Boiling With Bias
Fansided

2018 Big Ten Championship Odds

By Ryan McNeill

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - DECEMBER 02: The Ohio State Buckeyes celebrate after their 27-21 win over the Wisconsin Badgers during the Big Ten Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 2, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - DECEMBER 02: The Ohio State Buckeyes celebrate after their 27-21 win over the Wisconsin Badgers during the Big Ten Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 2, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Vegas has released their updated 2018 Big Ten Championship odds.

The good news? Purdue has a much better chance of winning the Big Ten than Indiana or Maryland (300/1).

They leave Illinois and Rutgers (1,000/1) in their dust.

Even Minnesota (100/1) is rowing the boat to lower odds.

The bad news is Vegas only gives Purdue 80/1 odds; the same as Northwestern.

The clear favorites according to Vegas are Ohio State (10/11) with Wisconson (5/2) and Michigan (4/1)  being the other two teams with favorable odds.

The frustrating thing is that a team with a new head coach (Nebraska) and another with a program that looked lost last season (Iowa) has significantly better odds of winning the Big Ten Championship than Purdue at 40/1.

Hopefully, that’s something to make bulletin board material when they play Nebraska on September 29th and they host Iowa on October 18th. While going from a Bowl game to a Big Ten Championship game is a huge jump, why not dream big? You could easily argue that Wisconsin is the only team in the West that could block Purdue from playing for a Big Ten Championship this season.

Plus, it should help give the team some motivation that many view them as equal to Northwestern. Opening the season against Northwestern has enough motivation, but if there’s any player feeling themselves, these odds show that the opening game should be close, and holds a lot of insight into how Purdue’s season could unfold.

While most pundits are saying that Purdue will likely be third or fourth at best in the West, there’s also the real chance that when Purdue faces Ohio State that they are unbeaten. If that’s the case, then Purdue would be playing for the title of West Division champions and they could be playing in the Big Ten Championship on December 1st.

It also puts a lot of emphasis on the game against Wisconsin which comes on the second last game of the season.

Is that a long shot? Yeah, but, if you like to bet on long shots, Purdue may be a team you keep an eye on heading into this season. Especially if Vegas is giving them these kinds of odds.