Memphis-Tennessee Line

If you've watched ESPN for more than 30 seconds this week, you're aware that the Memphis Tigers and Tennessee Volunteers are playing each other at 9pm ET on Saturday night, in a battle of '#1 vs. #2'*.

Pinnacle, which is always on top of this type of thing, has released the line already- Memphis is favored by 6.

This may seem a little high, but do remember the game is being played at Memphis, so that explains about four points of it. As discussed here the other day, Tennessee has struggled on the road- they've been winning, but not by much, and not against very tough competition.

Ken Pomeroy also brought up an interesting point today. The Volunteers' defense depends on their opponents turning the ball over; they struggle, especially defending the three, when their opponents are able to take care of the ball. This hasn't been too much of a problem so far, but may become an issue against stiffer competition.

Regardless, Saturday night promises to be an intriguing, fast-paced games between two of the country's most exciting teams.

*Yeah, okay. Kansas and UCLA apologize for playing in real conferences.

Update: Not surprisingly, Tennessee is a very public dog, getting almost 70% of the action so far at Wagerline.

Thursday update: The line has moved down to 5.5. Although the juice (-112 for Tennessee, +102 for Memphis) indicates that it's right on the border between 5.5 and 6.