When you’re the Connecticut Huskies and the only teams you’ve beaten are cream puffs like Buffalo , Army and Division I-AA Liberty. At least, that’s how sharp bettors see it.

Maybe not, but those victories are carrying weight at the sportsbooks. Most have the Huskies as 6 ½–point favorites for Friday’s tilt with Syracuse , who is currently 1-3 straight up and 2-2 against the number.

The Orange have faced some tough competition in West Virginia , Virginia and No. 4 Florida State , while the teams UConn has defeated hold a combined 1-12 record. However, oddsmakers don’t often factor strength of schedule into their lines.

“The stats guys have been looking at the numbers and are saying, ‘Wow, UConn looks pretty good here,’ and ‘Wow, Syracuse can’t do anything on the road,’ and that’s how [they came up with this spread],” says Sevransky.

The Huskies’ victories appear impressive even if they have come against pushovers. They held both Buffalo and Liberty scoreless and notched those three wins by an average margin of nearly 44 points. However, the Week 3 loss to Georgia Tech could prove to be the most telling tilt here.

The Yellow Jackets rolled up 307 yards of offense even though starting quarterback Reggie Ball had been sidelined with an illness, while UConn managed just 196 against a Georgia Tech defense that gives up over 312 per game. The Huskies went down 28-13, dropping the cash as big 14 ½-point dogs.

“They had [the Yellow Jackets] in a dead spot,” says Sevransky. “Their quarterback was out, they only have a mediocre defense, but the Huskies just couldn’t move the ball against them at all.

That’s assuming the Orange can recover from the their ugly start to the season. It’s tough heading into a conference game on the road when you’ve got just a single win under your belt, even if you have been losing to some of the nation’s top schools.

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