Early Vegas football betting lines not kind to South Carolina

The early odds from Las Vegas are not in favor of the Gamecocks.

The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has South Carolina at 300-to-1 odds to win the SEC. No other team’s odds are lower than 100-to-1.

The Golden Nugget released its Games of the Year last week. USC is featured twice, a 9.5 point underdog to Mississippi State and 20.5 point underdog to Clemson. The line vs. the Tigers is the largest of any of the 100 games featured by the Golden Nugget.

Will Muschamp, South Carolina’s first-year head football coach, has said a team goal every year will be to get to Atlanta and the SEC Championship game. He said during a spring speaking tour stop that he believes “we’ve got good enough players here to win the (SEC) East.”

Muschamp is taking over a 3-9 football team. He did not say his team was going to win the SEC East or even should win the East, and he placed a lot of sensible caveats on his statement.

“If I didn’t believe it, I wouldn’t say it,” Muschamp said recently during an SEC teleconference. “There are a lot of ‘ifs’ involved in that, but I do believe it and I’ve talked to our players about it. We need to go find a way to get it done.”

Earlier this summer, the Gamecocks went from favorites to underdogs in the season opener at Vanderbilt.

The SEC Football Media Days event is this week in Hoover, Ala. Muschamp speaks Thursday along with USC student-athletes Marquavius Lewis, Mason Zandi and Deebo Samuel. The media’s predicted order of finish for SEC East and West teams will be released Thursday afternoon at the conclusion of Media Days.

This story was originally published July 11, 2016 at 1:13 PM.