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Early Betting Line for Texas-Texas A&M Shows Clear Favorite

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | Last updated Nov 24, 2024 12:46 PM ET

Week 13 of the college football season as about as chaotic and crazy as you could have ever imagined, with seven top-25 teams losing, and four of those teams losing to unranked teams.

It was a week that completely shook up the College Football Playoff race, with at-large bidders falling by the wayside while others moved up in line to get to the new expanded playoff.

One of the teams that lost to an unranked team was the No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies, who fell to the Auburn Tigers in quadruple overtime late on Saturday night. While the loss would be detrimental to their at-large bid odds, they still have a chance to get to the playoffs by way of the SEC Championship Game.

So in essence, their game against the Texas Longhorns in Week 14 is virtually a playoff game. Win and you're into the conference title game, or lose and you are destined for a middling bowl game.

Looking at the early betting lines for that game, it's clear that sportsbooks think there is an early favorite.

The Longhorns are favored by 7.5 points, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, which is a pretty big number considering this game will be played at Kyle Field in College Station. But with the play of Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns as of late, it's fair to expect Texas to come out on top.

What will be interesting to see, though, is how Ewers plays after suffering an ankle injury in Week 13 against the Kentucky Wildcats. Head coach Steve Sarkisian said after the game that Ewers will "be fine" but they did alter the game plan on Saturday to protect their QB a bit more.

The last time this game between Longhorns and Aggies was played came all the way back in 2011, with the burnt orange coming out on top, 27-25. Now that Texas has joined the SEC, we finally get this rivalry back on the schedule, and the first iteration of it could not come with higher stakes on the line.

ESPN's "College GameDay" will be in town for the occasion, and kick-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST, aired on ABC.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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