In what could be a possible preview of this year’s Big 12 championship game, the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners will take on the West Virginia Mountaineers this coming Friday. A win by the Sooners (or by the Kansas Jayhawks against the Texas Longhorns) could send them to the conference’s title game. The Mountaineers are coming off a huge loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys, but they can still make it to the Big 12 championship game if they could take down Oklahoma. The sportsbook favors the Sooners in this matchup, but does this writer agree? Find out.
Betting on the Oklahoma Sooners (10-1 Overall / 7-1 Conference)
So long as the Sooners have Kyler Murray under center, they’ll have a shot at winning against any matchup. In Oklahoma’s 55-40 win over the Kansas Jayhawks last week, Murray had 272 passing yards and two touchdowns and an interception on 21-of-32 completions. He also came through on the ground, with 99 rushing yards and three touchdowns. On the season, the junior Murray has 3,310 passing yards and 34 touchdowns against just six interceptions. Oklahoma is the highest-scoring program in the nation, as the Sooners are averaging 49.5 points per game and 576.3 total yards per contest – also the most in the FBS. The Sooners could have plenty of success on the ground against the Mountaineers, considering that West Virginia just allowed the Oklahoma State Cowboys to run circles around them for 266 rushing yards on 43 carries.
The Sooners are 3-0 straight up (SU) on the road so far this season, but 5-4-1 against the spread (ATS) in their last 10 road games in total, going back to last season (for some extra insight).
Betting on the West Virginia Mountaineers (8-2 Overall / 6-2 Conference)
The pain surely still lingers for the Mountaineers after losing to the Oklahoma State Cowboys 45-41 last Saturday. West Virginia shouldn’t have lost that game. It entered the fourth quarter holding a 17-point lead, but that’s when the wheels started to come off for the Mountaineers, who allowed the Cowboys outscore them in the final period, 21-10. The Mountaineers’ downfall lies mostly in their inability to convert on third-downs, as they went just 5-for-18 in such situations against Oklahoma State. However, they could still expect to have plenty of success on the attack against the Sooners’ defense that hasn’t inspired for most of the season. The Sooners are in the bottom half of the Big 12 in both pass defense and total defense with 263.6 passing yards and 425.8 total yards allowed per game. To add to those, the Sooners also just let Kansas cover 524 total yards last week.
The Mountaineers are 5-0 SU and 4-1 ATS in their last five home games. They may give the Sooners a run for their money (and pocket some for you) this Friday at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown West Virginia.
