Penn State Shockingly Opens as Short Favorites Against USC

The Penn State Nittany Lions are going through another year of torment in Happy Valley. What was a season that started with so much promise has quickly shifted thanks to several head-scratching moments through two weeks of Big Ten play.

They opened as 10-point favorites against the Wisconsin Badgers in a game that they got off to a 17-point lead early in the first half. They blew that lead in route to one of the most ridiculous losses that you will ever see.

They followed that up with a blowout loss at the hands of Northwestern, who, while they appear to be very real, embarrassed the Nittany Lions.

Somehow, this year, after having all of the positive energy towards it at the beginning of the year feels worse than it did one year ago. 

The outlook for this season looks incredibly bleak, especially since this week specifically was one that had so much potential to it. The Nittany Lions were supposed to be 5-0, ranked in the top 10, with USC coming into town for the whiteout.

Instead, they are 3-2, with way more questions than answers, welcoming in a USC program that isn't in a much better place. The Trojans had some real excitement this season, but a loss to Oregon and a close victory against Washington have them limping across the country to Happy Valley.

The storylines are endless, and the intrigue is real for all the wrong reasons in this game. Put all of that aside, and looking at just the game specifically, the Nittany Lions somehow are the favorites in this football game.

Penn State opened as 1.5-point favorites on a line that has fluctuated a lot since it dropped. It started with Penn State as 1.5-point favorites, jumped all the way to USC as 2.5-point favorites, and has sunk back to the Nittany Lions being favorites. 

Objectively, I don't know how Penn State can be favorites at anything. This is not a good football team. They are not athletic, they are not tough, they don't execute well, they don't have good quarterback play; and the defense isn't good enough for anything.

Penn State is a really bad football team, so what does this make USC? On paper, the Trojans bring a lot more to the table than the Nittany Lions, so maybe a major factor is the White Out in a crazy environment. 

Whatever the situation is, Vegas knows something that no one else does because this line doesn't make any sense, at least in my eyes.