re: Bama opens as 7 pt favorite over LSU

To put a % on lines like this, since 1997, underdogs of 3.5-7 points have won outright 35% of the time. I'm sure that percentage is lower for dogs of 5-7 points than it is for dogs 3.5 points.

A bunch of y'all have good points, but you can't really look at 1 specific area. I'm pretty sure there are different strategies for setting lines at different books and different games. The notion that Vegas always tries to get 50/50 money is misleading. I think they only do that for HUGE games. Take the Super Bowl for example....they don't want to take a side because they stand a chance to lose a shite ton of money if they lose because sooooo much money is bet on that game. But, they definitely do take sides in some games.

The Utah USC game was brought up. IMO Vegas took a side in that one and knew/thought USC had a great chance of covering. I think they wanted more money on Utah and made USC a favorite to get public money on them.

I'm not an expert on this stuff, so I could be wrong. Anyways, Alabama being a 7 point favorite is hardly the end of the world, but I'd take that over the opposite an day of the week. Vegas probably isn't picking a side here, but it's nice to know that they aren't scared of Alabama sitting there as a TD favorite.