Michigan Football faces an uphill battle in its regular season final next weekend, odd producers say.
The following Saturday, December 19 (7pm, ESPN) at Circa Sports in Las Vegas, the Wolverines opened with 14 points in a cross-section match against Big Ten West rival Iowa.
Circa sports sports books at Las Vegas casinos Circa, The T and Golden Gate, and first released the opening lines for college football games next weekend.
Fan Duel, who runs the sports book at the Motor City Casino-Hotel in Detroit, currently lists Michigan as 13 1/2-point behind.
If it had, and had played the game, it would have been the biggest point against Michigan this season. The Wolverines are 2-4 on the field this season, and 1-5 against the spread, which is 0-2 behind.
Michigan are 1-1 up against teams coming from the Big Ten West this season, beating Minnesota 49-24 at the start of the season and dropping the losing game to Wisconsin 49-11 three weeks later. But the Wolverines have not played for the past two weeks because games against Maryland and the state of Ohio have been canceled because the team has exploded COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Iowa won 6-2 and six straight games, most recently a 28-7 win over Wisconsin. The Hockey ranked 16th in the college football playoff poll last week.
Against the spread, Iowa played 4-3-1, but 3-1 at Kinnick Stadium, the site of next weekend’s match. Michigan leads the all-time series 42-15-4, but have lost their last four games in Iowa until 2009.