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After opening at -3, the Oregon-Auburn line has dropped to -2 in favor of the Tigers late Sunday night. This 2011 BCS Championship game goes off Monday night at 8:30 pm EST. It marks the end of the 2010/2011 College Football season.
Both teams owned the top spots in the College Football rankings since late October.
"Our football team has been probably one of the most resilient groups of young men I've seen in 25 years of doing this," Auburn coach Gene Chizik said.
"We're not happy with just going to it, we wanna go and win it now," Ducks wideout Jeff Maehl said. "We put too much hard work and time into it to not go there and play well."
Gamblers were leaning heavy towards Auburn in terms of the spread at a 70 percent clip while Oregon was getting heavier money line action with around the same percentage. An outright win for the Ducks would pay out $11 for every $10 bet.
The Scouts Edge at ESPN.com was predicting a Tigers victory by 5 points.
Auburn enters this game as the more battle-tested team, with six wins over top 25 teams compared to just one for Oregon, their analysis points out. They also cite Auburn quarterback Cam Newton as having a much greater edge.
It won't surprise us to see Newton put on a performance reminiscent of Vince Young's transcendent game against USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl.
BetUS.com analysts suggested that sports bettors should focus more on the total in this game, which happens to be a ridiculously high 74 points. Needless-to-say, nearly 85 percent of those betting the total were on the UNDER.
"Might be 60 to 55, something like that," South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier originally predicted the final score to be.
The Tigers averaged 42.7 points per game during the 2010 regular season. The Ducks averaged 47.3.
“The oddsmakers are just begging you to take that over because these two teams are so high octane on offense,” noted Tim Furious, BetUS.com’s resident sports handicapper extraordinaire.
“Let’s put things in perspective to that regard, because I think defense will have just as much of an impact on this game as the offenses led by Newton and James. Auburn’s defense allowed 24.5 points per game with their highest point total against coming in a 64-43 win over Arkansas.”
Furious also believes that Auburn will come through but cautioned gamblers.
“Oregon is a team unlike anything Auburn has faced this season. While LaMichael James gets all the headlines, Darron Thomas has been terrific, throwing for 2,518 yards, 28 touchdowns and just 7 picks. He added 492 rushing yards on the ground along with five scores. While Auburn focuses on James, Thomas will be deployed to do as much damage any way he can.”
- Ean Lamb, Gambling911.com
