Florida football: Early betting trends favoring the Gators against UT

Florida football is getting ready to host the No. 11 Tennessee Volunteers this weekend where they’ll be home underdogs on Saturday night in primetime.

It’s very hard to argue against the Gators being the dogs in this game, even if Tennessee looked a little sloppy last week at times against Austin Peay.

But as the week goes on and money starts to come in, it’s clear that the Gators aren’t as far behind the Vols as many people originally thought.

The betting trends so far this week are encouraging for Florida fans as we get closer to game day.

Florida football: Stay on the sharp side

As I’m writing this on Tuesday evening, it’s no surprise that the majority of tickets are on Tennessee’s side. The Vols currently have 67% of slips coming in favor of them to cover the spread.

But guess what? Over the past few days, the line has gone down from UT being -7.5 to -6.5. That means that a large amount of money is coming in on Florida on fewer slips.

That’s the side you want to be on as a sports bettor.

Another encouraging trend in this game is that the total is starting to go down. At the time I’m writing this the over/under currently sits at 58.5, which is down from 59.5 a few days ago, and got as low as 57.5.

A lower-scoring game favors the Gators who want to run the ball and control the clock, rather than sling it all over the field.

And if you want to get really specific, Tennessee has gone from -258 to -250 on the money line in the last 48 hours. But that doesn’t mean a whole lot.

With the spread and total moving down in tandem, the game projects to be played the way that the Gators want it to be. Slow-paced, run the ball, and let your defense make stops.

We’ll have a more in-depth betting preview later in the week, but for right now, the trends are favoring the Gators in this big-time matchup.