There was no drama surrounding the outcome in Saturday’s season-opener between No. 2 Penn State and Nevada, but there was plenty of gambling drama as the game came to a close, with Penn State and Under bettors both getting handed a painful bad beat in the closing seconds.
Penn State was a 42.5- to 44-point favorite over the Wolf Pack, with the total floating between 54.5 and 56.5 all week and for the majority of the game it looked like the Nittany Lions would roll to a cover with the under holding up. However, the Wolf Pack signed up for 60 and had their best offensive drive of the game with reserves going against reserves in the closing minutes.
Trailing 46-3, Nevada looked like it might be content to run out the clock initially, but then called a timeout before a fourth-and-6 in Penn State territory and converted that to keep the drive alive with less than a minute to play. After that, a defensive pass interference gave them goal-to-go, and with 30 seconds to go from the 9-yard line, the Wolf Pack finally found the end zone to kick down the backdoor at the closing number of 42.5.
While the spread was no longer in doubt, the total was still in flux depending on what number bettors had and what happened on the try after. Nevada opted to go for two on a swinging-gate play and converted it to make it a 46-11 final score, busting the total at every number.
It was a reminder that there are no meaningless scores when wagering on college football, and those with Penn State and the Under found themselves on the wrong end of that with Nevada playing through the final whistle.
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