College Football Betting: Oklahoma State vs. Missouri
Big bowl action continues on Friday night as Big 12 entrant Oklahoma State takes on Missouri from the SEC in the Cotton Bowl. Both teams are coming off impressive seasons with Missouri at 11-2 and Oklahoma State at 10-2. The Tigers lost only once during the regular season–an upset loss to South Carolina at home–before being blasted by Auburn in the SEC title game. Oklahoma State is also coming in off a tough loss but one that occurred in significantly more brutal fashion. The Cowboys lost to hated rival Oklahoma by surrendering 13 points in the final 19 seconds of the game to lose by 9 as -9′ point favorites.
Heading in to the bowl season much of the narrative concerned the status of the SEC relative to last season–the conventional wisdom was that the SEC was ‘down’ this year and that their long suffering bowl opponents from other conferences would have a chance to gain some measure of redemption. So far it hasn’t worked out that way–pending the outcome of Thursday night’s Sugar Bowl game between Alabama and Oklahoma the SEC has lost only once this bowl season. The ‘bearish’ attitude toward the SEC might have something to do with the price on this game and perhaps the line movement. Missouri opened as a -1′ point favorite but money has come for the underdog moving the price to Oklahoma State -1′.
We’re not buying the line move. Some Oklahoma State backers are making the point that the Tigers will be hard pressed to rebound quickly after the embarrassing loss to Auburn but given the nature of the Cowboys’ loss to Oklahoma that would seem to be a ‘wash’. With that fact in mind we’d rather back a Missouri team that impressed all season long and consistently exceeded the expectations of bookmakers and the betting public. Missouri’s 10-3 ATS mark is very impressive and in our view their quarterback, James Franklin, will be the best player on the field. Franklin is also a local product (over 35 Texans on the Missouri roster) so we don’t see any shortage of motivation. We’ll gladly take the team from the better conference getting points.
BET MISSOURI +1′ OVER OKLAHOMA STATE
