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Penn State

What is the Penn State-Oregon point spread? The first betting line is out

Greg Pickelby: Greg Pickel8 hours agoGregPickel
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Penn State head coach James Franklin and Oregon's Dan Lanning meet ahead of last year's Big Ten Championship. (Photo Credit: Robert Goddin-Imagn Images)

Penn State football sits at 3-0 amid its Week 4 bye and is the No. 2 team in the country. Oregon is also a top 10 (it is at No. 6 in the latest AP top 25), although it is not idle this week. The Ducks instead have a rivalry week matchup with Oregon State this coming Saturday at 3 p.m. ET. From there, both programs will fully shift their focus to one of the top early season games of the year: A rematch of the 2024 Big Ten title game in a White Out environment on Sept. 27 in primetime.

Before the season started, BetMGM lined the Lions as a 4.5-point home favorite for their meeting with the Ducks. The total was set at 52.5. points. Now that we have more than just preseason expectations to work with, has anything changed? The answer is yes and no.

The point spread is now Penn State -3.5. BetMGM still has the over/under at 52.5. ESPN’s FPI has the Ducks ahead of the Lions in its latest update. But, ESPN analytics still picks Penn State to win, albeit by a 51/49 margin.

Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. ET. NBC’s top crew of Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge, and Kathryn Tappen will be on the call from Beaver Stadium.

Oregon was not looking ahead to Penn State

On FOX’s B1G Noon Kickoff postgame show last week, Urban Meyer asked Oregon quarterback Dante Moore whether or not his team is looking ahead to its pivotal matchup with Penn State. His answer is what you would expect it to be.

“We have a lot of games ahead, but I feel like this team, our mindset is 1-0 every week,” Moore said, per SI.

“We’re going to worry about that opponent during the week. Today we’re going to fly back home, tomorrow’s a recovery day, and Monday we’ll hit the ground and be straight focused on Oregon State. You know, it’s a rivalry game, but every time we take the field it’s us vs. us.”

Penn State, meanwhile, focused on itself during its week off. But, it did some extra time to prep for the Ducks.

“Obviously, we’ll have the advantage of not having to break down the previous game and not make corrections in practice, so we’ll be a little bit ahead, but we need to get better,” James Franklin said after beating Villanova. “We need to get better on Tuesday; we need to get better on Wednesday. And then we need to be able to come in the next week in a really good place with a tremendous opportunity and a tremendous challenge in front of us.”