SEC Championship Game Odds: Alabama opens as big favorite over Florida

The SEC Championship Game odds are set and the Alabama Crimson Tide open as heavy favorites, but can the Florida Gators find a way to cover?

The Florida Gators find themselves as a large underdog against Alabama for Saturday’s SEC championship game. The Alabama vs. Florida point spread opened with Alabama as a 17-point favorite.

Regardless of what happened against Florida State, the Gators would have been underdogs heading into Atlanta. The Seminoles dismantling of the Gators likely made the spread even greater.

Alabama is playing like one of the best teams in the country and there is a reason Florida is the underdog. For three straight weeks, Florida has not looked good and it finally caught up with them against Florida State.

Florida will not only need to play better than they have in recent weeks, they need to have their best game of the season in Atlanta to beat Alabama.

Alabama is 5-1 against the spread in their last six games while the Gators are 2-4.

The Gators will need to slow down running back Derrick Henry to have any chance of pulling off the upset. The better Henry plays, the more confidence the entire Alabama team plays with. Florida also needs better play from quarterback Treon Harris who has negated the great play of the Florida defense in recent weeks. He needs to prove he can move the ball down the field in drives that result in points.

Given the significance of the game, I can see the Gators hanging around for most of the contest before Alabama pulls away in the fourth quarter in a similar fashion to what we saw in the Iron Bowl.

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I would take the points in this one as Florida loses by less than 17 points, but like Alabama straight up as they advance to the College Football Playoff for the second straight season.