Michigan State football vs. Michigan spread released

The college football season is inching closer, and that means betting lines are coming out. It seems silly for spreads to be released so far in advance, but it does make for some exciting discussions as fans.

Michigan State football found out they were favorites in their season opener against FAU (albeit a lot smaller than I would’ve guessed) and now we just found out what the spread is for the biggest game of the season.

Michigan.

As you can see in the graphic above, the Wolverines have opened as a 20-point favorite over Michigan State. On paper, this seems pretty fair considering they are the reigning national champions and MSU is an average Big Ten team, but I think this line favors Michigan too much.

For starters, I don’t think Michigan will be as good as people think. They’re defense will be stellar once again, but their offense will take a massive step back. I also think Michigan State is severely underrated by the public, and by the time this game rolls around they’ll be clicking on all cylinders. The Spartan’s defense will be serviceable and the offense will be able to score when needed, meaning this game will be much closer than 20 points.

Now I don’t plan on picking Michigan State to win this game, but let me remind you of what happened in this rivalry game in 2020. The Spartans went into Ann Arbor as 21.5-point underdogs and came away with a shocking 27-24 upset win. The spreads are almost identical, so that tells us an upset is theoretically possible.

As the season progresses the spread will surely change. But in all honesty, I’d be shocked if it moved very much at all. Even if I think the line favors Michigan too much, from the public’s perspective I can see why this is a fair line.

Now it’s time to see if Jonathan Smith can do the unthinkable in his first in-state rivalry game just like Mel Tucker did.