Washington Still Favored Over Cal, but Point Spread Is Shrinking

Early bettors apparently took advantage of the surprisingly large initial point spread for the Bears' opener on Saturday night in Berkeley

Apparently we were not the only ones who thought the initial point spread for  Saturday's game between Cal and Washington was too large

Two weeks ago we noted that the BetOnline website had made the Huskies a 6-point favorite when it first established a betting line for the Bears' season opener.  That was a surprisingly wide spread considering the following: The game is in Berkeley, Cal was picked to finish second in the Pac-12 North, ahead of Washington, and the Huskies have a new head coach (Jimmy Lake), a new offensive coordinator (John Donovan) and new quarterback (probably Kevin Thomson).

Bettors seemed to pick up on the big point spread too, prompting BetOnline to reduce the point spread to 2.5 points as of Sunday. That's a change of 3.5 points, a rather large reduction in a matter of a couple weeks.

Washington is still favored, but the lowered point spread makes more sense.

VegasInsider.com indicates an even bigger drop in the point spread in Las Vegas. Of the seven Las Vegas betting sites it cited, one has Washington favored by 1.5 points, two have the Huskies favored by 1 point, and four call it a pick 'em game (no favorite).  It lists the initial line for the game at 6.5 points, and now none lists the spread at greater than 1.5 points, with most calling it even. 

We believe the game is basically a tossup, which is in line with most of these point spreads.

When they set point spreads, oddsmakers are not predicting the outcome of the game. They are setting up a line at which they expect the same amount of money to be bet on each team. 

A reduction in the point spread suggests a lot of money was coming in on Cal with the 6-point cushion.  It will be interesting to see whether the point spread changes again between now and Saturday.

Here are the BetOnline point spreads as of Sunday for the six Pac-12 openers on Saturday. (The negative number indicates the favored team and the number of points by which it is favored.) You will note the Oregon spread over Stanford has increased from two weeks ago.

Washington (-2½) at California

Arizona State at USC (-10½)

Arizona at Utah (-14)

UCLA (-6) at Colorado

Stanford at Oregon (-13½)

Washington State (-3) at Oregon State

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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