No. 5 Texas A&M has a chance to put the finishing touches on what has been an excellent regular season when it travels to Knoxville on Saturday afternoon.
The Aggies have an outside shot at making the College Football Playoff, but they would need some breaks to go their way on Saturday. They are currently listed as 33/1 longshots to win the title this season, trailing Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame in the betting market.
Texas A&M will certainly be looking to make an impression on the committee in this game. Tennessee is coming off a 42-17 win over Vanderbilt as a 15-point favorite, but oddsmakers are not putting much stock into that victory.
“We opened at Texas A&M -14 and have moved down to -13.5 with the market,” Westgate SuperBook risk manager Edgar Federico said. “We could be off a half-point, but for the most part we are not going to be more than a point off. The total we opened at 52 and we have it at 51 right now. Just moving with the market.”
Tennessee has now covered the spread in back-to-back games. A pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns against Florida allowed the Vols to get inside of the 18-point spread.
Bettors have not been interested in pressing their luck with Tennessee at the SuperBook early in the week, however.
“We only have four bets on this game. No bets on Tennessee plus the points,” Federico said. “All four bets are on Texas A&M. Nothing big either, just small action.”
Texas A&M has covered the spread in four of its last six games. The defensive effort has been outstanding, leading to eight of the Aggies’ last 12 games going ‘under’ the betting total.
They have gone ‘under’ in six of their last eight road games. Saturday could be a similar outcome, as Tennessee has gone ‘under’ in each of its last five home games.
The Vols have covered at a 6-3 clip in their last nine games as underdogs. They covered the 7.5-point spread in a wild game between these programs in 2016. Texas A&M has covered in all five of its games as road favorite under Jimbo Fisher.
