Georgia football is a little over a week away from their annual matchup against Florida in Jacksonville. This game is typically one of the biggest of the season for Georgia, but the Gators struggles have significantly impacted the national attention this matchup will receive.
Vegas oddsmakers have just released their opening spread for this game, and as everyone would assume Georgia is predicted to win. But they aren't favored by as many points as fans might expect to the point where this spread doesn't make much sense.
Georgia vs Florida opening spread
As of 5:00 pm EST on Tuesday, Oct. 21, Georgia is favored by 7.5 points over Florida according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The over-under for this game is set at 50.5 points as well. ESPN is a big believer in Georgia as well as they give the Bulldogs an 80.1 percent chance to win this game.
Georgia and Florida are known for playing a lot of close matchups over the years, so 7.5 points is quite a lot most years. But this season it doesn’t make much sense.
Florida is a miserable 3-4 this season and just fired head coach Billy Napier earlier this week. Georgia on the other hand is flying high after beating No. 5 Ole Miss on Saturday to improve to 6-1 on the season. The Bulldogs are also the No. 5 team in the country while Florida would be lucky to be included in the top 50 if the AP Poll listed that many teams.
These two teams are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum this season, so it is quite surprising to see Georgia only favored by a touchdown.
Why is Vegas favoring Georgia by so little?
Even though it does seem like Georgia should be favored by more, there are some things in Florida’s favor. The first is that Georgia really struggled defending Florida quarterback DJ Lagway last year. Lagway hasn’t been as good this season, but he does have some history of playing well against UGA in his career.
Florida also has won two of their last three games which includes a win over Texas. So even though their overall record isn’t great, they have found some success recently.
There also is a weird phenomenon that sometimes occurs after a head coach is fired. This will occassionally motivate a team to start playing much better to the point where they string some wins together. That is exactly what happened with UCLA earlier this season, and the same thing could happen with Florida.
But Vegas does need to explain why Georgia is favored by so little, because a vast majority of signs point to UGA beating Florida with ease next week.