SEC Football Odds: Can Anyone Take the Crown from Georgia?
College football season kicks off in a month, and as usual, multiple teams in the SEC are expected to compete for the national championship. NIL deals are already having an impact on recruiting, but it hasn’t made a sweeping impact just yet. The first SEC game of the season will be when Vanderbilt plays host to Hawaii on Aug. 26. With the new season on the horizon, we’re taking a look at the SEC Football odds for 2023.
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SEC Football Odds
NIL deals are expected to shift the landscape of college football as time passes. As of now, Alabama and Georgia continue to dominate when it comes to acquiring talent, and that shows up in this year’s odds for the conference yet again.
Although the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide unsurprisingly sit atop the odds for 2023, they are both in interesting territory. How they go about replacing multi-year, star QBs in Bryce Young and Stetson Bennett will be a significant storyline, and it is sure to impact how things play out. After Alabama’s 2012 title, it went through Blake Sims, Jake Coker, Cooper Bateman, Blake Barnett, and Jalen Hurts before getting to Tua Tagovailoa.
The Bulldogs have had their fair share of decent QBs over the years, but it was Bennett who broke the 40-year championship drought. Finding another QB to continue their run may be more of a challenge than most are expecting. On paper, their odds make sense given the abundance of talent, but we’ve seen heavyweight favorites drop games they have no business losing due to QB carousels.
SEC East Division Odds
The Georgia Bulldogs are the favorites to win the National Championship yet again, so, of course, they are favorites to win the SEC East. Currently, they are -380 to win the division, and the Tennessee Vols are the only team with odds remotely within the realm of unseating Georgia at +450 and +500 on FanDuel Sportsbook and DraftKings Sportsbook, respectively. The Bulldogs ran the board last year, and if you’re looking for a futures wager, taking them to do so again may be one worth considering given the value.
Of Georgia’s SEC East foes, only the Vols made it a game in 2022, and they still lost the matchup 27-13. How did Georgia respond to their 2022 dominance in the offseason? With the second-best overall recruiting class, headlined by four five-star defensive recruits. The incoming talent will join the 75% of returning defensive production for the Bulldogs, who had arguably the best defense in the nation last year.
The Vols had a good offseason as well, registering the 10th-best recruiting class overall, including five-star QB Nico Iamaleava. They also have the benefit of Joe Milton III having had an opportunity to start at QB last year and get familiar with the system due to Hendon Hooker’s injury. Whereas the Bulldogs will likely start Carson Beck, who doesn’t have any starts under his belt. That, at the very least, gives you something to watch out for at the start of the season.
SEC West Division Odds
Alabama has dominated the SEC West dating back to 2008, winning or tying for the division title 12 times since then. On the sportsbooks with SEC West division odds, the Crimson Tide are -105 favorites to win it all again. However, LSU is right on their heels at +200. The Tigers finished their 2022 campaign 10-4 overall, 6-2 in the conference, and with a win over the Crimson Tide.
This year, ESPN has LSU ranked 10th in returning offensive production. The Tigers retain multiple key offensive linemen, their top five rushers, star receiver Malik Nabers, and QB Jayden Daniels. They didn’t have as much luck on defense, losing multiple cornerbacks and edge rushers. However, they did have the sixth-best overall recruiting class and the second-best overall transfer portal — both of which landed multiple four-star replacements at each position.
Given their success last year, the stability of the offense, and the consistency of their defense, many pundits and analysts have the Tigers as a top-10 team heading into the year. If that holds, they’ll be in position to challenge for the division yet again, after narrowly missing out in 2022.
Another reason LSU’s odds are so close is the uncertainty surrounding the Tide’s QB situation. Their star QB Bryce Young was picked No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft. Young’s production will be hard to match, and his heroics to keep plays alive will be even more challenging to replace. The Crimson Tide have a plethora of solid QBs on the roster, but no starter has been announced just yet.
As great as Alabama has been over the years, great QB play hasn’t been the norm. Finding the next man up may not be such an easy task, which makes Alabama vulnerable to dropping a game or two during the season while they aim to figure it out.
