Football is a way of life in the Southeastern Conference. After two weeks of watching others play, the SEC kicked off their 2020 schedule on Saturday.
Alabama is the #2 team in the country, and they played as so. The Crimson Tide beat the Missouri Tigers by a score of 38 to 19. Georgia and Florida are also ranked 4th and 5th in the nation respectively and each got off to 1-0 starts. Georgia won 37-10 at Arkansas and Florida dominated Ole Miss 51-35.
Returning national champion LSU is 6th in the nation, but won’t be next week. The Tigers fell 44-34 to Mississippi State, marking a great debut for new , but they had some trouble in the opening week. They lost to Mississippi State 44 to 34, marking a great debut for new Bulldogs coach Mike Leach.
The sole matchup of ranked SEC teams during the week was #23 Kentucky visiting #8 Auburn. The Tigers prevailed, prevailed 29-10 after outscoring UK 14-0 in the 4th quarter.
Texas A&M had a closer one than expected in their home opener against Vanderbilt. The 10th ranked Aggies only won by a score of 17-12 and were up by a strange score of 7-5 at halftime. #16 Tennessee also prevailed in their first game, albeit in a close 31-27 win over South Carolina. The Vols held the Gamecocks to just 89 yards rushing on 35 attempts.
Betting the SEC
With SEC football back, that meant plenty of betting action on these teams. Many sportsbooks around the country saw a noticeable uptake in handle due solely to the SEC returning to play.
Mississippi is one of those states that will see a boost on SEC football betting as they are one of the few parts of the South that has legal sports betting. Keith Hardy, sportsbook manager for Ameristar Casino told WJTV that SEC football brings in more bets than all other sports.
“We take in more bets on Ole Miss, State, LSU & Alabama then we do on all the other conferences combined” said Hardy.
He was even concerned that he could lose his job if the COVID-19 pandemic caused the SEC not to play football.
LSU Upset Costing One Bettor Big
The LSU loss is one of the big stories out of the first week of SEC play. Many didn’t expect the Tigers to lose possibly at all this season, let alone in week one. The Tigers were over two TD favorites at home heading into their 10 point loss to Mississippi State.
K.J. Costello was great for Mississippi State, throwing for 623 yards and 5 TD. One bettor in particular was probably not a fan of Costello’s day, as Yahoo Sportsbook tweeted a wager that didn’t end the way the fan wanted. It was a $100,000 parlay that included:
Baylor -825
Alabama -5000
Georgia -3700
Boston College -1100
LSU -650
Every other team won their game, except for LSU. The bet would have cashed out at $47,844. This is just one upset in the SEC, but there will undoubtedly be many more in this strange season.