Oddsmakers Predict Rebels in Close Contest

After a few days of waiting, most oddsmakers have put out odds for the Battle for the Golden Egg, and they feel that Ole Miss will squeak by Mississippi State Thursday night in Starkville. However, looking at the money line, a Bulldog win over the Rebels would not be that surprising.

All of the oddsmakers listed at ESPN.com show the Rebels as three-point favorites over the Bulldogs, except for Bovada, which shows Mississippi State as a 3-point.  This is interesting because it runs counter to Bovada's money line on the game.  On the Bovada site, no odds are listed as of yet for the game, so this may be an error on ESPN's part (and really...who would be shocked if they had Mississippi State and Ole Miss confused again).

While the Bulldogs come into the game as underdogs, the payouts on the money line show that a Mississippi State win would not be too shocking.  Right now a bet of $150 would be required to win $100 on an Ole Miss victory while a $100 bet on a Mississippi State win would net winnings of $130.

To put it in perspective, Alabama currently sits as a 10.5 or 11-point favorite, and a bet of $420 would be required to win $100 from an Alabama win.  A look at most money lines for this week show that oddsmakers feel this will be a close contest that either side could win.  Only a few games, such as Miami/Pittsburgh have money lines similar to Mississippi State/Ole Miss.

If you have some spare benjamins sitting around, you may one to place one on New Mexico and one on Miami (OH).  Should the Redhawks win, that bet would give you $8500.  If the Lobos win, that bet would pay out  $11,000.  Of course, you could also flush that money down the toilet and have about the same chance of seeing that sort of payout.

***REMEMBER, NOTHING HERE SHOULD BE SEEN AS ACTUAL BETTING ADVICE***