Ohio State-Washington Rose Bowl Spread on the Move Following Urban Meyer’s Retirement

On Tuesday morning, Urban Meyer announced that his head coaching career would be coming to an end following Ohio State's appearance in the upcoming Rose Bowl.

Meyer will retire as the winningest coach in Ohio State history (by percentage), with a .901 mark heading into his final game.

Following Meyer's announcement, the line for the Rose Bowl was on the move.

OSU opened as a 5-point favorite over Pac-12 champion Washington, but early betting brought the line down to Buckeyes -4.5.

However, on Monday night the spread began to swing back in Ohio State's direction, and most books were posting a line between -5 and -5.5 to start the day.

Shortly after the retirement news broke, that line was back up to -6.

Meyer has essentially been an ATM for bettors in bowl games. His 11-3 against-the-spread (ATS) record in bowls adds to an outrageous 42-15 ATS record with at least eight days of preparation.

At the time of writing, 84% of tickets and 93% of dollars wagered on the Washington-Ohio State spread have come in on the Buckeyes.

So while it's not clear whether or not the retirement announcement was the reason for the line move, it certainly won't hurt the Buckeyes' chances to have him on the sidelines on New Year's Day.