The Alabama Crimson Tide continues its NCAA football betting dominance heading as a heavy favorite into a week 4 game versus the Kentucky Wildcats. These are the online sportsbook odds for the game on Saturday, October 1st at Bryant–Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa:
Kentucky +34½ (-110) +8500
Alabama -34½ (-110) -23000
The Roll Tide shut out the Kent State Golden Flashes 48-0 in week 3. Bama lost its top running back Damien Harris in the first quarter to injury, and Bo Scarbrough played sparingly after suffering a tight bruise also in the first. But UA’s roster is pretty deep, so head coach Nick Saban simply reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out freshmen RBs Joshua Jacobs and B.J. Emmons.
Jacobs ran for 97 yards on 11 carries and scored the first two TDs of his career, while Emmons had 51 yards on eight carries. The game against Kent State was so lopsided that many fans left the stadium at halftime, when Alabama was ahead 41-0. But don’t feel too bad about the Golden Flashes; they got a cool $1.5 million out of the deal.
It goes without saying that Damien Harris’s injury will not give Kentucky any NCAA football betting advantage to speak of. However, the Wildcats do have their own answer to the Tide’s running game in the form of Stanley ‘Boom’ Williams and Benny Snell Jr. Williams ran for 123 yards on 15 carries with one TD on a 43-yard run, and Snell recorded 73 yards on 16 carries and scored the go-ahead touchdown in Kentucky’s 17-10 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks.
The Wildcats’ defense also stepped up, limiting South Carolina to 3 of 13 on third-down conversions and sacking Gamecocks QB Brandon McIlwain four times. Kentucky came back from its largest halftime deficit and improved its record to 2-2.
As a matter of fact, the Wildcats are on a bit of a roll, winning two straight match-ups after losing their first two regular season games. The two consecutive wins have given a bit more stability to head coach Mark Stoops position, but this current state of affairs may not last long; more specifically, it may not last past next Saturday. The Crimson Tide are the top ranked college football program in the country, have not lost a game in more than a year, and seem pretty much unstoppable on their way to a second National Championship.
As with most Bama games, the NCAA football betting are not really about whether they will win but by how much. UA is 4-0 against the spread in their previous 4 home games, 8-3 against the spread in their past 11 games, and 7-3 against the spread after a win. The Wildcats are 1-4 against the spread after a win, 2-10 against the spread in their past 12 games, and 1-6 against the spread versus a team with a winning record. The visiting team has covered the point spread in the last five encounters between Alabama and Kentucky.