Aggies -2.5 Favorites vs. Penn State Hoping to Go 5-0 Against Them

College Station is home to one of the most storied schools in college football and basketball, the Texas A&M Aggies.  They are set to face off against Penn State in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament.  Betting is available courtesy of our friends at BetOnline, who offer their preview for this game below.

Texas A&M will be making their first appearance in the Big Dance since 2018.

The Aggies are a -2.5 favorite versus Penn State Thursday night.

"We've improved a lot," Aggies leading scorer Wade Taylor IV said. "Coach preaches to us every day about being resilient, staying together through the ups and downs. We've had a lot of ups and downs through these last 65 days. I'm excited for what the future holds. We've been through a lot. We can carry that on for momentum going into the next game, too."

Texas A&M is 4-0 all-time against Penn State. The schools haven't met since 2017.

"The next season we're going into can be four days or it can be three and a half weeks," the Aggies' Williams said. "So I think our identity has evolved and morphed into a lot of good things over the last couple of months."

Three Reasons to Be Optimistic Over Aggies 2023 Football Prospects

After last year's disastrous showing, Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies are eager to turn the page and redeem themselves, writes Kevin McQuire of Athlon Sports.  The Aggies were listed with 50-1 odds to win the College Football Playoff Championship early on.

They offer up three reasons to be hopeful coming into the 2023 season.

First, McQuire points out that there is simply too much talent to fail again.

Stocked recruiting classes have flooded the locker room with plenty of talent across the board, and the Aggies could have a more talented roster than the majority of teams appearing on its schedule that are not Alabama or LSU. The Aggies do have some difficult road games at Miami and Tennessee to navigate through, but Jimbo Fisher's team had some growing pains to go through last season. That could pay off in a big way.

Two more reasons: Bobby Petrino will take over the offense.

Petrino has a long, successful history as an offensive coach, and that should inject some new life into the Texas A&M offense.

And history is on the Aggies side.  It's been about five decades since Texas A&M has had two consecutive losing seasons in college football.

- Ean Lamb, Gambling911.com