Hurricanes favored over Pitt, FIU underdogs at Western Kentucky
Bettors don’t love the University of Miami this Saturday against Pitt. Nobody loves FIU at defending Conference USA champion Western Kentucky Saturday.
That’s the message the betting lines sent Sunday and early Monday.
According to VegasInsider.com’s consensus of Las Vegas sports books, the 4-4 Hurricanes opened a 6.5-point favorite over 5-3 Pittsburgh despite a losing streak that reached four games in Saturday’s 30-27 heart-shredding loss at Notre Dame. UM’s record against the spread directly parallels its record in the standings -- 4-0 in the first four games, 0-4 in the last four. Pitt’s 3-4-1 against the spread, but won it’s last two against the betting line.
Perhaps that’s why early bettors quickly jumped on Pitt so much that the line for Saturday’s game at Hard Rock Stadium dropped to 3.5 points by Sunday evening, a week’s worth of movement in a few hours. Pitt’s 3-4-1 against the
Meanwhile, FIU (3-6, 3-2 in CUSA) obviously impressed neither the books nor the bettors by trading offense evenly with 17.5-point favorite Middle Tennessee State Saturday. FIU lost the 42-35 shootout when Middle came up with the defensive play of the game, a touchdown interception return with 1:22 left.
Middle’s gotten votes in the USA Today/Amway Coaches Top 25 poll. FIU’s 3-2 against the spread since swapping Rons at head coach – firing Ron Turner, lifting defensive coordinator Ron Cooper to interim head coach. Western Kentucky’s 3-6 against the spread this season.
All that didn’t keep the Vegas sports books from dropping an even bigger blowout line on FIU’s Saturday game at Western Kentucky (6-3, 4-1 in CUSA) in c, 25 points. Then, bettors insulted the Panthers even more by getting their money down on Western enough to move the line to 26.5 points.
Maybe they’re influenced by Western’s three-game winning streak on the scoreboard or, like Pitt, two-game winning streak against the spread. Or that a better Western team quarterbacked by Dolphins third-stringer Brandon Doughty annihilating a very injured FIU 63-7 in the 2015 season finale.
This story was originally published October 31, 2016 at 10:37 AM with the headline "Hurricanes favored over Pitt, FIU underdogs at Western Kentucky."