The Oddsmakers' Take: Petrino's Firing and How It Impacts Odds and Expectations

There are many facets to the Bobby Petrino firing, and the immediate and long-term impact this will have on the Arkansas program. Recruiting and overall program stability are major questions that Arkansas AD Jeff Long will look to address with the hiring of his next head coach.

In the immediate future, however, Arkansas still has a football team capable of winning many games in 2012.

No one assesses the performance, or potential performance, more than the sports books situated around the country and online. Their livelihood is at stake, and these betting lines, which garner hundreds of millions in betting dollars per year, serve as more than just fodder for degenerates.

Some of the smartest football minds in the world are situated at a desk, tucked away in a back room in a Las Vegas bunker, and their credibility needs no further boosting. These gentlemen know their stuff, and it’s scary how often they are right in setting point spreads and predicting outcomes.

The fallout of Bobby Petrino’s dismissal has prompted sports books to state their case on the Hogs’ odds and expectations in 2012.

Just how much was Bobby Petrino worth to this team?

Not much, according to those that post the numbers.

Covers.com, one of the most informed sports betting websites on the web, talked with Sportsbook.com, who said they were not making any changes to future betting lines on Arkansas.

The Hogs are currently listed at 15/1 to win the 2012-2013 BCS National Championship and are one of the top selections on the board. They will remain that way, even with the loss of their influential head coach.

The fact that they are choosing to leave that number as is isn’t necessarily shocking. The money that comes in—or, more appropriate for this scenario, doesn’t come in—will decide how the public views Arkansas without its offensive guru, and if that number moves.

Caesars Palace justified this lack of movement, stating that, "Unless T. Wilson & K. Davis were on back of bike w/ [Petrino], we're holding pat," according to Covers.com via Twitter. This means that they, too, are still quite high on Arkansas based on the personnel in place.

The loss of Petrino, however, is one that might have an impact on Arkansas lines in the future. Petrino didn’t just win a lot of games in recent years. He also had the ability of paying out to those that backed him.

His career college coaching record against the spread is an absurd 60-38-3, according to Covers.com, which is absolutely staggering. Those that have backed Bobby and his offenses capable of posting big numbers have done quite well for themselves at the window.

Posting a good number against the spread doesn’t tell the whole story as a coach, and certainly not as an individual, but it does show the amount of football firepower Arkansas will have to replace.

If the bookmakers are right, however, the combination of Tyler Wilson and (hopefully) a healthy Knile Davis will be enough to overcome his loss.

These are only educated guesses from educated men, however, and we’ll know just how Arkansas performs without Petrino this fall.