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The Michigan State Spartans take on the Michigan Wolverines. Check out our college football odds series for our Michigan State Michigan prediction and pick.
The Michigan State Spartans are laboring through a very difficult season. Head coach Mel Tucker received a massive pay raise last year when MSU administrators worried that LSU or other potential suitors in the coaching carousel might snap him up. Michigan State was riding high at the time. The Spartans eventually won 11 games last season, including a New Year’s Six game at the Peach Bowl against Pittsburgh. The 2021 season was so spectacular that the Spartans fell in love with Tucker, which is completely understandable. However, it was just one season. It was not a collection of several seasons strung together. Michigan State is learning a hard lesson about pushing all of one’s chips into the middle of the table based on one great year. Tucker has not been able to find the same answers he found last year. The Spartans look nothing like their 2021 iteration.
Michigan looks a lot like its 2021 iteration under Jim Harbaugh. It’s really fascinating to see the Wolverines struggle so much for several seasons, and then suddenly put all the pieces together just when it seemed Jim Harbaugh had run out of inspiration and ideas in Ann Arbor. Harbaugh pulled everything together just before the patience of the fan base fully ran out. He saved his job and his reputation just in the nick of time. Now, one year after his turnaround season, Michigan once again looks the way Michigan is supposed to look. The Wolverines might not be better than Ohio State, but they seem headed for an 11-1 season at worst, which is the kind of standard Michigan fans expect.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Michigan State-Michigan College Football odds.
College Football Odds: Michigan State-Michigan Odds
Michigan State Spartans: +22.5 (-110)
Michigan Wolverines: -22.5 (-110)
Over: 54.5 (-115)
Under: 54.5 (-105)
Why Michigan State Could Cover the Spread
Michigan State will cover the spread primarily because the spread is really large. Secondly, though, Michigan State has usually had the upper hand in this series over the past several years. When Michigan State has been a large underdog over the past half-decade, it has usually covered. Mel Tucker is 2-0 straight up against Harbaugh as Michigan State head coach. Michigan State always gets up for Michigan and consistently plays the Wolverines competitively. Rare is the time when Michigan completely blows the doors off this matchup.
Why Michigan Could Cover the Spread
Michigan will cover because the Wolverines are a much, much better team. They beat Penn State by 24, and Penn State is clearly better than Michigan State. Michigan is tough, powerful, balanced, and skilled. Michigan State’s talent level is nowhere close to what the Wolverines have. This is a mature Michigan team which made the College Football Playoff last season and has been through the battles. That level of experience and achievement will enable the Wolverines to establish a new identity and author a blowout, which is relatively rare from the Michigan side in the more recent period of this series.
Final Michigan State-Michigan Prediction & Pick
Michigan will win outright, but Michigan State reliably plays Michigan competitively. MSU plus the points is one of the better, safer plays you can make in a point-spread bet this weekend.
Final Michigan State-Michigan Prediction & Pick: Michigan State +22.5
