South Carolina vs. Texas A&M odds: Early point spread released on Gamecocks, Aggies

In a cross-divisional matchup, South Carolina will travel from the far east side of SEC country to the current western-most school, Texas A&M, as both teams hope to revive their disappointing seasons with a big win.

As of Sunday afternoon following Week 8 of college football, we now have an opening line for that bout between the Gamecocks and Aggies. According to FanDuel, Texas A&M opens as a 14-point favorite over South Carolina and is the significant favorite at -850 on the money-line. FanDuel also set the over/under at 51.5 points in that one.

That line may seem incredibly high towards A&M, but since the start of SEC play, South Carolina really hasn’t given bettors much reason to believe they can win or even compete in a conference road game. On Saturday, they dropped their third straight game and lost their second consecutive road game by 20 or more points.

This week, Missouri really hammered the Gamecocks, holding Spencer Rattler and that lethal passing game to just 12 total points as the Tigers punched in 34 points themselves. Then, three weeks ago, Carolina traveled to Knoxville and competed in the first half before the Volunteers ran away with the 41-20 victory.

Oddly enough, their best road performance came against No. 1 Georgia, who they led 14-3 at the half before the Bulldogs put a muzzle on the Gamecock offense and outscored South Carolina 21-0 in the final two quarters.

On the other hand, Texas A&M hasn’t been the top-20 team fans hoped they’d be, but this is a better group than last season. They’re currently just 4-3 with no bad losses but no great wins either. The Aggies are riding a two-game losing streak into next weekend after falling at home vs. Alabama and then on the road vs. Tennessee in previous weeks. The other loss came in blowout fashion vs. Miami.

As for their wins, well, they took care of some cupcake games earlier in the year and then beat Arkansas and Auburn, likely the two worst teams in the SEC West, to get to their four wins. Heading into the Carolina game and coming off a bye, at home, this has to be a win, especially since the Gamecocks are in that Arkansas and Auburn sort of tier in the SEC.

However, covering a two-touchdown spread against any SEC team is never an easy task, even at home against one of the league’s lesser squads.