Some major college football games each week can draw more betting action than a given NFL Sunday game. That's not breaking news. But what's happening at Caesars Sportsbook for Saturday night's Pac-12 matchup between No. 7 USC and fellow unbeaten Oregon State'is almost unprecedented for the amount of action on the Beavers, who opened at +13.5 but are down to +6 in one of the school's biggest non-Civil War games in years.
As of this writing, the Oregon State sprea d has taken more action than 29 of the 32 NFL Week 3 spread sides. The overall spread for this matchup has also garnered more bets than 14 NFL games and more than twice as much action as any other Week 4 college football spread. The total also has taken massive Over action and jumped from an open of 68 to 71, the highest in the country. USC ranks No. 7 nationally in scoring at 50.7 points per game and Oregon State is 13th at 45.7 PPG.
“We went first to market on about six other games along with USC-Oregon State, and those ones haven't moved drastically like this one,” said Joey Feazel, lead college football trader at Caesars Sportsbook. “I just really don't get this move. We have two teams that have vastly different skill. All offseason we were wondering if USC was the real deal or not, and they truly look like the real deal. They've both played Fresno State — Oregon State arguably should have lost that game and Fresno took zero chance in that US C game. In order for Oregon State to stay in this they're going to have to play defense, and they've haven't really shown they can in their first three games. I don't think they want to get into a shootout with this USC team.”
Fresno State hosted Oregon State in Week 2 and led 32-29 in the final seconds only to lose 35-32 on a 2-yard Jack Colletto TD run as time expired. Fresno was dominated last week at USC, 45-17.