Whenever Alabama and Georgia meet on a football field, it’s a big occasion. The games not only come with huge stakes, but also typically with close odds.
The last three meetings have all featured spreads of less than a field goal. This season’s meeting in Tuscaloosa adds to that list. Alabama is the favorite on both FanDuel and DraftKings, although the odds have the game at nearly a coin flip.
Georgia won the SEC championship game 28-7 last December as a 1.5-point favorite, but Alabama has won the last two regular-season meetings, including a 24-21 win at Georgia as a 2.5-point underdog last September. The Bulldogs have been the favorites in the last six meetings of the series, although the spread has been shorter than a touchdown in all of those. The Crimson Tide have won four of those six meetings. Now, the odds are flipped.
Elsewhere in college football’s Week 6, undefeated Nebraska hosts one of the biggest games in Lincoln over the past several years with the No. 7 Indiana Hoosiers coming to town. The defending national champions are 7.5-point favorites on the road for a meeting of undefeated teams.
A more eye-catching point spread in the Big Ten is Penn State favored at home against No. 19 USC. It’s a game of pick your poison: USC hasn’t played well on the road against good teams in the Big Ten, but is Penn State a good team? The Nittany Lions lost to Wisconsin a couple weeks ago and then got routed by Northwestern in the Wildcats’ new stadium. Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley really needs a win.
The only other top-25 matchup of the week is No. 13 Oregon hosting No. 12 UCLA as a double-digit favorite.
It’s also Red River week in Dallas. The No. 1 Texas Longhorns are favored by 8.5 points against Oklahoma, which has struggled on offense so far this season.
Here are the odds for games involving AP Top 25 teams plus some other notable games in Week 6. All games are on Saturday unless otherwise noted. Four AP Top 25 teams are on bye this week: No. 4 Miami, No. 11 Texas Tech, No. 17 Mississippi State and No. 24 SMU.
