Yahoo Finance 2020 Big 12 football championship odds: Can Texas or Oklahoma State overtake mighty Oklahoma?
Previously: ACC championship, division title odds
Oklahoma was by far the most dominant Big 12 team of the last decade. The Sooners won at least a share of the conference crown seven times in the 2010s with six outright championships, including the last five consecutively.
Will that carry over into the 2020s? Plugging in a talented transfer quarterback has been a prosperous formula in recent years with Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts all flourishing in Norman. In 2020, though, Lincoln Riley will turn to a homegrown recruit — likely redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler — at the position.
Despite the inexperience at quarterback, oddsmakers at BetMGM still have Oklahoma as the favorite to win the Big 12 in 2020 at -110. But rival Texas isn’t far behind at +130. After underachieving in 2019, is this the year Tom Herman and the Longhorns can unseat the Sooners?
And as a team like Baylor showed last year, there is always room in the Big 12 for a contender to unexpectedly emerge.
Here are the full Big 12 conference title odds, via BetMGM
Oklahoma: -110
Texas: +130
Oklahoma State: +800
Iowa State: +1600
Baylor: +2500
West Virginia: +2500
Kansas State: +3500
TCU: +4000
Texas Tech: +8000
Kansas: +12500
Best bet: Oklahoma -110
Take the uncertainty around Oklahoma’s quarterback situation and run to the bank with it. If the Sooners had another year of Jalen Hurts, they would be a much more significant favorite to win the Big 12. Instead, the fact that Spencer Rattler is a generally unknown commodity to most gives you some added value here. Hurts was a tremendous college player who put up excellent numbers, but those who watched him closely know he was rather inconsistent in the passing game. The passing attributes of Rattler, a five-star recruit in the 2019 class, can make Lincoln Riley’s offense even more difficult to defend despite some of the losses at the receiver position.
Best value: Oklahoma State +800
Texas has more all-around talent, but with the amount of star power Oklahoma State is returning on offense, it would be hard to question anybody who took a flier on the Cowboys at 8-1 compared to Texas’ +130 odds. Two All-American caliber players — running back Chuba Hubbard and wide receiver Tylan Wallace — turned down the NFL to return to Oklahoma State for another season. Hubbard rushed for 2,094 yards in 2019, while Wallace had 53 catches for 903 yards in just eight games. Pairing those two with an emerging star at quarterback in Spencer Sanders gives Oklahoma State the looks of an extremely dangerous team in the Big 12.
Sleeper pick: Kansas State +3500
The Big 12 had much better depth than it got credit for in 2019, and it could be even deeper in 2020. There are a few teams lower on the board that caught my eye. TCU, a team that disappointed at 5-7 mainly due to poor quarterback play, is intriguing at 40-1, but Kansas State feels like the team in the conference nobody wants to play. The Wildcats won eight games in their first season under Chris Klieman with a monumental win over Oklahoma along the way. Kansas State just plays a tough brand of football and lost three games late in the year by a total of 10 points. Those close losses could turn into close wins in 2020.
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