WSU favorites on the road against Arizona

Back on track and bowl eligible, your Washington State Cougars will head down to Tucson to face off with the Arizona Wildcats.

The season has seemingly flew by as we head into the 11th game and final road trip of the regular season. WSU (6-4, 3-4 in Pac-12) looked dominant early on against the Wildcats’ fellow Grand Canyon state brothers, the Arizona State Sun Devils. The Cougars took a 28-0 lead into halftime, but let up on the gas in the second half. Though the game wasn’t ever seriously in doubt, the Sun Devils did score 18 unanswered to make the game look closer. The win secured WSU’s seventh straight bowl eligible season. Meanwhile, down in Los Angeles, Arizona (4-6, 2-5) pulled off an upset of the formerly top-12 UCLA Bruins in the Rose Bowl to keep their bowl hopes alive.

DraftKings has the Cougars as a narrow four point favorite against the Wildcats. The total points is over/under 63 and the Cougars are -200 on the money line. A $200 bet on WSU would win you $100 with a Cougar victory.

When Arizona State punched in their final minute touchdown to bring the game within 10, WSU still had the game all but wrapped up. However, they did not have the spread all but wrapped up. The Cougars were set around a eight to 10 point favorite depending on when and where you got your spread number. DraftKings had the number at -9.5 on Friday night. Arizona State went for two to try and pull back within a possession, and more importantly for the bettors, to cover the 9.5 points spread. The Sun Devils spread beater failed and Coug bettors rejoiced as the Cougars record against the spread improved to 7-3. Winners win, champions cover.

The under remains a constant in WSU games. For the eighth time this season, the total points hit the under in a WSU game with only 46 points scored compared to the 59 point total line. The Wildcats have been about even on the spread and point totals, covering the spread and hitting the over in six of their 10 games so far this season.

For those who favor recent history, the under may be more on your mind with the Cougars hitting the under much more than the over this season. However, if you like to think historically, you may really like the over. The last six times the Cougars and Wildcats have met up, it’s been a shootout. The over has hit with a pretty comfortable margin in those six meetings. In four of those last six games, a team has scored at least 58 points and the Cougars put up 69 points in two of those.

While WSU hasn’t been down to Tucson since 2017, they will meet a familiar face down in the desert. Former WSU quarterback Jayden de Laura will be awaiting and he had some—interesting words—about his former school, team and coaching staff. This quote comes right after Arizona’s upset win over UCLA on Saturday.

While the Cougars have a postseason bowl berth locked up, there is still much to play for. The Cougars can still improve their bowl position with a win this weekend and eliminate an opponent from taking a better bowl spot away from them this weekend. Personally, I’d enjoy to watch WSU’s fifth victory in six games against Arizona this weekend.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.