Betting the Big XII: Week 8

You know, sometimes gambling is fun. Your highs are higher, your lows lower. Adrenaline courses through your body during every series as if your life depended on the outcome of the game. Hopefully, it doesn't and if it does you should probably re-evaluate your gambling methods, but the excitement that placing a wager on a sporting event creates can make watching them exponentially more enjoyable.

Or, you can lose every early morning matchup on your parlay card, leaving you with a void in your soul that can only be filled with tears and beer. Damn you, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Missouri. Way to ruin my birthday party. Dicks.

Thankfully, not all was doom and gloom as Iowa State hurried their way to victory preventing what would have been only my second losing weekend of the season.

Last Week's Results

West Virginia 37 - Texas Tech 34

Bet WVU -6/$33 (L)

Cash - $0

Who kicks a last second field goal when you clearly need a touchdown to cover? Bastards.

Texas 26 - Oklahoma 31

Bet Oklahoma -14.5/$11 (L)

Cash - $0

Of course Texas would start pulling their shit together the week before playing the Cyclones.

Toledo 30 - Iowa State 37

Bet Iowa State -3/$220 (W)

Cash - $420

Since I didn't watch the game, I wasn't bothered by the uniforms at all. Since I won A LOT of money on the game, I say, "let's wear them every week"!

TCU 58 - Baylor 61

Bet Baylor -8/$22 (L)

Cash - $0

I thought both of these teams were supposed to be good on defense? The hell happened?

Oklahoma State 27 - Kansas 20

Bet Under 50.5/$22 (W)

Cash - $42

And you, Cowboys; what the hell happened here?

As I have shown, you don't have to win all your bets, you just have to win the right bets. Unless you're playing parlay cards.

Parlay Pick 4(s)

Yeah, I didn't win.

To the games...

Baylor @ West Virginia - Saturday, October 18^th @ 11:00 AM - FS1

Line -  Baylor -8

O/U - 80

Another week, another insanely high over/under. Eighty points? Really? It is very difficult to even entertain a number that high, until you consider last week's matchup of Baylor and TCU where either team could have reached their combined over (66) individually with simply one additional touchdown. But, 80?

Baylor knows offense; this has been demonstrated time and time again. West Virginia can put points on the board as well yet haven't scored more than 37 so far in conference play.

Baylor can play defense; except apparently at home in conference play. West Virginia has given up late leads against Maryland and early leads to Texas Tech needing their kicker to bail them out of each as time expired.

Baylor has only one loss ATS this season (hint: it was last week). West Virginia is 0-3 ATS in conference play. The line seems way too low for me and far more attractive than the O/U.

My bet - $22/ Baylor -8

Kansas State @ Oklahoma - Saturday, October 18^th @ 11:00 AM - ESPN

Line - OU -7

O/U - 55

Our friend, David Ubben, feels K-State plays spoiler to Oklahoma's homecoming by winning this game outright. If that were in fact the case (and he is 42-3 on the season), then one should strongly consider a moneyline play (+240) on this game. The early money seems to agree with Ubbs, dropping the opening line of 12 all the way down to a touchdown by Thursday afternoon.

Oklahoma has never lost the game following their matchup with Texas under Bob Stoops, but they also don't typically schedule a team as talented as K-State either, so this will be an interesting and fun game to watch.

As much as I respect K-State's program, this will only be the Wildcat's second game away from Snyder Stadium. If it were a home game for the boys in purple I'd agree with Pork Chop but it's not so I'm not sure I can side with our friend at Fox this week.

My bet - $22/Oklahoma -7

Kansas @ Texas Tech - Saturday, October 18^th @ 2:30 PM - FSN

Line - TTU -13

O/U - 58.5

I'm so bored thinking about this game and can't imagine any of you give much more of a damn, so I've decided to assist your temptation to skim this particular summary with an abbreviated take on the matchup.

Reasons to take KU - Can't think of any.

Reasons to take Texas Tech - They aren't Kansas.

My bet - $22/TTU -13

Oklahoma State @ TCU - Saturday, October 18^th @ 3:00 PM - FS1

Line -  TCU -10

O/U - 62

This line was off the board for a portion of the week due to the rumor news rumor news that starting TCU quarterback, Trevone Boykin, injured his non-throwing wrist and will play the Cowboys with a soft cast. Apparently, once it was determined he will in fact play, bettors decided an injured Boykin is still good enough for a double digit win as the news had little effect on line which hasn't budged from 10.

My concern with TCU, from both the perspective as a fan and potential profiteer, focuses more on the idea that TCU is coming down from playing back to back top 5 opponents, winning one and having the second victory snatched from their jowls in the cruelest of manners. That is a lot of adrenaline exhausted in a relatively short period of time. Do they have enough left in them to face their third quality opponent in as many weeks? Don't let last week's performance at Kansas fool you, Oklahoma State is still a quality matchup anyone would be foolish to overlook.

TCU is good. Very good. But have the completed the building process making them able to sustain the rigors of Big XII play? That question has not been fully answered yet, but I suspect we'll be a lot closer to understanding this weekend.

My bet - $22/OSU +10

Iowa State @ Texas - Saturday, October 18^th @ 7:00 PM - LHN/Cyclones.tv/Nowhere

Line -  Texas -12.5

O/U - 44

Texas is looking for a whipping boy after starting their first season with new head coach, Charlie Strong, 2-4. Enter Iowa State, the slump buster every team with tradition (except Iowa) looks forward to on their schedule. Texas has failed to beat Iowa State only twice once since joining the Big XII eighteen years ago.

Iowa State is coming off its offensive coming out party, finally putting most of the pieces together in what I hear was a fantastic second half of football. Sammy Bitchin Richardson lit up the Toledo secondary by increasing our tempo and wearing down the Rockets' defense.

Texas is not Toledo, however. They may be 2-4, but as we are all fond of saying, the record does not tell the whole story. Their defense has been solid all season long, holding Baylor to a season low 28 points in week six. It does not mean, however, that their defense in indestructible. While Sammy B may not be as talented as Taysom Hill, BYU showed Texas can be susceptible to an offense with a mobile quarterback.

According to StubHub, there are still 3,182 tickets left to this game starting at $30 each. A round trip ticket on Allegiant air would cost around $270, figure $150 for bbq and booze and I could probably find some flimsy piece of cardboard to sleep on at the airport while waiting for my Sunday morning flight home. My wife will probably change the locks during my unapproved and impromptu road trip, so it might be best if I check my cardboard bed at the ticket counter.

All this I would absolutely do before ever contributing a dime to the LHN.

My bet - $20/ ISU Moneyline +400

Best of the Rest

Since the parlays have failed to net me even one lousy dollar halfway through the betting season, I will instead fill the rest of my allotted space with the other bets I find intriguing. Perhaps there will be better luck in that.

Big Ten Beatdown

Iowa @ Maryland

Iowa is now in the discussion for winning the West. That's either really funny or a sad eulogy describing the state of the B1G.

Maryland -4.5

ACC Acquittal

Virginia @ Duke

Virginia is here to make my earlier claims against Duke seem less erroneous.

Virginia -2.5

Obligatory SMU Pick

Cincinnati @ Southern Methodist

I wouldn't feel right if I didn't have SMU on here somewhere. Yes, they finally found their will to score the last time out, but I still believe they are a terrible team.

Cincinnati -13.5

As my dinner guest said last week, "that's all, folks".