puts a lot of pressure on the favored team who in reality are young student athletes that can feel that not meeting or beating the assigned spread is a sign of underachieving..
and conversely the underdog team feels slighted and needs physiological help..
unless they win and then go beserk & rip down hedge bushes in the home team's stadium for manic relief.
I don’t think our coaches pay much attention to point spreads and I don’t either unless I’m crazy enough to risk my hard earned money on it( which I don’t)