NCAA football betting players will have a massive matchup from the SEC on their hands on Saturday, when top-ranked Alabama heads to Arkansas to face the Razorbacks, who are out to prove that they belong in the conference-title discussion.
Alabama Arkansas Betting – Saturday, September 25th, 3:30 PM ET
The No.1 Crimson Tide (3-0) had their 62-13 rout of Duke on the road over by halftime. Actually, they were up 28-3 after the first quarter and it was pretty much on from there. The Crimson Tide racked up 626 yards of offense, including 315 yards on the ground, and those who paid the price per head to see Mark Ingram’s first game weren’t disappointed. The Heisman winner ran nine times for 151 yards and a pair of scores as the Crimson Tide averaged 9.0 yards a carry, and any team is going to be hard to stop with numbers like that. Still, the Crimson Tide had three turnovers on the day, and they gave up 146 yards on the ground, so that’s something they’ll need to work on.
The No.10 Razorbacks (3-0) got a 40-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Mallett in a 31-24 win at Georgia, and Mallett showed all the skills that should make him a Heisman candidate. Mallett was 21-of-33 for 380 yards, three touchdowns and no picks in one of the best quarterback performances of the year to date. The Razorbacks pretty much abanadoned the ground game, but when you have a great pivot, you can afford to do that. The Razorbacks gave up 392 yards of offense, but on the road, especially at a tough place to play like “between the hedges” at Georgia, that’s actually not all that bad.
Online football betting odds have the Crimson Tide as a 7-point favorite on the road, and they’ve won four of their last five meetings with the Razorbacks. They’re 2-3 at Arkansas since the turn of the century, and this is going to be their first real big test of the year as they got Penn State at home. The Arkansas defense has to figure out how to slow down the Alabama ground game, led by Ingram and Trent Richardson, but even if they do that, Greg McElroy has grown into one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the country, he just doesn’t get to show it all the time because of Alabama’s fierce ground game. Meanwhile, Mallett will have his hands full going up against an Alabama defense that isn’t as good as last year’s unit, but they’re still a top-10 defense capable of dominating a game. Arkansas will put up a fight, but the Crimson Tide will wear them down.
Online sports betting pick: Alabama -7
