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Penn State Win Total Odds: Should Gamblers Take the Over or Under?

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Heading into 2020, Penn State looks to win ten or more games for the fourth time in five seasons under head coach James Franklin. The oddsmakers currently have their win total set at 9.5 with the juice leaning on the over at -121 while the under is at even money.

AllPennState’s Mark Wogenrich joined Sports Illustrated’s gambling analyst Frank Taddeo and reveled their pick for the Nittany Lions’ win total.

Read the transcript from their analysis:

Bill Enright: A year after finishing with 11 wins in 2019 oddsmakers now have Penn State's win totals set at 9.5 for 2020. Let's find out if sports gamblers should be taking me over or under by bringing on Sports Illustrated's gambling analyst Frank Taddeo and All Penn State's Mark Wogenrich. Mark, I'm going to start with you, because ever since James Franklin came to town, it seems like all Penn State seems to do is win double-digit games every single year. For this year, if they win 10 or more, that's four of the last five. Can they get to that mark in 2020?

James Franklin during a Penn State football game.

Mark Wogenrich: Yeah, 9.5... Presuming they play a 12 game schedule, I'm going to go over on that. I think this is could be one of the better teams in the Big Ten. Maybe an outside contender at a playoff bid. They return probably two of the better players in the country at their positions in linebacker Micah Parsons and tight end Pat Freiermuth. Sean Clifford is back for his second year. There's a lot of other town on the offense for returning starters on the offensive line. The running back room is really terrific. That could be the best in the Big Ten. Journey Brown had a huge breakout game in the Cotton Bowl. The issue I'm going to see is the installation of Kirk Ciarrocca's new offense. Ciarrocca came from Minnesota, and he was there for the Cotton Bowl, but he's not seen Sean Clifford throw a pass in his offense yet. Penn State did not have spring practice this year, so he has not seen Freiermuth catch a ball. They've not run any drills. I think this week, Sean Clifford said that the quarterbacks conducted a Jeopardy! Kind of skills test. So they have not put anything on the field and that is going to be an issue to ramp up the schedules. Friendly, though, the road games and the Big Ten are not that difficult. There's a three-game stretch in October, which is going to be kind of their marker when they play Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio State. As it has last couple of years, October 24th against Ohio State will decide this season.

Bill Enright: Frank, let me go over to you, what are the oddsmakers saying about the over or under? Where's the juice?

sean-clifford-death-threats-penn-state

Frank Taddeo: Yeah, right now, the juice is in conjunction to exactly where Mark believes it should be going in, I'm in agreement. It's towards the over right now, at odds of minus $1.20. And I have to say, I think that's Penn State gets to 10 wins once again this season. I love the potential of showing Clifford in this new offense. In addition, if we look at a little bit deeper at that schedule that Mark highlighted, we see that they get both the Buckeyes as well as the Hawkeyes at home and Happy Valley and that's a huge advantage. Bill, I think that the play here this season for all betters is going over 9.5 wins for the Penn State Nittany Lions in 2020.

Bill Enright: All right, Frank and Mark, thank you guys for your insight. We have plenty more college football betting previews. You can find them by going to SI.com/gambling.

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