Gator Bowl: Line released for Tennessee-Indiana

After some last-minute drama, Tennessee is set to return to Jacksonville to take part in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl for the first time since the 2014 season. The Volunteers beat the Iowa Hawkeyes convincingly on that day, now they’ll have a chance to do the same to another big ten school.

Their 2019 opponent will be the Indiana Hoosiers, who finished the season at 8-4. Indiana had a chance for a truly special season, but missed on opportunities against top 25 opponents. The Hoosiers have dropped two of their last three, which includes matchups against Penn State and Michigan. They rebounded in the final week of the regular season, beating Purdue 44-41.

So, much like Tennessee, Indiana took care of business against the bottom half of their conference, but couldn’t quite get to that next level.

Vegas sees these two teams similarly as well, with the opening line favoring Indiana by 1.5. After just a couple of days on the market, this line has totally flipped. Tennessee is now favored by 1.5 points.

This is something we’ve seen throughout the second half of the season. Vegas was slow to react to Tennessee’s improvement, for whatever reason. After the 1-4 start, Tennessee went a staggering 6-1 against the spread, winning six out of seven games to get to a bowl game and save the season. Both the public and the sharps have seemed to catch on to that trend, jumping on Tennessee early this bowl season.

Tennessee and Indiana will kickoff on ESPN in Jacksonville on January 2nd at 7 p.m. ET.