The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Kinda related, Auburn seems to give UGA and Bama problems when the teams appear to be mismatched in talent.  The latter is a rivalry game of some note, and the one with UGA is a rivalry game for those fans, not as much of one nationally of course.  A lot of teams have one principle rival, OSU-UM etc.  I think of UGA's rivals as being Auburn/UF/Tenn.... Tech, in about equal proportions for the first three.  

And yes, Texas is favored over OU again this year by about 8 points, which means they will win about 70% of the time based on history.  So, it's not by any means near certain.

Hy, if Saturday taught us anything, it's that even a huge favorite can be upset at any time.  So buck up, camper!

Last time Ole Miss came to town, I didn't give LSU much chance of winning that one either.  For a quarter and a half I was right, with the Rebs jumping out to a 17-3 lead, before everything changed and the Tigers went on to outscore them 42-3 from there.  So I've been wrong about this game before.

Of course, that was largely due to a player on each side of the ball who is no longer with the team.  Don't know where the unexpected magic could come from this year, but there's always Hope!*




*she's a recurring character in the SEC Shorts videos.  

I wonder if betting the "dog" consistently is a winning approach.

Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I read an article in Playboy about betting on the NFL. (Yes, I looked at the pictures too.)
First of all, said the article, don't bet on college football because it's too unpredictable.
It also said the betting on home dogs in the NFL would win more often than not.
But the Earth has made many trips around the Sun since then.

Nobody "rushed" out to hire Elko.  Rumors were swirling hard that we were hiring Mike Stoops.  I think once the fan reaction was so bleh they pulled the plug on that, kinda like Leach to UTenn a few years ago.  

Elko was a known commodity here, he was Jimbo's DC for his first 3-4 years, he left two years ago to take over Duke and has been solid there.  

I like Elko a lot, it's been sharply noticed how much better the team has played since he took over from Jimbo.  The speculation is that Jimbo has been simply been checked out since the end of the 2020 season, about the time we gave him a blank check for 10 years.  

I'm liking the hire so far, we do best IMO with the non-flashy coaches who are defensively minded, who we haven't had since RC was unceremoniously fired after the 2002 season.  And, Elko brought in some nice offensive coaches as well.  The one area that is vastly improved is the OL.  Our previous OL, Steve Addazzio, was considered horrible by many fans.  The OL before that was well regarded, I can't recall his name or why he left but it's no secret we couldn't keep a QB healthy under center for 3 straight years.  

I think it might have been Jim Turner, who was also the OL coach under Sherman here and coached in the NFL.  We also lost our S&C coach back to OU about that time (2021).  

There is a very solid relationship between point spreads and odds of the underdog winning.  My link no longer works though.  Obviously, if someone could beat the "odds" and the vig, they'd keep is quiet and just do it.  House money etc.

An 8 point dog wins about 30% of the time.

I think college is easier to bet because they're more prone to letdown games.  I don't have the data, but I bet there's many fewer big favorites covering noon games, at least in the SEC.  And there may really be something to the 2-timezone thing in the newfangled Big Ten.  

Agree about Addazio.