Las Vegas has history of getting Carolina-Clemson game right
ESPN.com sports gaming writer David Purdum joined us this week to talk about the South Carolina-Clemson game. The Tigers are a 14-point favorite in the 115th renewal of this series.
Las Vegas has been pretty consistent on this game since the summer hasn’t it?
In July, the Westgate Superbook put up a bunch of early lines, and they put it up as Clemson 13.5 so it’s been very, very steady. They had a good feel for this matchup way back in July. The last couple years this was a 20-plus point spread. I think we talked earlier about how we thought Clemson may have expanded the gap between these two programs but not really. South Carolina has closed the gap a little bit.
What is the history of the line this week?
The Wynn went up on Sunday at South Carolina plus-14. They took a bet on the Gamecocks and moved it down to 13.5, but every other book in Vegas has Clemson minus-14. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wynn moves back to 14 just to get even with the market.
How has South Carolina performed as a double-digit underdog?
This is going to be the 12th time since 1997 that South Carolina has been a double-digit home underdog. That’s overall, not just against Clemson. They haven’t been great in those games straight up. They’ve only pulled two upsets, two of 11, but they have played closer than the spread predicted. They are 8-3 against the number in those games so they have exceeded expectations but they have not pulled a lot of upsets. However, the last time they were was last year against Tennessee and they won that, so maybe they can take some confidence from that.
What’s the history of this rivalry and who covers?
It’s pretty even. The last 20 games, in fact, South Carolina has covered the spread 10 times and Clemson has covered the spread 10 times. Ten of the games have gone over the total, nine of the games have gone under the total with one push. It’s been pretty evenly played in terms of the point spread and over-under.
This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Las Vegas has history of getting Carolina-Clemson game right."