Michigan State to make the College Football Playoff: 100-1<\/strong><\/h3>\nYou\u2019re better off keeping your money on the sidelines with this as well. But it\u2019s not nearly as difficult to imagine as winning the national title. The 2021 Michigan State team had a similar preseason win total, and that team would have made this version of the expanded playoff. For teams in the Big Ten and SEC, nine wins should<\/em> be enough to get into the field. It\u2019s also not guaranteed.<\/p>\nThe problem for this MSU team is that it’ll probably need to beat one of Ohio State, Oregon, or Michigan to have a shot. That, of course, assumes they win at least eight or nine other games on their schedule. I\u2019m not positive nine wins with losses to those three teams mentioned would be enough. The Spartans would be left with a home win over Iowa and a road victory at Maryland or Boston College as their most impressive. That\u2019s probably not enough.<\/p>\n
The most likely path to the playoff is a 10-win season with a victory over Michigan. Keep in mind, right now, Michigan State football is a 24-point underdog in that game. The other is avoiding the Big Ten title game. A 9-3 or 10-2 MSU team might make the field — 9-4 or 10-3 does not. I wouldn\u2019t play this, and I\u2019d advise anyone reading to do the same.<\/p>\n
Michigan State to win the Big Ten: 200-1<\/strong><\/h3>\nThis belongs in the same \u201ckeep dreaming\u201d category as the national championship wager. To get to Indianapolis, the Spartans are going to have to win a minimum of 10 games. While unlikely, it\u2019s not impossible. But for MSU to win the conference, they\u2019d need to replicate their performance against one of the Big Ten elites from earlier in the season. I could see MSU beating Michigan or Ohio State once, but I can’t see them taking down that caliber of team twice. Take 2021 as an example. MSU beat Michigan for their \u201csignature victory\u201d. Were you at all confident they could do it again at the end of the season? That\u2019s what you\u2019re betting on here. It\u2019s a pass for me.<\/p>\n
Michigan State to make the Big Ten championship: 90-1<\/strong><\/h3>\nNot that it really matters, but I\u2019m not sure why these odds are shorter than the playoff odds. To me, it\u2019s far more likely that Michigan State finishes 9-3 and backs into a weak field than it is that they win 10 or 11 games to make the Big Ten title game. As stated previously, in an 18-team league, I think 10 wins is the minimum in order to make it to Indy. In any case, this is an extremely unlikely outcome for MSU in 2024. The odds reflect that. Pass.<\/p>\n
Michigan State season wins: O\/U 5<\/strong><\/p>\nThe only realistic decision many bettors will have to make with Michigan State football this season is their preseason win total. This number has floated between 5 and 5.5 for most of the summer. The even VIG on both sides of the number indicate the books are projecting a 5-7 season for MSU.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ve ever gone into a season looking to endorse the under on Michigan State\u2019s season win total. After Aidan Chiles\u2019 comments on Thursday, I\u2019m not going to make 2024 a first.<\/p>\n
Listen, my memory of Michigan State football goes back to about the year 2000. In the 23 years I\u2019ve been watching the Spartans, I can confidently say 2023 was the most unenjoyable season of my life. The off-field situation was embarrassing. The on-field product was non-competitive. With all of that said, that team still managed to win four games. They handed<\/em> two other games away against Iowa and Rutgers.<\/p>\nA school like Michigan State, with its resources and baseline level of talent, can\u2019t be any worse than they were last year. I simply don\u2019t buy the idea that an overhauled roster, new coaching staff, and easier schedule is only worth one additional win.<\/p>\n
Yes, you still have to play Michigan and Ohio State. You\u2019re replacing Penn State with a game at Oregon. But after leading at Iowa in the fourth quarter, you now get them at home off a bye. You replace a game against national runner-up Washington with Boston College in Bill O\u2019Brien\u2019s first year. You also get three of the projected worst five teams in the conference in Purdue, Indiana, and Illinois.<\/p>\n
Couple that with games you\u2019ll be favored in against FAU and Prairie View, and I think MSU at least gets to five wins pretty easily. The game at Maryland in September and the finale against Rutgers at home probably determines whether they can get to six.<\/p>\n
But at five, I think the worst thing that happens is a push. We\u2019re going over. We\u2019re standing with QB1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do we take the over?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":18996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[191,189,504],"class_list":["post-18919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-michigan-state-football","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}