What the oddsmakers are saying about Southern Miss football before the 2022 season
HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss football takes the field against Liberty in 52 days to begin the 2022 season.
Before long, Will Hall and his team will break into training camp as preparation for the upcoming campaign ramps up.
The sportsbooks are preparing, too. Here's an overview of the oddsmakers' outlook for Southern Miss football in 2022.
Southern Miss football win total
After the Golden Eagles finished 3-9 in 2021, owing to a seven-game losing streak in the middle of the season, the sportsbooks are certainly expecting to see some improvement.
William Hill is setting the line right at bowl eligibility for the Golden Eagles in year two of Will Hall's tenure, listing Southern Miss at -105 odds to surpass the 5.5-win threshold.
Draft Kings takes a slightly different approach. They've posted the Golden Eagles' win total at 4.5 with -150 odds on the over, implying a 60 percent probability that Southern Miss surpasses that win threshold.
After a turbulent year that saw Southern Miss change conferences and overhaul its roster, the preseason prognostication isn't all that different to what it was in 2021, when the bookies set the win total at 5.5.
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USM's Sun Belt odds
For those Southern Miss fans who like to dream big, William Hill and Draft Kings also offered odds on the Golden Eagles to win the Sun Belt in their first season as members.
Draft Kings has that outcome at +4,000 – or 40 to 1.
William Hill is slightly more optimistic, tabbing the Golden Eagles at 30 to 1 to lift the Sun Belt trophy at the conclusion of the season. Both sportsbooks have Southern Miss as the eighth-most likely Sun Belt champion.
Appalachian State is a firm favorite to take home the title for Draft Kings at +210. William Hill is just as high on Louisiana-Lafayette, listing the Rajin' Cajuns and Mountaineers as co-favorites at +250.
Southern Miss vs Liberty odds
The Golden Eagles will begin their 2022 season as underdogs when Liberty comes to The Rock.
The Flames are favored in that game by 3 or 3.5 points, depending on one's sportsbook of choice.
Liberty has won at least eight games in each of the last three seasons, including a 10-1 campaign in 2020 that produced a 17th-place finish in the final AP Poll.
The Flames beat the Golden Eagles 56-25 that season in the only meeting ever between the two teams.
Reach Southern Miss writer David Eckert at deckert@gannett.com or on Twitter @davideckert98.
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: What the oddsmakers are saying about Southern Miss football
