TCU suffers first defeat — against the spread, anyway
The last of the unbeatens in college football has fallen.
Don’t worry, Florida State fans. Your team is still safe as long as you-know-who can avoid swiping seafood or loudly quoting popular Internet memes in the cafeteria for a few months.
And Mississippi State got a goal-line stand and an interception in the end zone in the closing minutes — with the help of some questionable play-calling by Arkansas — to narrowly keep a zero in the loss column of the official standings.
No, we’re talking strictly from a betting perspective.
Texas Christian entered Saturday as the only team in college football that had covered the point spread in every game this season.
While the Horned Frogs rallied for a dramatic 31-30 win over West Virginia on the field to keep their hopes alive for a precious berth into the first college football playoff, TCU failed to cover as 3½-point favorites.
The oddsmakers were well-aware of TCU’s spread success this season, so that was built into the line. Bettors were hoping to ride the trend for at least another week, though.
“We shade (the number) a little bit toward TCU, especially with (quarterback Trevone) Boykin the way he’s been playing and the total as high as it was (69),” Golden Nugget sports book director Tony Miller said. “They still bet TCU. Everything was on TCU. We were very tempted to go to 4 in that game. West Virginia was big for us.”
The house needed the Mountaineers after a difficult morning.
Miller said bettors won big with Wisconsin and Iowa coming through with easy victories early in the day.
The players gave it back with some of the later results, and, let’s face it, probably dumped some of their winnings into the Breeders’ Cup races as well.
“It was a bad start this morning, but we came on late,” Miller said. “We dug out of the hole a bit. We should be a winner, but it won’t be a real big day for us.”
The comeback for the books was stunted by Auburn’s dramatic win at Mississippi.
Bettors favored Auburn, at the opening number of plus-3 and on the money line. That opinion proved correct as the Tigers’ scored a 35-31 road victory.
Mississippi, which closed as a 1-point favorite, suffered its second consecutive loss when Laquon Treadwell was tackled violently at the goal line in the final minutes. The play was originally ruled a go-ahead touchdown, but officials correctly determined on replay that Treadwell had lost the ball as he was yanked backward just before crossing the plane.
The decision dealt a serious blow to the Rebels’ hopes for a national championship, but filled bettors’ pockets with profits. Miller said Auburn money poured across the counter after a small amount of Mississippi action came in early in the week.
Players weren’t as lucky with Notre Dame, always a popular public side.
Miller said the Nugget took a bunch of cash on the Fighting Irish, a two-touchdown favorite over Navy in a prime-time game.
There was talk much of the week that Notre Dame had been wronged by the playoff committee when it was placed at No. 10 in the first official rankings.
For much of Saturday night, the Irish looked as if they might have been given a favor being placed so high.
Notre Dame eventually escaped with a 49-39 victory, but led by three late before a fluky touchdown by quarterback Everett Golson at least saved the day for bettors with the Irish on teasers.
Notre Dame had the ball first-and-goal with less than two minutes remaining and probably should have taken a knee to end the game.
But remember the committee? Coach Brian Kelly certainly must have been thinking about it and how a 10-point win would look a lot better than a 3-point victory when he called for his offense to continue running plays. It could have been a disaster.
Golson dropped the ball in the backfield, ever so momentarily opening the door for a Navy miracle.
Instead, he recovered his fumble and weaved through traffic for a score that may at least give the committee something positive to look at when the Irish are discussed.
Georgia probably played its way out of that discussion with a disastrous defensive performance against Florida.
The Gators, who closed at plus-11½, ran wild over the Bulldogs in Jacksonville, Fla. Florida racked up 418 yards on the ground on the way to a convincing 38-20 upset.
It was enough to make Gators coach Will Muschamp, who was 0-4 against Florida as a player at Georgia and 0-3 as Florida’s coach against the Bulldogs before Saturday, lose his mind.
“I’m happy to win it,” Muschamp said. “It feels a lot better than the other side. I don’t think they’re going to induct me into the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame. I’m on the ballot now.”
What? How long does he think this ballot is going to be?
Even though Bill Snyder has nothing to do with that rivalry, he should get into that Hall of Fame before Muschamp. In fact, the spread-covering machine at the helm of the Kansas State program should be included in any Hall of Fame that exists.
The guy is amazing.
He led the Wildcats, the most heavily wagered team Saturday, according to Sportsbook Spy at Pregame.com, with 83 percent of the spread bets and 91 percent of the money-line action, to a 48-14 win over Oklahoma State.
Kansas State has covered six straight games since beginning the season 0-2 against the spread.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.
