Golden Nugget's New 2013 College Football Lines Are Bad News For Iowa

Are you a betting man or woman? If so, you'll enjoy this. Are you an Iowa fan? If so, you'll hate this. Are you both? Hello, mixed emotions.

On Friday morning, the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas released about 250 betting lines for selected 2013 college football games. Of those 250 games, a solid six are Iowa games. Six of the tougher ones, to be sure, but still—we have betting lines for half of Iowa's season!

So, uh... and uh...

...it's not good.

Here's the full list, courtesy of SBNation.com, and here are Iowa's six games:

10067 IOWA
10068 IOWA ST. -4

10183 MICHIGAN ST. -9
10184 IOWA

10251 IOWA
10252 OHIO ST. -23

10293 NORTHWESTERN -12
10294 IOWA

10431 MICHIGAN -10½
10432 IOWA

10443 IOWA
10444 NEBRASKA -14

There is nothing encouraging about that slate of games. Nothing at all. Iowa is a double-digit underdog in four of its last six games of the season (the other two are a home tilt with Wisconsin that doesn't bode well and a road date with Purdue—fingers crossed on that one).

If there's anything to feel The Iowa State game is a 4-point line, but that's nearly all home-field advantage, and 4-point underdogs have won 43% of the time in the last 10 years.

There's also the fact that the remaining games are against decidedly weaker competition (Wisconsin aside), and thus it's entirely reasonable to think Iowa will be favored in five of its 12 games. Just because six of the lines are bad news bears doesn't mean we should cancel the season.

But still, yeesh. This is as bleak as it's looked for the Hawkeyes since the dark days at the turn of the century.

Of particular note is friggin' Northwestern, giving 12 friggin' points at Kinnick friggin' Stadium. Yes, Kirk Ferentz, the guy who went years and years without losing a game by double digits, now is a 12-point underdog to the only school in the Big Ten with stringent academic standards for its athletes.

Look, you folks got anything good to say here? We got nothin'.