Well, we never thought we would be writing this: A rising star of the college football world, both on the field and at sportsbooks, is … the UNLV Running Rebels.
On an expected 5.5 season win total, they're 4-1 and undefeated against the spread, an honor that only belongs to three other teams (Oregon, Oklahoma and Penn State).
They covered as 38-point dogs at Michigan and have put up 40 points in three consecutive games, a first in program history. They've covered five straight games against the spread for the first time in 23 years.
What's more impressive is long time Missouri coach Barry Odom, who took over this year, has been able to rally his team despite losing its leader, quarterback Doug Brumfield after taking hits in the third game of the season. They've plugged in redshirt freshman Jayden Maiava, a local kid who has started the last two games.
This weekend, it's the 49th meeting of the Fremont Cannon in Reno, their rivalry game against Nevada, who has won only 2 of their 17 games under coach Ken Wilson.
UNLV opened as 9.5 point favorites at the SuperBook in Vegas, got bet up to -10 and then brought back down to -9.
“Sharps took Nevada +10 this week so that still drives pricing,” said the SuperBook’s Jeff Sherman. “It’s not like the public would affect the market in this market.”
As of this writing, the Running Rebels are garnering 73% of spread bets for this game, according to Action Network's betting data.
Seeing a "W" next to UNLV has not been a common occurrence before this recent stretch. Heading into the season, UNLV had won 29 games since 2014. Only UMass (19), Kansas (20) and UConn (24) had fewer wins over that span.
UNLV has covered five of its last eight games as double digit favorites since they lost to Howard 43-40. They were 45-point favorites in that game, making it the greatest upset, based on spread difference, in college football history.
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