WSU Cougars open as 11.5-point underdog to Auburn

If you had to take a guess as to what game the Washington St. Cougars would be the smallest underdogs, which would it be? Their visit to the Southland and the USC Trojans? Perhaps their clash with the Oregon St. Beavers at Martin Stadium? What about that one team they came back against down nearly three touchdowns? Their name is escaping me. Something about a dog or whatever.

It's probably one of the last teams you'd expect. In fact, the gents behind the betting counter at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas believe the Auburn Tigers should be favored by 11.5 points over WSU. That's actually the closest line for the Cougs among those that have been released so far.

Here's a look at the rest of them (thanks to Anderson for actually sifting through the site and listing these).

We'll go over the Apple Cup line in a separate post because that one will likely cause some significant consternation amongst everyone. It's a bit surprising that the Tigers are favored by about a touchdown over the Cougs (home teams usually get a field goal-ish by default) even though both teams finished with an identical record last season. The Tigers are still in the SEC and this game is still, unless it's been moved in which case please tell me so I can go, at Auburn. I thought the USC line was a little high until the aforementioned Anderson brought back to earth on Twitter (away game after an away game, no starting quarterback yet). Other than that, nothing really jumps out to me as off the mark.

So, if you had to bet the mortgage on one of these, which would it be?

Note: The line against the Idaho Vandals likely won't come out until the week of the game and we may never get one against Southern Utah.