College Football Preview: Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Tennessee Volunteers
One of Saturday’s top college football games will feature the Alabama Crimson Tide taking on the Tennessee Volunteers. This game will take place at Neyland Stadium, with the 3:30 PM Eastern Time kickoff schedule.
Both teams come in with the same record, 5 – 1, and they know they cannot afford another loss, which could potentially knock them out of the college football playoffs.
Oddsmakers at Bookmaker have listed the Alabama Crimson Tide as 3-point road favorites. The total on the scheme seems a little high at 57 1/2 points.
Alabama Crimson Tide Preview
As we said, the Alabama Crimson Tide came into this game with a 5 – 1 record straight up and 3 – 3 at the spread. They played over the posted number in five of their six games this year. The Crimson Tide are 4-0 at home, but I’ve gone just 1 – 1 on the road.
Their only loss of the year came at the hands of Vanderbilt by a score of 40 – 35. The Crimson Tide were 23-point favorites in that game and lost an embarrassing game outright. That was a letdown spot, as the Crimson Tide had just beaten the number one team in the nation, the Georgia Bulldogs, the previous week by a score of 41 – 34 as 2-point underdogs.
They will now look to flex their muscles and show they are a legitimate powerhouse in the SEC with a win over the Tennessee volunteers.
Tennessee Volunteers Preview
The Volunteers may feel slightly disrespected here because the oddsmakers have made them underdogs at home. That line is a little suspect. It basically says that if this game was played in Alabama, the Crimson Tide would be 6-point favorites, which is kind of a smack in the face to Tennessee.
Tennessee’s only loss on the season came two weeks ago when they dropped a 19 – 14 matchup on the road to Arkansas. There are some misleading statistics when you look at Tennessee’s Tennessee home record. They are 3 – 0, and I’ve seen a lot of articles stating that they’ve won at home this year by a combined score of 163 – 20.
That is true, but we have to consider that they beat Chattanooga 69 – 3 and Kent State 71 – 0. Their only competitive game at home this year was against Florida last week, where they won 23 – 17.
Spooky Express Free Play
Our free play from this game will be on Alabama, but we won’t take the points. We’re going to take them on the money line -150.
Looking at the straight-up numbers, Alabama has beat Tennessee 9 out of the last 10 games, and they’re just one of those teams that has the others’ numbers. We think it’s wise in this particular spot to play the money line and not risk getting beat by the point spread.