Vanderbilt opens as 34-point underdog at Ole Miss

Vanderbilt travels to Ole Miss on Saturday for a 6:30 PM CT kickoff on the SEC Network, and per Circa Sports, the Commodores opened as a 34-point underdog to the Rebels, though that line has already moved as high as 38 at some sportsbooks:

Vanderbilt enters on a five-game losing streak, though they’ve covered the spread in three of their last four, including last night’s 34-17 loss to Kentucky as a 21.5-point underdog. The Commodores also lost 37-28 to Missouri as a 16-point underdog, and they lost 21-20 to South Carolina as a 19-point underdog. In addition, Vanderbilt is on a 19-game losing streak in SEC games, and an 11-game losing streak in SEC road games. The Commodores are 4-6 against the spread this season.

Ole Miss enters with an 8-2 record, and the Rebels are 6-3-1 against the spread including four of their last five, the one blemish being a 31-20 loss at Auburn as a 3-point underdog on October 30. Of note as well: the under has hit in five straight Ole Miss games and four of the last five Vanderbilt games.

The 34-point spread represents the biggest line in the last ten games of the annual Vanderbilt-Ole Miss series; the previous high was a 27-point spread in 2015, when Vanderbilt actually covered in a 27-16 loss. The teams are an even 5-5 on the spread in the last ten games, with Ole Miss holding a 6-4 edge straight up (note that this goes back to James Franklin’s first year.) And I can’t think of a time before that when the spread would have been larger; this weekend will mark only the sixth time in the last 50 years that the Rebels have entered the game ranked in the AP poll. (If you’re curious, Ole Miss was a 17.5-point favorite in 2014, when they won 41-3 in Derek Mason’s second game as head coach.) Prior to 2014, the last time Ole Miss beat Vanderbilt by more than 34 points was in 1993, when the Rebels won 49-7.