Arizona vs Kansas State Prediction and Betting Preview | Big XII Football
After losing to Iowa State in Ireland to open the season, Friday night’s Arizona vs Kansas State clash in Tucson is a very important game for the visiting ‘Cats from Manhattan. A potential 0-2 start in Big XII play could spell disaster for Kansas State’s season.
Arizona vs Kansas State Preview
| Date and Time | September 12 at 9pm ET / 6pm PT |
| Point Spread | Kansas State -1 |
| Total | 54 Points |
| Location | Arizona Stadium in Tucson |
| TV | FOX |
| Forecast | Warm and Clear with a Moderate Breeze |
Odds above courtesy of DraftKings as of Thursday, September 11. Kansas State earned a 31-7 home win over Arizona as a seven-point favorite last season. K-State QB Avery Johnson threw two touchdown passes and served as the team’s leading rusher with 110 yards on the ground. The Purple ‘Cats held a 235-56 advantage in rushing yards.
Arizona Wildcats
Arizona has gotten off to a 2-0 start with wins-and-covers against Hawaii and FCS-level Weber State. The Wildcats have out-scored their first two opponents by a combined margin of 88-9.
The contest with Hawaii should have been a nice data point, but Warriors’ starting QB Micah Alejado was injured in Hawaii’s opener against Stanford. He tried to play against the Wildcats, but was clearly compromised and could not finish the game.
Kansas State Wildcats
How much can you/should you downgrade a team that is dominating the box score every week but keeps shooting itself in the foot with mistakes?
K-State held a +2.5 yards per play edge over Iowa State in the opener but went 1-for-4 on fourth down and fumbled twice. K-State held a +1.7 yards per play edge over Army last week, but the Knights went 6-of-7 on fourth down and held the ball for more than 40 minutes.
A downgrade for those two losses is warranted, but we’re really struggling to get our power ratings to match the near-pick’em point spread that we’re seeing in this matchup.
Arizona vs Kansas State Prediction
In a quirky twist, the Big XII elected not to do preseason polls before the start of the season. Several media organization elected to do their own unofficial preseason polls just to do the exercise.
In the 247Sports poll, Kansas State was projected to finish second in the Big XII and Arizona was projected to finish last. Using ESPN’s SP+ formula, Kansas State was projected to finish first in the Big XII and Arizona was projected to be 15th out of 16 teams. CBS Sports did its own preseason poll, and seven of the nine participants ranked Arizona either 15th or 16th in the conference.
We largely agree with the Big XII that preseason polls are meaningless and don’t hold much value, but nonetheless, this exercise still illustrates our point: Three weeks ago, no one had Kansas State and Arizona rated within a point of one another. Perhaps this season really does go off the rails for the Purple ‘Cats, but from a numbers perspective, we can’t get close to this point spread. Kansas State -1
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WagerTalk’s live odds screen features up-to-the-minute lines from a variety of offshore and domestic sports books. Track the moneylines, point spreads, totals and betting percentages for all of the college football Week 3 games, including this Arizona vs Kansas State contest. Find free college football picks from season win total bets through National Championship futures on our free picks pages.
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