It’s been an interesting season already for Michigan State football.
The Spartans got off to a hot 3-0 start, but there were signs of shortcomings that have since come to life against Youngstown State and USC. The defense looked fantastic in the opener, but it’s been the offense carrying the load for the past three weeks. If things don’t improve, Joe Rossi could be in danger of losing his job — there should already be discussions.
Aidan Chiles, however, might be one of the most improved players in the country, throwing nine touchdown passes to just one interception through four games. Last year, he had seven picks in his first four. New quarterbacks coach Jon Boyer has done a great job with the junior quarterback.
Despite the 3-1 start and a relatively favorable schedule remaining (no Ohio State and hosting Michigan and Penn State), Vegas isn’t very high on the Spartans.
Actually, Vegas sort of hates Michigan State’s chances to make noise.
In an era when sports betting has taken center stage, of course odds are going to be talked about all season. Every week, I post about the opening odds for the following game, and I recently posted about Chiles’ Heisman Trophy odds. But how about Big Ten title odds?
Surely a 3-1 team has some decent odds to compete for a Big Ten title, right?
Wrong.
According to DraftKings, Michigan State has the worst odds to win the Big Ten title this season, tied with teams like Wisconsin, Northwestern, UCLA, Purdue, and Rutgers at +30000.
If you bet $1 on Michigan State to win the Big Ten, you’d bring home $3,000. It won’t happen, but the Spartans shouldn’t be on the same level as a struggling Wisconsin team that could soon lose its head coach, a Northwestern team that has been awful this year, a UCLA team that hasn’t won a single game, and a Rutgers team that’s 0-2 in conference play already.
A win at Nebraska would change things.