Rece Davis picks Louisville to win, cover against Kentucky

Louisville and Kentucky are two teams that appear to be headed in different directions entering Saturday’s rivalry game. The Wildcats have won four straight, including a victory last weekend at Miami to clinch a spot in the ACC Championship Game. Meanwhile, Kentucky has dropped back-to-back games and is 1-5 in its last six.

ESPN host Rece Davis expects the recent trends to continue this weekend. Davis appeared on the College GameDay podcast earlier this week and offered his thoughts on the game. Louisville is currently an 8.5-point favorite, according to FanDuel. The over-under is at 50.5.

How to watch Kentucky vs. Louisville

Time: Nov. 25, Noon
Channel: ABC, FuboTV (streaming)
Location: Louisville, Kent.

Davis likes what he has seen from Louisville as of late and feels the opposite about the Wildcats.

“I’m going with Louisville to cover.” Rece Davis said. “Kentucky’s lost five out of six. They’ve gotten blasted by the upper echelon teams that they’ve played. I don’t know if you would consider Tennessee upper echelon, but they only lost to them by six. Everybody else has blown them out that’s been good. I don’t think Louisville is of the ilk of Georgia and Alabama, or Missouri – maybe close to Missouri. But I think they’re significantly better than Kentucky.”

If Louisville does win big, as Davis expects, it could be big for the ACC and play a role in the College Football Playoff rankings down the stretch.

Of course the same can be said for the SEC and Kentucky if the Wildcats come out on top.

“The other thing to keep an eye on in this is as we evaluate Florida State, and if we get to a situation where there’s one spot there – Florida State undefeated with a backup quarterback vs. a one-loss SEC champion if it’s Alabama, I think the default mechanism over the years has been to go with the SEC champion, because it’s a tougher conference,” Davis said.

“The ACC has done very well against the SEC [this year]. This will be another one of those moments, and then this team is going on to the ACC Championship Game. There are some extra stakes here in this game that don’t really involve the two teams playing. If Kentucky were to win, maybe that changes the thought process of some. I don’t think they will. I think Louisville wins this thing pretty easily and rolls in there with a good chance to sneak away with the conference crown against a now wounded Florida State team.”

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There is more than just bragging rights at stake when Louisville hosts Kentucky on Saturday. It will be interesting to see if the Cardinals do in fact win and cover the spread.