On Sunday, the sportsbooks released the opening betting lines for BYU’s upcoming road contest at UCF. The Cougars are slightly favored over the Knights. BYU opened as a 1.5-point favorite on FanDuel sportsbook.
Friday night was the first game this season that BYU did not beat the spread. The Cougars were favored by nine points and won by three points. UCF is 3-4 against the spread this season.
BYU is coming off a dramatic win over Oklahoma State on Friday night that required a miraculous game-winning drive to win. The Cougars are 7-0 and looking to remain unbeaten before they take on archrival Utah on November 9th. According to ESPN FPI, UCF is the most difficult game remaining on BYU’s regular season schedule.
UCF was in a very competitive game against Iowa State on Saturday night. The game was eerily similar to BYU-Oklahoma State the night before. The Cyclones were looking to keep their perfect record intact, UCF looked like a hungry team with nothing to lose, the Cyclones scored a game-winning touchdown with under a minute remaining, and the final score was 38-35. The Knights were on the wrong end of a comeback win, losing their fourth consecutive game.
With the loss to Iowa State, the Knights are officially eliminated from Big 12 title contention. The psyche of this UCF team will be a storyline to monitor this week. The Knights have lost multiple players to the transfer portal over the last few weeks, and they have not lived up to the lofty preseason expectations placed on th
em.