Everyone thought that MSU would be terrible at the start of the year (myself included), but they’ve been pretty dang stout and played a lot of good teams close. Their biggest problem is an unreal strength of schedule — getting ‘Bama, Florida, and LSU, plus Georgia Tech and Houston on the OOC — but they’ve played close and the losses have been very respectable. They’ve kept it close with LSU, Florida, Houston, and Georgia Tech, and considering those teams currently have a combined record of 33-4, I would kind of expect them to do the same with us.

Besides, I think our offensive issues still give the betting class some concerns. 24 points against LSU was good, but it wasn’t a breakout performance, per se, and I still think that they look at us offensively and possibly see that team that scored two touchdowns in three weeks returning.

All in all, I think it’s a pretty fair line based on how things have shaped up this year.

Again, their biggest problem has been an unreal non-conference schedule. Even with that, though, they still have a chance at becoming bowl eligible, and honestly this is a team that would definitely make a bowl if they had been given a cupcake OOC schedule like Ole Miss or Kentucky.

though i’m hesitant to put money on wanstache coached team but their frosh RB is pretty damn good, and ND is terrible just terrible. exactly as i predicted they would be over the summer (i also said weis will be fired after losing @ stanford to close out the season and the only way that looks to go wrong is if he gets the axe before they make that road trip)