2009 College Football Betting: SEC West Conference Preview

2009 College Football Betting - SEC West Conference Preview
SEC West preview courtesy of Alex Smart, A professional sports handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are interested in college football betting this season, be sure to check out all of Alex Smart’s expert betting predictions at Touthouse.com

Alabama Crimson Tide (12-2, 9-5 ATS in 2008, +200 to win SEC West) Alabama may have been the last undefeated team standing last year in college football, but it closed the season with back-to-back losses to Florida and Utah. QB Greg McElroy looks to take the torch from John Parker Wilson, but he’ll have the phenomenal Julio Jones to throw the ball to. Jones caught 58 balls for 924 yards last season, but those numbers should improve this year in HC Nick Saban’s offense.

LSU Tigers (8-5, 3-9 ATS in 2008, +200 to win SEC West) The Tigers may be one of the favorites to win the SEC West this season, but without a legitimate threat at the quarterback position, that task will be difficult. Even worse news in the Bayou is that the schedule is an absolute terror. LSU has to travel to Georgia, Alabama, and Ole Miss, and that’s not even including a home date with Florida on October 10th.

Mississippi Rebels (9-4, 9-3 ATS in 2008, +200 to win SEC West) The Rebs may have the best player in this entire division in QB Jevan Snead. Snead threw for 2,762 yards and 26 touchdowns last season. RB Dexter McCluster has had a fantastic career for Ole Miss, and he should be set for another great year in ’09. The only road games on the schedule are at South Carolina, Vandy, Auburn, and Mississippi State, which makes the Rebels a sexy choice to win this division.

Auburn Tigers (5-7, 2-9 ATS in 2008, +600 to win SEC West) Tommy Tuberville is gone, and the surprise choice as the new HC of Auburn was former Iowa State head man Gene Chizik. He’s got some nice pieces on the offensive side of the ball to work with in QB Kodi Burns and RB Ben Tate, but the defense was absolutely crippled in the offseason. The schedule is manageable to reach a bowl game, but there’s very little hope of competing in the SEC West.

Arkansas Razorbacks (5-7, 5-6 ATS in 2008, +650 to win SEC West) Where have Darren McFadden and Felix Jones gone? The first year in the post-McFadden/Jones era was a disaster for the Razorbacks, as a 2-6 record in conference just isn’t acceptable. However, second year HC Bobby Petrino has high hopes for a rebuilding team this year. This schedule just isn’t conducive to making much noise, as games at Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss, and LSU are all almost certain losses.

Mississippi State Bulldogs (4-8, 4-7 ATS in 2008, +1800 to win SEC West) New HC Dan Mullen will have his work cut out for him to recover from the mess that Sly Croom left behind. This is clearly the least talented team in the division, and though the schedule appears to have a lot of winnable games on it, the bottom line is that the SEC is just too difficult for this team. Give the Dawgs credit though, as they’re going to become the first SEC team to ever travel to play a Sun Belt team when they go to Middle Tennessee State on October 17th.