BYU, Oregon St. battle in Sin City at Las Vegas Bowl
The bowl season kicks off officially on Saturday, and the first matchup of ranked teams will be next Tuesday in Las Vegas when the Beavers take on the Cougars of BYU.
This has been a pretty lousy year for the Pacific-10 Conference. The Oregon Ducks are going to the Rose Bowl as the No. 7 team in the BCS standings, but every other team in the Pac-10 lost at least four games this year.
That includes two of the participants in the opening week of the college football bowl season, each facing a tough opponent from the Mountain West Conference. Motivation will be hard to come by for the Pac-10 representatives in these matchups.
Las Vegas Bowl: No. 18 Oregon State vs. No. 14 Brigham Young (+2½, 60½)
Tuesday, Dec 22 - 8:00 p.m. (ET) ESPN
The Beavers (8-4 SU, 7-4 ATS) had a chance to be in the Rose Bowl, but they missed out by losing 37-33 to the Ducks in the latest installment of their Civil War. Little consolation for the Beavs that they were 9 ½-point underdogs in this contest, their fourth cover in a row and seventh in eight games.
The Cougars (10-2 SU, 6-6 ATS) are in their fifth straight Las Vegas Bowl after finishing the season strong at 8-1 SU and 4-5 ATS, but mostly against cupcake opposition. BYU went 2-2 SU and 2-1 ATS in the previous four bowls – there were no betting odds at game time for last year’s 31-21 loss to Arizona.
The advanced stats suggest Oregon State is easily the better of the two teams. The Beavers rank No. 13 in the FBS according to Brian Fremeau’s efficiency numbers, with BYU trailing at No. 48.
Again, the Mountain West was pretty weak this year aside from Brigham Young, Utah and Texas Christian. The Horned Frogs (-2½) stomped the Cougars 38-7 in Week 8, but the Cougs were able to overcome Utah (+7½) 26-23 in overtime to win the Holy War. There was also that 14-13 season-opening upset over Oklahoma (-22½), although the Sooners proved to be less than championship material this year.
The consensus reports at press time had 85 percent of bettors hitting Oregon State, although the Cougars were drawing 65 percent support on the moneyline at +115. The 'under' was marginally ahead, thanks to the massive betting total.
Both teams have strong offensive identities with QB Max Hall (30 TDs, 14 INTs) leading the Cougars and the talented Rodgers brothers, Jacquizz (1,377 yards rushing, 74 catches) and James (5.4 yards per carry, 87 catches) spearheading the OSU attack. Neither team is any great shakes on defense. OSU has won five straight bowl games at 3-2 ATS, so motivation might not be a problem for coach Mike Riley after all.
Poinsettia Bowl: No. 23 Utah vs. California (-3½, 52½)
Wednesday, Dec 23 - 8:00 p.m. (ET) ESPN
The Utes (9-3 SU, 5-7 ATS) weren’t able to keep up with the Horned Frogs this year either, taking a 55-28 beating as 20-point road dogs. Brian Fremeau has Utah ranked No. 59 in the nation, a fair distance behind California (8-4 SU, 6-6 ATS) at No. 42.
The Golden Bears (8-4 SU, 6-6 ATS) were a chic preseason pick to win the Pac-10, but flamed out with big losses to Oregon and USC to start conference play. They also got flattened 42-10 at Washington (+6½) to end the regular season.
We see the same split on the consensus reports here as we do with the Las Vegas Bowl, as the favorites from Cal are drawing about two-thirds of the pointspread action while Utah is a near-unanimous pick on the moneyline, building even more steam as the Utes move from +130 to +145.
The Utes are on a seven-game bowl winning streak at 6-1 ATS, so they’re used to being undervalued at this time of year. Cal has won its last four bowl games at 2-2 ATS.
Utah may have had the simpler schedule of the two teams, but this was still the No. 25-ranked defense in the FBS and the only notable feature of either team this year. The Golden Bears have issues on the offensive line, QB Kevin Riley (14 TDs, six INTs) is prone to inconsistency, and RB Jahvid Best (6,1 yards per carry) is uncertain to play after missing the last three games of the regular season with a major concussion.
One thing Cal will have going for it is a partisan crowd at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.
The bowl season kicks off officially on Saturday, and the first matchup of ranked teams will be next Tuesday in Las Vegas when the Beavers take on the Cougars of BYU.
This has been a pretty lousy year for the Pacific-10 Conference. The Oregon Ducks are going to the Rose Bowl as the No. 7 team in the BCS standings, but every other team in the Pac-10 lost at least four games this year.
That includes two of the participants in the opening week of the college football bowl season, each facing a tough opponent from the Mountain West Conference. Motivation will be hard to come by for the Pac-10 representatives in these matchups.
Las Vegas Bowl: No. 18 Oregon State vs. No. 14 Brigham Young (+2½, 60½)
Tuesday, Dec 22 - 8:00 p.m. (ET) ESPN
The Beavers (8-4 SU, 7-4 ATS) had a chance to be in the Rose Bowl, but they missed out by losing 37-33 to the Ducks in the latest installment of their Civil War. Little consolation for the Beavs that they were 9 ½-point underdogs in this contest, their fourth cover in a row and seventh in eight games.
The Cougars (10-2 SU, 6-6 ATS) are in their fifth straight Las Vegas Bowl after finishing the season strong at 8-1 SU and 4-5 ATS, but mostly against cupcake opposition. BYU went 2-2 SU and 2-1 ATS in the previous four bowls – there were no betting odds at game time for last year’s 31-21 loss to Arizona.
The advanced stats suggest Oregon State is easily the better of the two teams. The Beavers rank No. 13 in the FBS according to Brian Fremeau’s efficiency numbers, with BYU trailing at No. 48.
Again, the Mountain West was pretty weak this year aside from Brigham Young, Utah and Texas Christian. The Horned Frogs (-2½) stomped the Cougars 38-7 in Week 8, but the Cougs were able to overcome Utah (+7½) 26-23 in overtime to win the Holy War. There was also that 14-13 season-opening upset over Oklahoma (-22½), although the Sooners proved to be less than championship material this year.
The consensus reports at press time had 85 percent of bettors hitting Oregon State, although the Cougars were drawing 65 percent support on the moneyline at +115. The 'under' was marginally ahead, thanks to the massive betting total.
Both teams have strong offensive identities with QB Max Hall (30 TDs, 14 INTs) leading the Cougars and the talented Rodgers brothers, Jacquizz (1,377 yards rushing, 74 catches) and James (5.4 yards per carry, 87 catches) spearheading the OSU attack. Neither team is any great shakes on defense. OSU has won five straight bowl games at 3-2 ATS, so motivation might not be a problem for coach Mike Riley after all.
Poinsettia Bowl: No. 23 Utah vs. California (-3½, 52½)
Wednesday, Dec 23 - 8:00 p.m. (ET) ESPN
The Utes (9-3 SU, 5-7 ATS) weren’t able to keep up with the Horned Frogs this year either, taking a 55-28 beating as 20-point road dogs. Brian Fremeau has Utah ranked No. 59 in the nation, a fair distance behind California (8-4 SU, 6-6 ATS) at No. 42.
The Golden Bears (8-4 SU, 6-6 ATS) were a chic preseason pick to win the Pac-10, but flamed out with big losses to Oregon and USC to start conference play. They also got flattened 42-10 at Washington (+6½) to end the regular season.
We see the same split on the consensus reports here as we do with the Las Vegas Bowl, as the favorites from Cal are drawing about two-thirds of the pointspread action while Utah is a near-unanimous pick on the moneyline, building even more steam as the Utes move from +130 to +145.
The Utes are on a seven-game bowl winning streak at 6-1 ATS, so they’re used to being undervalued at this time of year. Cal has won its last four bowl games at 2-2 ATS.
Utah may have had the simpler schedule of the two teams, but this was still the No. 25-ranked defense in the FBS and the only notable feature of either team this year. The Golden Bears have issues on the offensive line, QB Kevin Riley (14 TDs, six INTs) is prone to inconsistency, and RB Jahvid Best (6,1 yards per carry) is uncertain to play after missing the last three games of the regular season with a major concussion.
One thing Cal will have going for it is a partisan crowd at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.
