Posted at 8:00 AM ET. Odds are subject to change

NEW HAVEN COLLEGE +6½ over Columbia Hazell Athletics Center – New Haven, CT

1:00 PM ET. For those unaware, New Haven College is actually a Division I basketball team. The Chargers, as they’re affectionately known, made the leap into the Northeastern Conference this season. And so far, it hasn’t gone according to script. They opened their Division I era by getting throttled by 24 against UConn — a harsh welcome, but also exactly what you’d expect when stepping into the ring with a national powerhouse.

Now they get Columbia, an esteemed Ivy League outfit in the mid-major sense. The Lions haven’t played a minute of basketball yet this season, but the natural inclination is to line up behind them anyway. Columbia is annually positioned as a perennial Ivy League contender, consistently shortlisted as a program that can make the jump to March Madness if the pieces fall right. New Haven? If we didn’t tell you, most wouldn’t even know they were a Division I team. That’s key here.

But this spot is sneaky. For New Haven, this is an opportunity — a legitimate chance to notch a win in their new chapter. For Columbia, this is a tune-up, a formality before the big-ticket matchup looming at UConn. That’s classic look-ahead material, and when you combine it with a Lions team that hasn’t played yet, the door opens wider for the Chargers. And the line backs that up. If Columbia were truly expected to steamroll here, we wouldn’t be seeing a number this soft.

We wouldn’t be shocked in the slightest if New Haven walks out with the outright upset. But with the market giving us a margin this wide, we don’t need the shock value — just the cushion. Take the points.

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