Tennessee football: Oddsmakers clearly have no respect for Vols

With early odds out for the 2017 season, one thing is clear about Tennessee football. The oddsmakers do not respect the Volunteers.

It started out with the lines for early games. Then came the early odds to win the SEC Championship. And altogether, it demonstrated a complete lack of respect for Tennessee football.

The Vols are sixth among SEC teams in likelihood to win the conference, according to The sports book BetOnline.com.

The Alabama Crimson Tide are clearly the favorites, and the Auburn Tigers come in second. But also ahead of Tennessee football are the LSU Tigers, who have Ed Orgeron as head coach, the Georgia Bulldogs, who were worse than the Vols last year and only have one year’s elite recruiting class to sell, and the Florida Gators, whom Tennessee destroyed last year.

But okay, with the loss of key players, it makes sense to put the Vols below those teams for this year.

Then come the early lines, though.

Tennessee football is only a four-point favorite over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at this point, according to Vegas Insider.

That puts the Vols on a similar level to Georgia Tech, which is embarrassing. Sure, the game is in Atlanta, but it’s technically a neutral site. With an evenly split allotment of tickets, Vols fans likely outnumber the Yellow Jackets, even in Atlanta. So expect it to almost be a home game for Tennessee.

Meanwhile, South Point Casino has released early lines for other big Tennessee football games. They were tweeted out here.

The book has the Vols as a five-point underdog to the Florida Gators.

Really? Five points. Yes, it’s fair to favor Florida with Tennessee on the road. But five is an oddly high number. You’d think with the last two Florida wins both coming by one point and the fact that the Vols owned the Gators last year, the line would be closer.

And it’s crazy to think the lines have Florida further ahead of Tennessee than Tennessee ahead of Georgia Tech.

But the worst is the other line they have.

Tennessee-Kentucky is apparently a pick ’em. A pick ’em??? How ridiculous is that!

Tennessee football has lost to the Wildcats once in the last 32 years. And the Vols have won the past five straight.

Also, since Butch Jones has been in Knoxville, here are Tennessee’s scores against the Wildcats: 27-14 in 2013, 50-16 in 2014, 52-21 in 2015, and 49-36 in 2016.

Does that indicate a team that struggles against Kentucky? Of course not. But the Vols still earned no respect.

And they will clearly have to take some this year. After all, the early season odds suggest nobody expects much from them.