Las Vegas not big on Hawkeyes, Cyclones

As it does each year, the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas released a lot of college football pointspreads months before the games are to be played.

Iowa State and Iowa are listed in 12 different games. And the only game in which either is favorite is on Sept. 14 when the two teams play each other in Ames. The Cyclones are a 4-point pick.

ISU is the underdog in six other games, Iowa in five. So should we skip straight to basketball? Nah, let's let things play out and see if there are some surprises. It's not like we could stop the season, anyway.

For the list of all 250 games the Golden Nugget has posted, click here. Thanks to @bj_brown in Las Vegas for bringing this to my attention.

Sept. 14: Iowa at Iowa State (-4)

Oct. 3: Texas (-12) at Iowa State

Oct. 5: Michigan State (-9) at Iowa

Oct. 19: Iowa at Ohio State (-23)

Oct. 26: Oklahoma State (-14) at Iowa State

Northwestern (-12) at Iowa

Nov. 2: Iowa State at Kansas State (-13.5)

Nov. 9: TCU (-9.5) at Iowa State

Nov. 16: Iowa State at Oklahoma (-20)

Nov. 23: Michigan (-10.5) at Iowa

Nov. 29: Iowa at Nebraska (-14)

Iowa State at West Virginia (-7.5)

I smell money. I don't understand why Northwestern is a bigger favorite at Iowa than Michigan. I'd take Iowa and the 12 points in that game right now. Others that seem like value bets to me are Iowa getting the 9 against Michigan State and Iowa State getting the 9.5 at home against TCU. Everything else, I'll let you tell me.