Kansas Jayhawks at Southern Miss Golden Eagles, M.M. Roberts Stadium, Hattiesburg, MS
Friday, September 17, 2010, 8:00 pm EST, TV: ESPN
Opening Line: Southern Miss -3
Current Line: Southern Miss -6
Opening Total: 51
Current Total: 51.5
Money Line: USM -245 /Kansas +205 Betting lines taken from Bookmaker Sportsbook who is offering a 25% signup bonus to all new clients.
We are pretty much at the end of the annual parade of conference media days. Each year all of the coaches and national media spend a day or two together telling lies and half-truths to get people to start thinking about college football again. Most of what we hear from the gatherings is pointless – at least from a betting perspective. Once in a while, though, we hear something that could prove to have some value down the road. Here’s a quick gathering of some of the more interesting things that came up in this year’s media days:
Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, and Boise State will all have one thing in common this year – they will be lame ducks in their current conferences as they prepare to move to new, presumably greener pastures for the 2011 season. The amount of conference shuffling wasn’t nearly as much as it had the potential to be, but it’s still far more than we are used to – especially in the major conferences. When 2011 rolls around the Pac-10, Big Ten, and Big 12 are all going to look significantly different next year than they will this year. The Big Ten and Pac-10 will have three new teams between them, and will be split into divisions for the first time. They’ll both likely have conference championship games to worry about for the first time. The Big 12 is moving in the opposite direction – the departure of two teams will likely mean the end of divisions, and will certainly mean the end of the conference championship game.
One of the great things about college football betting is that we can never really know how good teams are, and how strong their conferences are, until the season starts. The turnover of players every year means that young players always play key roles, and we can’t know how they will handle them until they are tested in the heat of battle. Until the first couple of games are history everything we think about the sport is pure speculation. Luckily, speculation is a whole lot of fun. As we sit well under two months form the start of the season here’s how I rank the six major conferences based on their perceived strength:
The Texas Longhorn decided that the Big 12 is the better conference for them. Or maybe they just liked the money. Texas got an invite from the Pac-10 and said thanks – but no, thanks. They effectively stopped the bleeding before it really started. Yes, the Big 12 still lost Nebraska and Colorado, but the Longhorns’ decision kept the rest of the conference intact.
Wow! What a week in college football. Three teams have already announced their moves to a new conference, and more will follow. And it looks like the Big 12 will fall apart in the aftermath of Nebraska’s move.
Pac-10 gives Commissioner Scott authority to pursue expansion
The Pac-10 has given its commissioner Larry Scott the authority to look into adding more schools to the conference. Conference officials concluded Saturday that an expansion is worth looking into, but that adding new teams is not a must.
I am not generally that impressed by the Big 12. The fact that Kansas could win the regular season after being ravaged in the draft last year is partly a credit to their program, and partly a sign of the general weakness of the conference.