Although the sports world is on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, it doesn’t mean we can’t look ahead to a time when there is college football again.
Caesars Sportsbook just released season-win totals and conference-title odds for every FBS team, and our experts — Bill Connelly, David Hale, Doug Kezirian, Preston Johnson and Phil Steele — are here to give their best bets for teams from the Big 12 Conference.
Odds courtesy of Caesars Sportsbook.
Big 12 championship best bets
Iowa State Cyclones (10-1)
Hale: There’s not much money to be made with obvious favorites Oklahoma (+150) and Texas (+175), so let’s turn our attention to Iowa State (10-1). The Cyclones were one of those teams advanced metrics loved last season (24th in SP+, 28th in Sagarin and much higher through most of the year) but then underperformed on the field. Iowa State finished just 7-6, but took Oklahoma to the brink, lost to Iowa by one and Baylor by two, and now it looks like it has a star in the making at QB in Brock Purdy.
A 2-4 record on the road and a defense that allowed 77.2% of drives inside the 40 to score (120th in FBS) hurt, but the margin between Matt Campbell’s team and the blue bloods of the Big 12 isn’t as much as people think.