Mississippi State vs. Kentucky Point Spread Announced

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Mississippi State will travel to play Kentucky in Week 8 of the 2016 football season.

Mississippi State opened as a 1.5 point favorite at Kentucky.

The game is slated for a 6:30 PM Central kickoff on SEC Network.

Kentucky will be coming off a bye in Week 7, while MSU lost to BYU in double overtime on the road. The Bulldogs have won seven straight in the series.

The Wildcats started the year off slow with losses to Southern Miss at home and then got blown out at Florida, 45-7. That immediately put Mark Stoops on the blazing inferno hot seat, which didn’t get cooled off with a 62-42 win over lowly New Mexico State.

Mark Stoops took over the defensive play-calling, however, and things have settled down a bit since then. A Week 4 win over South Carolina, a tight first half at No. 1 Alabama and a win over Vandy has UK sitting at 3-3 (2-2).

Even though we are only halfway through the season, both teams are a long shot for a bowl game. If they want to have any shot this is a must-win for either team.

UK still has winnable games at Missouri and vs. Austin Peay. MSU has homecoming vs. Samford and perhaps Arkansas as chances for victory. Despite the Bulldogs dominance during the Mullen era, most of the games have been close and Kentucky sees this as a chance to pick up a win.

The last meeting in Lexington was two years ago on much nicer circumstances. MSU was ranked No. 1 and flying high while Kentucky was 5-2 and Stoops had just been awarded a new contract extension. Things are a little more tenuous this time around.