Nobody's Willing to Put Their Money on Hogs Winning SEC

For a season with high hopes, nobody's ready to put big bucks on an SEC title for Sam Pittman's Razorbacks

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
May 8, 2022 5:29 AM EDT
Original:
May 8, 2022

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It shouldn't be particularly surprising the usual suspects are the betting favorites to win the SEC football title this year.

For Arkansas fans, the Razorbacks aren't in that group, which consists of Alabama and Georgia. No surprise there.

However, it was a little surprising to see the Hogs at No. 8 in the betting odds to win the title. It means absolutely nothing, of course. It's just an indication of who's putting down money four months before the start of the season on who will win in December.

Seeing Auburn and Kentucky in front of the odds on Arkansas was also surprising. The Tigers are a train wreck on wobbly tracks without a conductor and the Wildcats are, well, a basketball school.

Bettors also seem to think LSU with Brian Kelly at the helm is going to be better than a lot of folks expect and Ole Miss is getting better odds ... and they don't even have an experienced quarterback at the helm.

The Hogs have +5000 odds. That means you can pick up a pretty good chunk of change on a small investment of winning in Atlanta in December.

It probably shouldn't be that surprising for a school that has never won a national football championship (please don't start the cry about 1964, either — the trophy is in Tuscaloosa, Alabama).

KJ Jefferson-Spring Practice — Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson looks at the backups during the spring game at the indoor workout facility in Fayetteville near the end of spring practice in April. (Andy Hodges / allHOGS Images)

Arkansas has never won an SEC football championship, either. They've only played for it three times.

Don't get too hung up on it.

Hogs coach Sam Pittman probably secretly likes the fact nobody is giving him a shot. You get the impression he likes playing the underdog role.

As legendary athletics director John Barnhill told Frank Broyles one time, "Arkansas has only won big in times of austerity, not prosperity." Simply translated, that means they only win big when little is expected.

That's in the entire history of the school playing football, by the way. Even the glory years.

Which is probably what Pittman knows. Publicly he will express confidence they have a chance to be pretty good, but he won't be predicting any titles.