FSU football: Bettors believe in the Noles against Gators?

FSU football opened as big betting under dogs against the Florida Gators. Do bettors have more faith in the Noles than we thought?

I wrote earlier this week why FSU football could cover the spread against the Florida Gators. I didn’t think the probability of it happening was great, but there are scenarios in play where I could see it happening.

It mostly depends on the FSU offense to keep the Noles in the game as they have struggled against good defenses all year.

Florida would qualify as a good defense and their defensive line will likely give the FSU offensive line fits all day.

The Gators opened as -17.5 betting favorites with about 73 percent of the bets being on Florida to cover the spread.

What’s interesting is over the past few days the line remains at -17.5 or -18 in some spots according to the Action Network. However, now only 53 percent of the bets are on Florida to cover the spread.

That’s a 27 percent decrease in bets on Florida yet the line remains the same or has increased half a point. What that tells me is a good number of smaller bets have come in on the Noles, but likely some larger bets have come in on the Gators to offset them

Oddsmakers want the same amount of money on each side as much as possible. They’ll move the line in one direction or another depending on how much money is being bet on one side.

If those bets on FSU football were larger the line would have decreased to -16.5 or so. It’s a rivalry game the Noles were a worse team last year and played the Gators tough until the second half.

If Kendal Briles can find some rhythm offensively, they could find some success as long as they don’t turn the ball over.

The only problem with that is they’ve turned the ball over in most of their games this year. It’ll be interesting to watch what the final line will be in this one. Something tells me most of the money will swing in the direction of the Gators.