SEC Championship Game Prediction
The Georgia Bulldogs will get another crack at the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday when the rivals meet in 4:00 p.m. ET’s SEC Championship Game. Listed as a 12-point underdog, will UGA at least keep it close against the nation’s best team with a playoff berth on the line?
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 12-point favorites to beat the Bulldogs. The total, meanwhile, sits at 64 points. As of this writing, 56% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Bulldogs.
Alabama Crimson Tide
Alabama sophomore QB Tua Tagovailoa was named one of five finalists for the Walter Camp Trophy. Joining Tagovailoa as finalists are Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray, West Virginia’s Will Grier, Washington State’s Gardner Minshew and Kentucky’s Josh Allen. Allen is the only non-quarterback on the list. Tagovailoa is going to be nominated — and the favorite — for every award he’s eligible, as he’s put up some of the best numbers in college football for (easily) college football’s best team. The award will be announced next Thursday.
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 Crimson Tide are 5-0 against the spread in their last five conference games and are 5-1 against the number in their last six games overall.
Georgia
The Bulldogs have covered the spread in four of their last five conference games and are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games coming off a successful cover in their previous contest.
Prediction
The underdog is a perfect 5-0 against the spread in the last five meetings between these two teams while the Tide has failed to cover the number in five of their last seven games against the Dawgs. That said, you don’t make money betting against Nick Saban in title games. He is 5-1 straight up and 4-2 against the spread in SEC title games and while the Bulldogs are playing their best football of the season, this is the best Alabama team that Saban has put together. (That’s saying something considering how many games and championships Saban has already won in Tuscaloosa.) A week ago Auburn was within 10 of ‘Bama in the third quarter of the Iron Bowl. Listed as a 25.5-point favorite, the Tide blew out the Tigers the rest of the way, covering in a 52-21 blowout. I expect this game to be similar, with the Dawgs hanging with the Tide perhaps deep into the third quarter but Alabama’s explosiveness being too much in the end.
SEC Championship Game Prediction: Alabama Crimson Tide -12