In the closing seconds of Saturday’s matchup between the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes and the No. 16 Northwestern Wildcats (the favorite college football team of Darren Rovell and Chet Haze), Northwestern’s quarterback, Kain Colter, threw a 4-yard pass to Tony Jones, and it set off what the Cats hoped would be a lucky, game-winning lateral parade that would take the No. 1 spot on SportsCenter’s Top Plays.
Instead, Venric Mark fumbled the ball and Ohio State’s Joey Bosa recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown as the clock expired. That made the final score 40-30 in OSU’s favor, which in and of itself means nothing more than a bunch of Urban Meyer cultists bragging about their unbeaten streak. However, to the betting community, that final score was huge because it meant that the Buckeyes covered, and it cost bookies and sports books a ton of money.
“It was a horrific decision for us,” Jay Rood, vice-president of MGM Resorts’ sports books, told The Linemakers on Sporting News. “We had a little bit of sharp money early with Northwestern, but everything else from Friday through Saturday before kickoff was on Ohio State, the time frame in which we take our most bets.
“I would estimate that the change in money on the day for the state because of the late Ohio State score was $3-4 million.” (Via Sporting News)
Actually, I have no clue if that’s a shit load of money or not, because I don’t know the first thing about gambling on sports, if it doesn’t involve trying to decide between starting Justin Blackmon against the Broncos or Antonio Brown fresh off his bye. But to a guy who walks everywhere to save on paying for gas, $3-4 million sounds like a ton of money to me. In fact, it sounds like this much money:
So, as always, if anyone wants to give me $3-4 million so I know what it’s like, that would be super cool.
