. The fact is since 2000, the Big 10 has the edge over the SEC when it comes to head to head bowl matchups. People tend to forget the fact the Big 10 went 2-0 last season against the SEC on New Year’s Day going into the Florida and Ohio State Game. The SEC dominance over the Big 10 in recent years is a myth when looking at the facts as since 1999 in the Capital One/Citrus Bowl which is the main SEC/Big 10 show down, the boys from “up north” have won 7 of the last 10 (including this year’s Michigan win over Florida as double digit underdogs).
You will hear countless times from the TV analysts that Ohio State is 0-8 against the SEC, but the fact is the majority of those losses came under the John Cooper reign. Since coming to Ohio State in 2001 Jim Tressel has went 62-14 with six bowl appearances (including a 2004 win of Les Mile’s Oklahoma State team in Alamo Bowl), including four BCS games, four 10-win seasons, three Big Ten titles and one national championship.
The underdog has won 5 of the last 7 BCS Championship games and we look for Ohio State to come into this game prepared and come up big as a “live underdog” winning outright and shocking the SEC Champion in their own backyard.
Guaranteed picks for this game can be found by clicking here: BCS Championship Game Picks.
by: Staff Writers – Email Us
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