SEC Championship Game Total Pick
The SEC Championship Game will be a rematch of last year’s college football national championship between Alabama and Georgia. Is the betting total for Saturday’s 4:00 p.m. ET kickoff between the Tide and Dawgs set too high?
Game Snapshot
316 Alabama Crimson Tide at 315 Georgia Bulldogs
4:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, December 1, 2018
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Crimson Tide are 13.5-point favorites to beat the Bulldogs. The total, meanwhile, sits at 63.5 points. As of this writing, 57% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Bulldogs.
Alabama Crimson Tide
Pro Football Focus notes that Alabama sophomore QB Tua Tagovailoa has a passer rating of 140.5 on third-and-fourth down passes in 2018. That’s easily the best passer rating on late downs of any quarterback in college football. Not only has Tagovailoa excelled on third-and-fourth down, he also has the highest passer rating of any quarterback on passes thrown 20-plus yards down the field, just besting Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s 131.4 rating with a 132.9. Just more numbers that show you what a star the sophomore quarterback is.
Georgia Bulldogs
Georgia sophomore QB Jake Fromm completed 13-of-16 passes for 175 yards and four touchdowns in a 45-21 blowout of Georgia Tech on Saturday. Fromm was outstanding in the season finale of the Bulldogs, showing the accuracy and point that has made him one of the most intriguing underclassman at the position in the country. The LSU game will probably come back to haunt him — at least in terms of leading the Bulldogs to the playoffs — but the upside is obvious, and he showed as much against the Yellow Jackets on Saturday afternoon. We’ll see Fromm again in the SEC Championship against Alabama next Saturday.
Betting Trends
Alabama
The over is 20-5-1 in the Crimson Tide’s last 26 neutral site games.
Georgia
The over is 7-2-1 in the Bulldogs’ last 10 games versus a team with a winning record.
Prediction
Georgia had a better defense a year ago when it got into a shootout with Alabama in the national championship game so the over is in play on Saturday evening. In the last seven meetings between these two teams, the over is 6-1. The over is also 9-4 in the Crimson Tide’s last 13 games overall and 6-0 in their last six games after allowing less than 170 yards passing in their previous game. On the other side, the over is 4-1-1 in the Bulldogs’ last six games overall and 7-2-1 in their last 10 games when facing a team with a winning record.
SEC Championship Game Prediction: Alabama/Georgia over 63.5