Vegas Play of the Day: Auburn at Missouri

By Taylor Bern

Tuesday, March 3, 2015 | noon

Here’s the latest installment of the Play of the Day, which uses odds from the South Point. Our three sports writers started with a $10,000 bankroll — fictional, of course.

Missouri minus-5 vs. Auburn: $660 to win $600

At first, this line jumped out at me because Auburn is generally bad this year — Bruce Pearl’s first back in the SEC. Auburn is 12-17 overall and 4-12 in league play.

The only team behind them in the standings is tonight’s opponent, Missouri, which is playing out the string of a really awful 8-21 season. So why go with the home team?

The two main reasons: When Auburn loses, it gets its doors blown off, failing to cover in four straight and six of seven. Five times in league play Auburn has been an underdog in the same range as tonight — 4-8 points — and only once did it cover.

Then I looked at the previous meeting, an Auburn victory, and decided to go with one of my favorite angles of betting the team that lost the first time to get revenge in the rematch. This usually doesn’t hold for teams with big talent or performance disparities, but when they’re both down in the mud, I like the team in Missouri’s position to rise up.

Standings: Bern (67-61-1, $10,106), Keefer (67-67-2, $10,087), Brewer (60-71-3, $3,565)

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.