College Football Preview: Colorado State at Wyoming

Saturday morning college football action features a big rivalry game in the Mountain West Conference between the 4-2 Wyoming Cowboys and the 2-4 Colorado State Rams. These teams compete annually for the ‘Bronze Boot’ and will be meeting each other for the 68th consecutive season.

If you’ve been with us for awhile you’ve no doubt noticed that we’ll often focus on teams in the Intermountain West. There’s a good reason for that—as we noted in our writeup of the BYU/Houston game above the region is almost completely ‘off the radar’ of the mainstream sports media and as a result most sports fans. The result is that we’re constantly finding value in matchups and situations that are completely overlooked by those not familiar with the dynamics of Rocky Mountain college football.

This is a perfect case in point. We’ve been signing the praises of the Wyoming Cowboys under fifth year coach Dave Christiansen for awhile now. He’s taken a program that was stuck in the mud for years and made them relevant. They’ve been especially impressive this year with talented quarterback Brett Smith at the helm and thanks in large part to a near upset of Nebraska in their opening game the betting public has started to take notice.

In fact, they’ve ‘taken notice’ to the point that the Cowboys are becoming overvalued. Nothing but respect for Smith but the weapons around him are pedestrian at best. Our biggest concern, however, is the Cowboys’ #90 ranked defense which negates much of the advantage posed by the potent Wyoming offense.

Perhaps the most salient component of this handicap is the fact that this is a huge and long standing rivalry game. Fort Collins, Colorado and Laramie, Wyoming are 90 minutes apart and Saturday’s game will be the 105th meeting between these two football teams dating back to 1899. Wyoming has won the last four games in the series which is the longest winning streak in series history. Colorado State holds a narrow 11-10 ATS advantage in the last 21 games which underscores the competitive nature of the ‘Border War’. We like them to end the Cowboys’ series winning streak here and especially with the margin of error provided by the pointspread

BET COLORADO STATE +7 OVER WYOMING