How Does Braxton Miller’s Injury Impact Bettors?
Although their season ended with consecutive losses to Michigan State (Big Ten Championship) and Clemson (Orange Bowl), the 2013 Ohio State season had to be considered a success. Despite ending on a down note, the Buckeyes finished the season with a 12-2 record and a #10 ranking in the final Coaches Poll.
Entering the 2014 season, expectations were sky high. The Buckeyes were set to return 12 starters led by two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year Braxton Miler. Last season the dual-threat quarterback tallied over 3,000 total yards (2,094 passing and 1,068 rushing) along with 36 touchdowns (24 passing and 12 rushing) with just seven interceptions. In fact, entering the season Miller had the third best odds of winning the Heisman Trophy trailing only Florida State’s Jameis Winston and Oregon’s Marcus Mariota.
Unfortunately, on Monday evening news broke that Braxton Miller had suffered a potentially serious injury.
Braxton Miller reinjured his shoulder today, season in jeopardy per @TIM_MAYsports http://t.co/HiLa3QFDHI Would be huge blow to Ohio St
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) August 19, 2014
By late Tuesday morning, the worst fears of Ohio State fans had been realized. They would be without their starting quarterback for the 2014 season.
#NCAAF #OhioState – Braxton Miller, Shoulder – is out for the season — SportsInsights.com (@SportsInsights) August 19, 2014
Ohio State opens the season on August 30th against Navy and, according to our free NCAAF odds page, were receiving 72% of bets as a 17.5-point favorite. After news of this injury, the game reopened well below the previous line.
With a healthy Braxton Miller, #OhioState opened as a 17.5-pt favorite Saturday (8/30) at Navy. They have re-opened OSU -12.5. (via CRIS)
— SportsInsights.com (@SportsInsights) August 20, 2014
The next major shoe to fall involved the Ohio State win total along with their odds of winning the National Championship.
With Braxton Miller hurt, Ohio State’s odds of winning the national title dropped from 12/1 to 20/1 | Win total 10.5 O-130 to 10.5 O+290 — SportsInsights.com (@SportsInsights) August 19, 2014
Just over a week ago, Ohio State was listed at +100 to make the new 4-team playoff and -110 to win the Big Ten. After today’s injury, those odds have slipped to +300 to win the Big Ten Championship and +320 to make the 4-team playoff. According to oddsmakers, Wisconsin (+250) is the new team to beat in the Big Ten.
Ohio State’s odds of winning the National Championship dropped from +1200 to +1800 when it was announced that Miller would miss some time, but we knew that those odds would plummet when news broke that he would miss the entire season.
The @LVSuperBook drops Ohio St to 50/1 to win national title.
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) August 19, 2014
Do you think Ohio State will rebound from this significant loss? Can they still will their conference and make the 4-team playoff? Please leave any thoughts or comments in the section below.
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Travis
08/19/2014 at 2:03 pm50/1 is way too high for Ohio State. They are still in the Big Ten and still have an easy schedule. They still have a ton of talent and the new QB should get better as the season goes along.