By David Purdum

The polls say Ohio State is No. 2. One of the most respected college football oddsmakers in Vegas strongly disagrees.

“I think I’d have 10 or 11 teams favored over Ohio State on a neutral field,” said Ed Salmons, head oddsmaker at the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino SuperBook. “But, because of their schedule, they’ll probably go undefeated, get into the championship game, be a 10-point dog to Alabama and get run out of the building.”

Salmons, a 20-year Vegas vet who is considered by his peers to be one of the sharpest oddsmakers in town, has Oregon at No. 2 in his power rankings.  Georgia, Stanford, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Clemson, Florida, Florida State and LSU are also above the Buckeyes.

“Ohio State just looked like a pedestrian team to me last season,” said Salmons. “If they were to get down to an SEC team on the road by a few points, I just couldn’t see them being able come back.”

That hasn’t stopped bettors from loading up on the Buckeyes. According to Salmons, twice as much money has been bet on the Buckeyes to win the BCS title than any other team. Texas A&M is a distant second.

Each of the 49 teams listed on the SuperBook’s BCS title odds has received at least one bet. Ohio State has received the most, followed by Texas A&M, Oregon, Georgia and Alabama.

Only one person has bet on Utah to win it all. Cincinnati and North Carolina have each received two bets.

On Sunday, a bettor placed a $1,000 wager on Notre Dame at 40-to-1 to win it all. There also have been $500 bets on SEC longshots Tennessee (500/1), Auburn (200/1) and Ole Miss (100/1) to win the BCS title.

“Tennessee plays at Oregon and at Alabama … good luck,” said Salmons.

Inside the lines Week 1

Point spreads for Week 1 college football games began popping up at Vegas sports books in early August. Big bets quickly followed. More are on the way.

John Avello, executive director at the Wynn, said he’s already taken a handful of five-figure wagers on the opening games, including a $30,000 bet on Fresno State. Avello took that bet shortly after opening Fresno State as a 10-point home favorite over Rutgers (10:30 p.m., ESPNU).  The line climbed to Fresno State -11, but has since been bet back down to -10.

“It’s early, but there will be more bets like that and bigger ones along the way,” said Avello.

Georgia also has attracted some respected money in its opener at Clemson (8 p.m., ABC).

“A couple of wise guys bet it early,” said Avello, who opened the line at a Pick ‘em. The Bulldogs are now 1.5-point favorites at the Wynn.

Clemson QB Tajh Boyd (Melina Vastola-US PRESSWIRE)

Other notable early line movement:

BYU at Virginia, 3:30 p.m., Saturday (ESPNU): A respected betting syndicate released Virginia as one of its three plays Monday. The line quickly dropped from BYU -3 to -1 at most Vegas sports books. It’s important to note that when a professional group releases a play, sports books, using online line services, will often see the numbers begin to move on the screen and elect to adjust their spreads, even if they haven’t received an actual wager. It’s what bookmakers call “moving on air.”

Alabama vs. Virginia Tech, 5:30 p.m., Saturday (ESPN):  Alabama, unsurprisingly, is receiving the bulk of the action in its game against Virginia Tech (5:30 p.m., ESPN). The line opened as low as Crimson Tide -17 at the SouthPoint sports books, but was up to -20 at most Vegas books as of Tuesday.

Mississippi at Vanderbilt, 9 p.m., Thursday (ESPN): The Rebels opened as 2-point road favorites at the Wynn. The line was up to -3 as of Tuesday. This game features two of the top coaches in the game, when it comes to covering the spread. Vanderbilt’s James Franklin is 18-8 against the spread in his career. Ole Miss’s Huge Freeze is 20-6 against the number, including a 10-3 ATS mark last season, his first with the Rebels.

Odds & Ends

–Alabama enters the season having been favored in 40 consecutive games. And the gap is widening between the Crimson Tide and the rest of the nation. Salmons believes this season’s version of the Crimson Tide is a step up from last year’s national championship team. He bumped up Alabama’s power rating two points. The Crimson Tide would be at least a field-goal favorite over any other team on a neutral field.

–The point spread on the Rice-Texas A&M game started reappearing at Las Vegas sports books Monday. The SuperBook reopened the Aggies as 27-point favorites. The line was taken off the board three weeks ago, after reports surfaced that the NCAA was investigating allegations that A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel accepted money in exchange for autographing memorabilia.

–Oregon’s opener against Nicholls State features the highest point spread of Week 1. No Vegas books were offering the game early in the week, but the line was sitting at Oregon -59 offshore. Avello said he may offer the game, because he’ll be able to put it on TV in the book. “I’ll lower the limits and take only a couple dimes on games like that,” he said. “I don’t want to get too crazy.”

Formula behind over/unders

Over/unders began showing up on the boards at Vegas books this week. The Wynn and William Hill went up Monday. The LVH was slated to go up Tuesday. During the season, over/unders usually will open on Wednesdays.

They are not big moneymakers for the books.

“We’ve always taken a dime ($1,000) on totals and offer them on every game,” said Salmons. “But they’re not something we clean up on. Sides are a lot easier than totals early on, just because so many teams switch coaches and styles, that’s hard to gauge until you’ve seen them in a game or two.”

Salmons uses a computer program to generate his totals. He simply enters the two teams, and the computer spits out an over/under number.

“I’ll compare that number with what’s out there (in the betting market), and usually shade toward the computer,” Salmons explained.

The most important stat when it comes to setting over/under totals, in Salmons’ eyes, is number of offensive plays per game.

Marshall led the nation at 92.8 plays per game last season, followed by Louisiana Tech (88.6), Clemson (85.6), Nevada (84.6) and Baylor (84.0). Those five teams combined to produce 40 overs and 17 unders.

David Purdum is a professional freelance writer who has covered the sports betting industry for five years. For great gambling news & information please check out his blog David Purdum Sports and follow him on Twitter @DavidPurdum.