The UNLV Rebels and Baylor Bears find themselves on the wrong side of history. UNLV holds the title for worst loss in college football history, according to the oddsmakers, and Baylor is not too far behind.
By now we all know the Howard Bison’s win as 45-point underdogs over the Rebels marked the largest upset in college football history. The late result overshadowed Baylor’s shock 48-45 loss to Liberty as 33.5-point favorites.
Just your average college football Saturday with two of the largest upsets ever according to the oddsmakers. No biggie.
Data courtesy of BetLabsSports.com and SportsInsights.com. *Denotes following game was a bowl game.
You couldn’t blame any bettor who’d be gun shy about pulling the trigger backing either UNLV or Baylor any time soon. If the college football bettors are hesitant about wagering on these two teams, how are the coaches supposed to rebuild the confidence of their players?
“The season is not over,” UNLV coach Tony Sanchez told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “At the end of the day, this is a week-to-week business. It’s my job to get everybody back on track and going.
Sanchez added, “The only thing that’s going to fix it is going out and winning the game next week.”
The two upsets had us thinking at Covers, how well do college football teams off embarrassing losses –like those suffered by Baylor and UNLV – bounce back in their next games?
The teams in the table above went 9-10 straight up and 8-10-1 against the spread in their games the following week. But our list doesn’t include a number of games when big-name programs suffered humiliated losses to FCS schools.
The 2007 Michigan team that lost to Appalachian State was not on our list because most books didn’t have odds on that game. The Wolverines lost in their next game by 32 points to Oregon despite being 8-point favorites.
There also was no line when Stanford lost to UC-Davis in 2005 or when Colorado fell against Montana State in 2007. Both teams end up losing the following week.
The Bears are 17.5-point favorites against the visiting Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners this weekend.
