Tennessee Volunteers

There was no better example in 2005 of a team that left everything it had on the grass than when the Fresno State Bulldogs lost at USC. Fresno entered the game with a mark of 8-1 straight up and 6-2-1 against the spread and had covered four consecutive games entering the LA Memorial Coliseum. This was a game that head coach Pat Hill, his staff and players, and the entire Fresno community had pointed too since the beginning of the season, making this game, in essence, their ENTIRE season. Fresno State led many times and led late as whopping 23-point dogs, before suffering a 42-50 defeat.

After the game, gamblers could analyze how Fresno would react one of two ways; they would take the game as a “morale” victory and use it as a springboard or, it was feared, they would have nothing left in the tank.

Fresno 's next game, at Nevada as 16.5-point chalks, revealed the answer. Not only were they out of gas but they would now be overvalued as they lost to the Wolfpack 35-38 and went on to lose their final two games as well.

Boise State was another team that had a lot to prove against one of the big boys when they took on Georgia , “between the hedges” in Athens as relatively small 7.5-point dogs. This was a game that the Broncos had pointed to as a golden opportunity to gain respect against an SEC power on national television. Unfortunately, UGA bit hard in a 48-13 revelation that Boise took quite a while to recover from as they covered just one of their next four lined games.

When one of the mid-majors suffers a loss to a big time program in a game that they placed a lot of emphasis on, it is likely that they will take a long time to recover as the price in both mental and physical energy is often too great to overcome.