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The Alabama Crimson Tide vs. LSU Tigers college football game was one of the most bet on early in the week. This mid-afternoon Saturday game opened with Alabama as a -2 ½ road favorite. At press time they were listed with odds of -3 ½ at Bookmaker.com
Number 1 Alabama is undefeated so far. LSU fans reveled in the Tigers' win at Alabama last season, the first with Nick Saban as the Tide's coach. It was a high point of LSU's national championship campaign under Saban's successor, Les Miles.
With two losses already this season, LSU's hopes of a repeat national title are very slim. Still, Tigers fans would get enormous satisfaction out of seeing their squad possibly derail Saban's bid to place Alabama in this year's title game.
The hype surrounding what some in south Louisiana are calling "Saban Bowl 2" seems a little unsettling for Miles, who urged his players to "deflect" questions about his predecessor's return to Tiger Stadium and even offered a similar message to fans.
"I encourage them to root for us hard, not necessarily be too pointed at our opponent," Miles said Monday as LSU began preparations for what likely is the biggest game left on its schedule. "Leave our opponent alone, just root hard for LSU."
The good news for Alabama is that the away team has won 6 of the last 10 in this series. The bad news for Alabama is that LSU has won 7 of the last 8 including the last 5 games. LSU was a -6 ½ favorite when they beat Alabama by 7 points last year on the road.
The Crimson Tide are 8-2 ATS in their last 10 road games vs. a team with a winning home record. The Tigers are 3-9-1 ATS in their last 13 conference games.
Gambling911.com's pick on this game is going to have to be on LSU as the +3 ½ home dog based on past historical data and LSU being in a desperate situation here. We are at least counting on a field goal cover here. Only a handful of online sportsbooks had the Crimson Tide as -3 favorites and one or two had them at -4.
Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
