UPDATE: Saturday, 10:20 a.m.
Penn State is now +142.5 on the FanDuel promotion, and the number will still grow even bigger with kickoff later today.
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ORIGINAL STORY
ALTOONA, Pa. -- Iowa is favored to beat Penn State on Saturday by 1.5 points, but there is a place where you can bet on the Nittany Lions as 78.5-point underdogs.
Yeah, 78.5 points. And before too long, that number probably will be over 100.
FanDuel occasionally offers a bet called "spread the love," where it moves the point spread in one team's favor for every 500 bets placed. When the promotion is over, everyone who placed a bet ends up getting the final point spread, which ends up being enormous.
As of Thursday morning, Penn State was +78.5 on the FanDuel promotion. And the number will keep increasing with more bets that are placed prior to the kickoff Saturday at 4 p.m.
Here's a screen shot of the current point spread.
There is one catch with the promotion. No one is going to get rich off this, since the maximum wager is only $25. But it is a free $25 for anyone who takes Penn State and the moneyline. The wager is only available to people living in Pennsylvania.
The fact that Iowa is only favored by 1.5 points says Vegas sees this really as a pick 'em type of matchup. Since home teams generally get close to 3 points, the Lions probably would be favored in this game if it were played on a neutral field and especially at home.
How has Penn State done against the spread this year? Here's a look at each game so far, from VegasInsider.
Penn State covered against Wisconsin, Ball State, Auburn and Indiana, but did not cover against Villanova thanks to a pair of late touchdowns by the Wildcats. So, PSU is 4-1 against the spread.
Taking the under has been the way to go so far with Penn State, with the number finishing under in four of the five games. The only time the over hit was, again, when Villanova scored those two late TDs.
The over/under for this week's game at Iowa is 41.