Kansas football fans, you may want to sit down for this.
Oddsmakers don’t like the Jayhawks chances of winning the Big 12 title this year.
Obviously that doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. But if you follow the Jayhawks closely, the types of odds and props that SportsBettingDime.com put out this week are likely to intrigue in some fashion, even if you don’t want to send any of your hard-earned money in the direction of these outcomes.
Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State are SBD’s favorites to win the Big 12 championship in 2020, while KU head coach Les Miles, a former SEC and national championship winner at LSU, leads a Jayhawks roster the gambling site considers a whopping 50,0000/1 long shot. (The second-longest odds are West Virginia at 105/1.)
What are the chances of KU finishing the Big 12 schedule in one of the top two spots in the standings, assuring the Jayhawks of a berth in the title game? SBD put those odds at 25,000/1.
In this sure to be strange 10-game season in the age of COVID-19, one normal expectation is that the Jayhawks will have to shock some people to win more than a couple games. SBD put KU’s over/under at 2.0 wins for the year.
Fortunately, the gambling experts also delivered some more captivating odds for individual players. Along with declaring KU star running back Pooka Williams a 350/1 dark horse for the Heisman Trophy, SBD placed his total rushing yards over/under at 965.5.
Williams already is a two-time 1,000-yard rusher, going for 1,125 yards as a freshman and 1,061 more as a sophomore. He put up those numbers while playing 11 games in each season. For his career he’s averaging 99.4 rushing yards per game. If Williams maintains that and stays healthy in 2020, he’d come close to a third 1,000-yard season.
Considering KU doesn’t have an obvious starting quarterback at this point, projecting passing numbers is a little trickier. But SBD provided some anyway. The site put Andrew Parchment’s over/under for receiving yards at 605.5. In his first season with the Jayhawks in 2019, Parchment played in all 12 games, finished with 831 yards and averaged 69.2 a game.
SBD also set over/unders for whomever finishes the season as KU’s leading passer (whether that’s Thomas MacVittie, Miles Kendrick or maybe even someone else). Will KU’s leading passer this year throw for more or fewer than 1,550.5 yards and 9.5 touchdowns? That’s for you to decide. Last year Carter Stanley started every game for KU and turned in 2,664 passing yards with 24 touchdowns.
If you’re so daring you also can place a bet on who will start the most games at QB for KU this year. SBD has MacVittie as the favorite, with 2/3 odds, followed by Kendrick at 7/3 and true freshman Jalon Daniels at 9/1.
SportsBettingDime.com’s 2020 Big 12 champion odds
Oklahoma: 6/5
Texas: 9/2
Oklahoma State: 9/2
Iowa State: 8/1
Baylor: 24/1
TCU: 50/1
Kansas State: 71/1
Texas Tech: 95/1
West Virginia: 105/1
Kansas: 50,000/1