Pitt's Odds to Win ACC Fall Further

The Pitt Panthers are now even bigger longshots to win the conference.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers open conference play this weekend while reeling from consecutive ugly losses to Cincinnati and West Virginia, but the promise of a fresh start in the ACC schedule gives them hope they can turn the season around. 

Pitt believes they have what it takes to make a run in conference play and right the ship, but oddsmakers are not as bullish. BetOnline.ag currently has the Panthers with +4000 odds to take home the conference title, a dramatic drop from where they sat last week. 

Pitt began the year with +2500 odds to win the conference for the second time in three years and after two weeks, sat at +1400, tied with Duke and Louisville for fifth in the conference. The loss to West Virginia had a severely negative effect on the outlook for the rest of the year. 

The Panthers cruised to a victory over FCS Wofford behind 255 total yards and a pair of touchdowns from Phil Jurkovec and a suffocating defensive performance that held the Terriers to 125 total yards. 

But they were humbled the following week with a 27-21 loss to Cincinnati that, for most of the game, was not as close as the final score would indicate. The same goes for the Backyard Brawl, where they lost 17-6 after Jurkovec tossed three interceptions. 

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