2009 CFB Preview: Big East

The Big East should be a wide open conference this year, with any of six teams having a legitimate shot to take the conference title. The only teams seemingly out of the mix are Louisville and especially Syracuse.



The above chart shows the futures odds for the Big East Championship from Lucky's and Harrah's in Las Vegas. The table is sorted by Lucky's, but you can see there are some pretty big discrepancies.

Interestingly, when looking at the point spreads from the Golden Nugget and Sportsbook, West Virginia does not appear to be the best team. South Florida is the team the books have installed as the favorite after home field advantage is accounted for. It's not like USF or WVU have favorable schedules compared to one another within the conference, either.



Given that information, I wonder if there is value in taking the under on WVU win total of 8.5, especially having to play Colorado and at Auburn. Otherwise, the win totals seem to fit with the spreads.



I did the Big East first, because it's a mostly insignificant conference. Let me know if there is anything wrong with the analysis.