LAS VEGAS – While the media has been very busy building up the SEC as the best conference in college football – and rightfully so with five teams in the Top 10 – the Big 12 has an opportunity to get one team into the new four-team playoff this season. Two Big 12 teams with a chance to improve their standing in the national rankings and move into the Top 10 square off in Norman on Saturday (12 p.m. ET, ESPN), as Oklahoma hosts Kansas State.
The Sooners opened as 11-point home favorites at the The Wynn sports book, but bettors have been backing the visiting Wildcats, moving the line down to -7.5 as of Friday afternoon. The combination of one team just playing a tough rivalry game and the other benefiting from a bye week has impacted the odds.
Oklahoma is coming off a hard-fought 31-26 win over Texas last Saturday in the annual Red River Rivalry game, failing to cover the spread as a 16.5-point favorite. Johnny Avello, The Wynn’s executive director of race & sports operations, said he was not surprised by the Sooners struggling against the Longhorns.
“The Texas rivalry is always a tough game,” Avello said. “It’s one of those rivalries where no matter how you’re playing, the game is so big for both teams. So I understand how the game was kind of close. I expected to see it a lot closer than the spread was.”
Meanwhile, Kansas State was off last week following two straight wins and three consecutive covers, including a 20-14 home loss to Auburn on Sept. 18 as a 7-point home underdog. Avello said he is a big fan of Wildcats head coach Bill Snyder, who prepares his team about as well as anybody in the country. The road team has won and covered the last three meetings in this series along with four of the past five.
“When you go up against Kansas State, they only have one loss, and that’s to Auburn, who’s still considered one of the best teams in the country,” Avello said. “The coach there, Snyder, he’s one of the better coaches that you’re ever going to find in football. He does so much with a team that has far less athletes than others do.
“When you look at his games against Oklahoma, he keeps his team in the game – against anybody really. This is a tough team to just blow away, it seems like they stay in every single game that they play.”
Kansas State and Oklahoma each have one loss apiece, but both of them get a shot at unbeaten Baylor later this season. The Sooners host the Bears on Nov. 8, while the Wildcats visit Waco on Dec. 6.
UAB goes from underdog to favorite
Avello opened Middle Tennessee State as a 3-point home favorite against UAB, but the Blue Raiders now find themselves as 1-point underdogs against the Blazers in their Conference USA matchup. He believes that UAB covering as a 29-point underdog in 47-34 loss at now-No. 1 Mississippi State has probably factored into the public’s mindset in backing the Blazers.
“If you want one game to point to that shows how decent UAB is, it’s the loss at Mississippi State,” Avello said. “You go back to that game, and they were very competitive against that team. So I guess that’s the reason maybe people are looking at that side.”
Other major Week 8 college football line moves
-- Clemson from -9 down to -5 at Boston College (click here for more on this game)
-- Ole Miss from -19 down to -16.5 at home vs. Tennessee (click here for more on this game)
-- Florida from -2 up to -6 at home vs. Missouri (click here for more on this game)
-- Maryland from -1.5 up to -4.5 at home vs. Iowa
-- South Alabama from -17 up to -19.5 at home vs. Georgia State
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