College Football Betting: SEC West Team Win Totals

The next college football season will be yet another year in which the SEC West has the reigning national champion of college football. This 2021 season will be the fourth season in the past six that the SEC West has the defending champ: 2016, 2018, and 2020 were the other seasons. LSU was the defending champion heading into the 2020 season. Alabama is the defending champion heading into 2021. Let’s see where Alabama, LSU, and a few other SEC West teams stand in terms of their likely win-loss totals.

Alabama Crimson Tide
Over-Under: 11.5 wins

The Crimson Tide are the gold standard of college football and the SEC. Nick Saban has now won six national titles at Alabama, seven overall, following his 2020 national championship win over Ohio State. Alabama lost Tua Tagovailoa last year and yet became better than ever on offense with Mac Jones distributing the ball to Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith. Alabama regularly loses large numbers of high-quality players to the NFL, but each year, Saban is able to restock the roster. He is recruiting large numbers of five-star players out of high school. He gives them playing time and exposes them to ultra-competitive practices. When the NFL-ready starters depart, the next wave of players is ready to come I and make an immediate impact. With LSU having slipped noticeably last year after winning the 2019 national title, and with Auburn having fallen considerably from its 2017 standard, when it won the SEC West title, Alabama is in position to dominate the SEC once again. Maybe this team will stumble once, but it’s really hard to see it stumbling twice. The over is still the right play. Alabama will go 12-1 at the very least.

LSU Tigers
Over-Under: 8.5 wins

The Tigers are a really interesting case study. They crumbled last season in the aftermath of a massive player exodus from the 2019 national championship team, which produced 14 NFL draft picks. LSU did not have the next group of players ready to play. The Tigers were also hit hard by a few players who opted out of the 2020 season due to the pandemic. That variable won’t be in play this year, so even though LSU is likely to lose to Texas A&M and Alabama, it has a good chance of winning nine of its 10 other games. This will be a tight fit, but the over looks good. If the over slides up to nine wins later this summer, however, then the under becomes a better-value play.

Auburn Tigers
Over-Under: 7 wins

The Auburn Tigers enter this season as a mystery team under first-year head coach Bryan Harsin, who comes over from Boise State to lead the Plainsmen. Auburn fans like what they see from Harsin early in his tenure, but that belief in the head coach is a separate matter from AU’s expected performance level and results this coming season. Auburn does not have a lot of depth. It has huge question marks on the offensive line, at linebacker, and at quarterback. Auburn could become really good under Harsin in two or three years, but there is likely to be short-term pain and suffering in year one. The under is a good play here.

Arkansas Razorbacks
Over-Under: 6 wins

The Razorbacks greatly overachieved last year, but that was because they had won just two years in 2019. With an over-under now set at six wins, the bar is being established at a much higher level compared to the past. Arkansas has a new quarterback and a different roster mix compared to 2020. It might be too much to expect the Hogs to overachieve for a second straight year. Lean to the under in this case.