2005 Auburn Tigers Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Prediction of an Auburn SEC and potential National Championship in 2003 proved to ultimately be one year early. Unfortunately, for many members of the sports handicapping fraternity, the fact that Auburn fell so short of expectations in 2003 had soured a lot of sports bettors who had their bankrolls blown up. Auburn, therefore, was written off as an “underachiever” by many sports betting bloggers before the 2004 season kicked off, which was unfortunate as those with their eyes and minds fully open could see that not only did Auburn have more going for it in 2004, it would be a considerably better value against the odds because of the general public’s distaste. Not only did Auburn fail to live up to the National Championship hype early in 2003, the also failed to beat the sports betting odds in four of their final five games that season, leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of many sports bettors.

Auburn was installed as a 38-point home chalk against lightly regarded Louisiana Monroe in their opener, winning 31-0. After a win and cover at Mississippi State the Tigers pushed in a nice home win against LSU and then failed to cover in a 33-3 win over the Citadel as 46-point home chalks. At this point, Auburn was a quiet 4-0 straight up and 1-2-1 against the odds. Dating back to the end of 2003 the Tigers had just two wins against the odds in their last ten games. A sports handicapping market correction was due and as Auburn traveled to Tennessee to meet the Vols as 2-point dogs, most online sports betting posts were predicting their slaughter in Knoxville. Auburn shocked many in the sports handicapping community with a 34-10 win and, in the process, nuked a lot bankrolls of sports bettors that were riding Tennessee at the top of their lists of football picks.

The big win at Tennessee served as a springboard to a National Championship run by Auburn, who won their next six games both straight up and against the odds. By the time they traveled to Alabama to meet up with the Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl Auburn was no secret to anyone and installed as 10.5-point chalks, holding on for a 21-13 win. Still undefeated straight up, Auburn’s sports handicapping value was shot as they were overpriced as 14.5-point chalks in the SEC Championship game against Tennessee, which they won 38-28. Against a strong up and coming Virginia Tech team in the Sugar Bowl, Auburn escaped with a 16-13 win as 6-point chalks for their third straight loss against the odds.