FORT WORTH, Texas _ The AP poll has shared its views on the current state of football in Texas, and the ultimate validator has given its most updated verdict on the great game in the great state.
When Las Vegas speaks, listen with your ears first, and allow that to guide your wallet.
Texas' flagship school, the University of Texas, and its sister school, Texas A&M, have both been given notice that Las Vegas thinks neither is an elite football program this year. Elite as in Top Five, and this year as in right now.
The problem, clearly, is Texas as a state does not spend enough money on football.
On Saturday in Austin and in Clemson, S.C., Texas' two biggest schools will play the biggest non-conference games in the entire month of September in college football.
Vegas doesn't think the Aggies or the Horns have much of a shot.
No. 12 Texas A&M is a 17.5-point underdog in its game at No. 1 Clemson, which kicks off at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. If you're an Aggie and want to feel worse, the MGM sportsbook has the Aggies as 18-point dogs.
No. 9 Texas is a 5.5-point underdog in its home game against No. 6 LSU, which begins at 6:30 p.m.
If both the Horns and Aggies lose, but the score is close, there is a good chance neither will drop a single spot from their respective spots in the AP Poll.
If A&M covers the spread, this will be the biggest win of Jimbo Fisher's time in College Station.
Because LSU is coached by Ed Orgeron, going with Texas to win this game outright feels like a decent play. Going with Texas to cover feels like a great play.
(If you take gambling advice on me, you have been warned. Por ejemplo _ I picked the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl last season. The kicker? I took the bet after they were eliminated by the L.A. Rams in the playoffs; I was sure they were going to find a way).
As both Texas and Texas A&M spend millions to crack college football's top five under its "new" coaches, games such as these have to be theirs. They can't be the underdog.
It would help if one or both of these teams was, you know, expected to win this sort of game. Alas, Tuscaloosa was not built in a day, and neither will Austin under Tom Herman nor College Station under James Fisher.
