Utah, number 5 in this week's College Football Playoff rankings, opened as a 6.5 point favorite over Oregon at Circa Sports in Las Vegas for the Pac-12 championship game on Friday night.
The Utes picked up the Pac-12 South with a 45-15 route from Colorado as 28-point favorites, and they hope for another big win Friday at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara will earn a bid for the four-man College Football Playoffs. Their chances will largely depend on what happens in other games with conference titles. tilts.
Georgia, at number 4, is the most vulnerable target above the Utes. The Bulldogs opened as a six-pointed underdog for the state of Louisiana in the SEC game on Saturday in Atlanta.
Oklahoma would equal the Utah 12-1 record if both congress champions win. The No. 6 Sooners opened as favorites from 10.5 points above Baylor in the Big 12 title game on Saturday in Arlington, Texas.
The Pac-12 has made two appearances since the structure of the last four began in 2014. The first year, Oregon (-7.5) defeated the state of Florida, 59-20, before losing to the state of Ohio, 42-20, as a six-point favorite. After the 2016 season, Washington (+12.5) lost to Alabama 24-7.
USC is waiting to find out which bowl game it will play in. The Trojan horses performed much better against market expectations. USC (8-4) surpassed the regular seasonal profit projection of seven and went 6-5-1 against the spread (ATS). UCLA (4-8) fell short for its six-win goal and went 4-7-1 ATS.
Other notes
• USC and UCLA returned to college basketball Sunday after disappointing stretching exercises. USC (-1.5) defeated Harvard, 77-62, to finish third in the Orlando Invitational. That ended a four-game non-cover streak for the Trojan horses. UCLA (-22.5) beat the state of San Jose with 93-64. That followed the Bruins finished sixth in the eight-team Maui Invitational last week.
• In the NFL, the Rams opened as 2.5-point home-underdogs for Sunday's rematch against Seattle. Except for major injuries, you don't often see a team getting more points at home than on the road. The Rams closed +1.5 in Seattle on October 3.
Home advantage is usually worth three points in the NFL. That would mean an adjustment of six points from one site to another. Instead of placing 4.5 points on the Colosseum, the rams are a bigger underdog because of a dramatic change in perception. Seattle bore a record of 9-2 in its Monday-evening game with Minnesota. The rams are on the edge of the NFC wild card race 7-5 thanks to poor attack against quality defense.
The chargers (4-8) opened as three-point favorites in Jacksonville, despite losing another heartbreaker Sunday in Denver to drop to 3-7-2 ATS. Jacksonville has struggled heavily in a losing series of four games in which it also lost ATS. The Jaguars missed the market by a combination of 73 points and dropped by a combined 129-47 to Houston, Indianapolis, Tennessee and Tampa Bay.
• In the NBA, the Lakers missed the 20.5-point spread in Sunday's 114-100 home loss against the Dallas Mavericks as favorites of 6.5 points. That dropped the Lakers (17-3) to 2-5 ATS in their last seven games. The Lakers play three road races in four days from Tuesday in Denver.
The Clippers will start a six-game trip on Friday against the Eastern Conference favorite Milwaukee. The Clippers are 1-6 ATS playing their last seven away.
• In the NHL, the ducks and kings enter Monday's direct encounter with 11 wins in 27 games. Each scored a recent win over the previously glowing New York Islanders. Each surrounded that win with losses for other teams.
Gamblers who support the kings each game would be three units lower than the money line, but more than eight units on the puck line, which uses a target spread of 1.5 at different prices. Those behind the Ducks would beat nearly five units against money lines, but only one on the puck line.
Fogle writes for VSiN.com.
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