Will BYU’s Bold Strategy Shake Up the Big 12 Power Rankings?

Ever find yourself tangled in the wild dance of sports betting—where yesterday’s loss haunts you but tomorrow’s game demands your full attention? Well, tonight’s BYU vs. Cincinnati showdown at 8:00 ET serves up just that kind of drama. With BYU boasting a flashy 9-1 record and chasing Big 12 glory, and Cincinnati wrestling with inconsistency despite a promising season, it’s the classic question: Do you bet on steady grit or hope for a comeback spark? I’ve backed plays on both these squads, and let me tell you, this matchup isn’t just about stats—there’s a psychological chess match underway. Could Cincinnati’s recent stumbles be because they’re already dreaming of tonight? Or will BYU’s resilience on the road push them past the edge? Hang on tight—this one’s a pick’em that’s got me leaning hard toward the Cougars. Curious to dive deeper? LEARN MORE.

BYU vs. Cincinnati, 8:00 ET

In sports betting, you need to have a short and long memory. I am sure that seems fairly obvious to most of you, but you need to put things out of your head quickly. At the same time, you need to remember the bets that you make. I tend to spend a lot of time focused on bets that I should’ve made, and then try and figure out if the reason I didn’t was valid or not. I also need to take a bit of time and realize that there are bets I do make, and when they lose, I need to determine if I should completely alter my way of thinking about that team/situation/trend/whatever, or if it was just a bad outcome. I’ve put plays on both of these teams this year, so I feel like I have a decent opinion on both BYU and Cincinnati as they clash tonight.

BYU enters the contest with a 9-1 record and as the 12th ranked team in the country. It is expected that they are going to be competing for the Big 12 championship. I think they can even lose this game and still do it, but I could be completely wrong about that, so don’t quote me. They’ve put together a very good campaign to this point, with their lone loss coming against Texas Tech a couple of weeks ago. I was dead wrong about that one, thinking that BYU would have a chance. They put out a pathetic effort, dropping that game 29-7. It was a road game, so I suppose I should cut them a bit of slack, but that win would’ve secured a home field spot for them in the Big 12 championship (provided they win the remainder of their games). They bounced back last week, which is what you want to see a good team do. It wasn’t a big challenge facing TCU, but BYU took care of business and won 44-13.

Cincinnati has put together a decent year to this point, but they were certainly looked at more favorably a few weeks ago when they took down Baylor. In that game they won 41-20, and looked like they could be a fairly strong program. Since then? They’ve dropped two games. One of them was to Utah in Utah, a game that I had Utah winning. The other was last week against Arizona, and that was a game that saw them fall 30-24. The home loss was much more inexcusable, especially against a decent, but not great, Wildcats team. They are still, somehow, ranked 25th in the nation. I’m not quite sure I can agree with them being ranked, but we would probably be splitting hairs over picking anyone else at this point. I do like a lot of what Cincinnati has to offer. Their passing game is actually decent, with Brendan Sorsby racking up 22 passing touchdowns and just four interceptions. Their running game can be reliable as well, but I actually think they should pass more often than they do.

The question that is sitting in my mind is if Cincinnati lost because they were looking ahead to this game. I don’t know that would be the case, and I don’t think it is, but I won’t put it out of the realm of possibilities. At this point, the line is essentially a pick’em and I think BYU is the better team. I recognize going on the road, especially in a conference matchup is tough. However, BYU has shown they can do it with the exception of the game against Texas Tech. Something is off about Cincinnati at the moment and I simply cant support them until it gets fixed. I’ll take BYU here.

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