Stanford Cardinal (9-4 SU, 6-6-1 ATS) vs. TCU Horned Frogs (10-3 SU, 6-7 ATS)
College Football Bowls
Date/Time: Thursday, December 28th, 9:00pm ET
Where: Alamodome – San Antonio, TX
TV: ESPN
by Bob, NCAA Football Handicapper, Predictem.com
Point Spread: STAN +2.5/TCU -2.5
Over/Under Total: 49
One of the more interesting bowl games in my opinion will take place in San Antonio, Texas when the thirteenth ranked Stanford Cardinal will take on the fifteenth ranked TCU Horned Frogs in the Valero Alamo Bowl. Stanford enters this contest with a 9-4 record while TCU comes in at 10-3 on the 2017 season. At 9-4, Stanford finished as the top team in the PAC-12 North and eventually lost to USC in the conference title game. TCU who went 10-3, plays in the Big 12 Conference and they finished second in the conference losing to Oklahoma in the conference championship.
This is going to be a great game and very evenly matched contest. The line as of now has TCU favored by 2.5 points over the Stanford Cardinal while the total points are set at 49 combined. After a week or so of action pouring in on this game, TCU is overwhelmingly getting a lot of love from the degenerates. 67% of the action right now is on the Horned Frogs and if this continues, this line could increase to up to 3.5 or 4 points by kickoff next week. As for the total points, 53% likes it to go over and if the money stays somewhat even, I think the line will stay right where it is.
Stanford came into the season with hopes of competing for the Pac-12 championship. After the week one game against Rice that Stanford won 62-7 things appeared to be right on track, then in week two they faced off against another top Pac-12 team in USC and the Trojans beat Stanford 42-24. That was bad but much of the Stanford faithful knew that they could regroup and eventually play USC again if they took care of business in the conference. However, the following week, Stanford went into San Diego to take on San Diego State and the Cardinal was handed a 20-17 loss to the Aztecs that dropped Stanford to 1-2 and out of the top 25 altogether. After this loss though, Stanford appeared to regroup winning eight of their next nine games including a huge win over the Washington Huskies that boosted Stanford into the position to rematch USC for the Pac-12 title. Well…USC won again… and here we are.
Stanford may be underdogs in this game, but I believe they match up well with TCU. Led by one of the top players all year long, Bryce Love, the Cardinal is averaging 205 yards a game on the ground taking a lot of pressure off quarterback, K.J Costello. This showdown with TCU, Stanford would like nothing more than to let Costello be nothing more than a game manager while Bryce Love does his thing on the ground and the Cardinal defense stops TCU. This will not be an easy task however seeing that the TCU Horned Frogs have on the nation’s top twenty defenses allowing just 17 points per contest. To go along with a great defense, the TCU offense is also putting up 33 points a game and quarterback, Kenny Hill, is coming into his own and becoming a star in the Big 12 Conference. Just like Stanford, two of TCU’s losses were against their conference’s eventual champs (Oklahoma). This TCU team is very talented and while they may be SLIGHTLY better on paper than Stanford, this game is going to be fun to see play out.
As much as I am a fan of Bryce Love and while I do think he will put up some good numbers, I think the TCU Horned Frogs are just primed to get a big time bowl win this season. Not that the Alamo Bowl is a BIG GAME, but anytime two top fifteen teams face off, it is a big game. I predict a very entertaining game that ends with TCU winning 29-24 and winning the 2017 Alamo Bowl.
Bob’s Pick to Cover the Point Spread: TAKE THE TCU HORNED FROGS -2.5 OVER STANFORD