Old Oaken Bucket Point Spread: Indiana Huge Favorite, But How Much is Too Much?

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — There is only one similarity to the Indiana and Purdue football seasons in 2024. Back in August, they shared the bottom of the list in the Big Ten preseason poll, with Indiana ranked No. 17 and Purdue No. 18.

They were both supposed to be awful. But, as it turned out, it only stuck with one of them.

Purdue has lost 10 straight games after winning its opener against Indiana State. The Hoosiers won 10 straight games before finally losing to No. 2 Ohio State last week, and they’ve shocked the college football world this season with their turnaround.

Indiana tries to close out the greatest season in school history on Saturday night when they take on Purdue in the Old Oaken Bucket game. It should be an easy win, but it’s also a rivalry game and you never really know for sure what might happen.

According to the oddsmakers at the FanDuel.com gambling website, Indiana is a 29.5-point favorite in the Old Oaken Bucket showdown. The over/under is 56.5 points. That’s a lot of points, but it didn’t matter to Notre Dame, Oregon, Wisconsin, Ohio State or Penn State, who have clobbered Purdue by an average of 44.8 points per game.

Here is what Indiana has done against the numbers all season, plus a complete breakdown week-by-week on the two teams.

Purdue hasn’t won a game since Aug. 31, and this 10-game losing streak has been very ugly. They’ve lost seven games by 17 points or more, and five of those have been by 35 or more.

They are 3-8 against the spread, and the over/under line in Purdue games has gone over six times out of 11. Here’s what has happened every week during the season: