Michigan State Football: 5 reasons the Spartans can beat Michigan

By Adam Zdroik | Oct 5, 2017

EAST LANSING, MI - OCTOBER 25: Marcus Rush #44 of the Michigan State Spartans and teammate Connor Kruse #54 celebrate a win over the Michigan Wolverines and carry off the Paul Paul Bunyan trophy at Spartan Stadium on October 25 , 2014 in East Lansing, Michigan. The Spartans defeated the Wolverines 35-11 (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) /

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EAST LANSING, MI – OCTOBER 25: Marcus Rush #44 of the Michigan State Spartans and teammate Connor Kruse #54 celebrate a win over the Michigan Wolverines and carry off the Paul Paul Bunyan trophy at Spartan Stadium on October 25 , 2014 in East Lansing, Michigan. The Spartans defeated the Wolverines 35-11 (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) /

4. Spread history

Look no further than the spread history for this game to see which team the sharps are betting. No matter the game, oddsmakers and sharps know that the Michigan fan base will bet the Wolverines early and that’s what happened here. The line opened at -11 and -12 at some places and quickly went up to -14 after the “Walmart” fans piled on the number.

However, once the line hit the key total of 14 (two touchdowns), the sharps attacked the spread and went all in on the Spartans. If you’re behind on betting lingo, sharps are the professional bettors using numbers, while the squares, in this situation, are mostly ones from the Michigan fan base.

For any MSU fan, and any realistic Michigan fan, it was fairly obvious that 14 points was too big of a spread for this game. The Wolverines’ offense remains in flux and hard to trust, while MSU’s only non-cover came at the hands of Notre Dame when turnovers killed any hope of winning. In addition to the Spartans winning seven of the last nine meetings, they’ve covered the last nine.

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