In their last 51 non conference games they are 48 and 3 and only one of those losses was by more than 7 to Ohio State and that was a revenge game for a loss the year before,
Take the seven points. If the Irish do happen to win, which is a bit doubtful, it will likely be a close one..
If we play anything like last week, we'll beat them soundly...not saying blowout, but a 10-14 point win in Blacksburg would be very impressive.
I'm not going to check all of their last 51 non-conference games. Last season the non-conference games were West Virginia (7-6 at season's end), Old Dominion, East Carolina, and Delaware. This season it was Old Dominion, and William & Mary, with East Carolina cancelled. They played Liberty University a couple of seasons ago. Also, the stat you put out there has to be wrong. VT lost to Tennessee in 2016 by 21 points. That was a non-conference game. Is the 48-3 part right? ODU, Tennessee, and Ohio State account for three non-conference losses right there.
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Who the favorite is, is decided by Vegas and they don't decide it based on who they think will actually win, they decide it by where they think the most money will be bet. For example, if they think VaTech will win it in a close game, but they think a bunch of Irish fans will pour big money on ND, then they'll favor us (higher the spread, the more money they see going that way) with the intent of deterring people from betting on ND so the money evens out on both sides (with no concern for accurately reflecting who will win the game).
Sports Books just opened in New Jersey. ND has big fan support in the Metro-NY area, and the Sports Books are seeing a lot of ND money bet at Monmouth, Meadowlands and AC. It's not surprising. And it's not going to swing an underdog to a favorite. But it probably is helping to move the line a point or so.
All that said, I want beat the crap out of them tonight. And we have the horses to run roughshod over them.
This is because we've shown to be a better team recently, yes, but Vegas determines favorite or underdog, fact. They only do this based on where the money is going, to even out both betting sides so they always win, fact.
So his statement that 'if it was doubtful, VT would be favored' is false.
This year's non conference slate included William and Mary, ODU, and ND (which was a forced game). Just scrolling through the past few years, it's a couple doormats and a respectable non conference opponent as their typical schedule. Not hard to rack up win % against doormats.
Also I don't know I agree with the validity of the stat (unless you meant to say home game).
Just looking a few years back I see loses to OSU, Tenn, East Car, and ODU. That's 4 losses.
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Amen
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To what extent? Not worth the effort to find out. But they've lost more than three of their prior 51 non-conference games, and they have lost by more than 7 in recent non-conference games other than Ohio State. See NDNeil's post also above.
CLUELESS!
I’m not touching this one..
Seven points seems just about right to me, especially with the forecasted rain in Blacksburg.