Opening Odds: Missouri vs. Wake Forest

The stage is set. The opponent is picked. The location has a pirate ship. And your Missouri Tigers will be taking the field against an opponent that they’ve never played before.

Missouri scrapped and clawed their way to a 6-6 record at the conclusion of the 2022 season and is being rewarded with a trip to lovely Tampa, Florida to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons of the ACC Atlantic Division in the hallowed Gasparilla Bowl.

Currently Missouri ranks 45th in SP+ with the 67th-best offense and 25th best defense. Dave Clawson’s 7-5 (3-5) Deacs come into the game ranked 43rd in SP+, while boasting the 6th (SIXTH!!!!!) best offense in the country...that’s dragging along the 105th-best defense along for the ride.

So how does Vegas view this matchup of evenly matched teams that go about it in very different ways?

Currently, our partners at DraftKings see Wake Forest is a 1.5 point favorite. For what it’s worth, SP+ sees this as a game favoring Wake Forest by 0.1 points. Yes, that’s correct, 0.1. As in 30.7 - 30.6.

So, hey, it’ll be a close game! And we know Missouri has a ton of experience in those!

Stayed tuned in the following weeks for further break downs and analysis.