With college football games, especially bowl games, comes betting, and the Mississippi State Bulldogs have already opened up as 9.5 point favorites against the Rice Owls in the 55th AutoZone Liberty Bowl according to 5dimes.eu.
Given the way the Owls play defense, this number caught a few Mississippi State fans off guard.
In their three losses, Rice lost by 21 to Texas A&M;, five to Houston, and 12 to North Texas. The Bulldogs would certainly rank somewhere in the middle of this group, perhaps between Texas A&M; and Houston as far as talent levels go.
As the month goes on, it will be interesting to follow this line.
Some other interesting early lines have Alabama as a 17-point favorite against Oklahoma, Florida State as a touchdown to 7.5-point favorite over Auburn, and Notre Dame as the most favored team in the bowl season (18.5 points) against Rutgers.
As far as the rest of the SEC, everyone is a favorite, except South Carolina, a two-point underdog to Wisconsin: Ole Miss (-3.5), Texas A&M; (-13.5), Georgia (-7), LSU (-8), Vanderbilt (-3), Missouri (-3.5).
