Thursday, May 17th, 2012
The Texas Longhorns the champions of the Big 12 conference will do battle with the SEC champion Alabama Crimson Tide in the college football BCS Championship game on Thursday January 7th in prime time. Kick off time at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena California is scheduled for 8:10PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ABC.
The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the Alabama Crimson Tide were opened as 4 point favorites with the over under coming in at 45.
The early money from the college football betting public has been underdog Texas Longhorn money, as the Alabama Crimson Tide is currently a 3-½ point favorite. The total has seen early movement in the betting towards the under, as the over under is currently lined at 44 ½ for the college football bettors to play into.
College football money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Alabama Crimson Tide at –170 with the underdog Texas Longhorns returning +150 to win the BCS Championship game without the point spread a factor in the money line bet.
Texas enters the BCS championship game by escaping with a 13-12 victory over Nebraska in the Big 12 title game. The Longhorns were able to drive the field in the closing seconds to set up a game winning field goal that qualified the team for the BCS championship game. They enter Pasadena with a perfect 13-0 record. They survived their two close calls on their schedule against good defenses in their victory over Nebraska and a 16-13 victory over rival Oklahoma on October 17th.
Senior quarterback Colt McCoy had another productive season hitting on 70% of his passes with 27 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions. He has started for Texas in all four of his seasons with the program. He had a poor game against the good Nebraska defense hitting on just 55% of his passes with 0 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. In his outing against Oklahoma he could only complete 53% of his passes for 127 yards a touchdown and an interception. It is worth noting with McCoy at quarterback, the Longhorns could only convert 11 of 38 third down conversions combined against both Nebraska and Oklahoma. We keep comparing the performances in these two games because Alabama is of similar quality on defense. Despite their poor offensive output against their two toughest foes on their schedule the Longhorns did average 40 points a game this season.
On the ground it was Tre’ Newton as the most productive running back for the Longhorns with a 5.0 yards a carry average and 6 rushing touchdowns. He will be the lead running back in the BCS championship game. The freshman produced poorly in the Big 12 championship game with just 36 yards on 19 carries. Quarterback Colt McCoy had an unusually high number of carries this season with 128 rushing attempts for 348 yards and three rushing touchdowns.
The Longhorns have an outstanding defense limiting teams to just 15 points a game. They are difficult to run on as the Longhorns allow just 62 yards per game on the ground and 2.0 yards per rushing attempt ranking 1st in all of college football. The team did have trouble defending Texas A&M prior to their game against Nebraska. The explosive Aggies offense was able to gain 190 yards on the ground and 342 through the air in their Thanksgiving night game as Texas A&M put up 39 points on the Longhorns defense.
Mack Brown is in his twelfth season as head coach of Texas. He led the Texas Longhorns to the national title game played at the Rose Bowl in the 2005 season with the Longhorns defeating USC 41-36 as a 7-point underdog. Texas has won 5 straight bowl games.
Alabama concluded a perfect 13-0 regular season with a 32-13 victory over the defending national champion Florida Gators in the SEC Championship game. The Crimson Tide offense pounded the stout Florida Gators defense for 251 yards on the ground and 239 through the air in their victory. The Alabama Crimson Tide defense put on a great performance by limiting the outstanding Gators option run offense to just 88 yards on the ground.
Heisman Trophy winning running back sophomore Mark Ingram leads the team on the offensive side of the football. The ball carrier had a tremendous season rushing for 1542 yards on 249 carries with 15 rushing touchdowns and an impressive 6.2 yards per carry average. He had a good game against the Gators with 113 yards and three rushing touchdowns in victory. Freshman running back Trent Richardson contributed with an outstanding game with 80 yards on 11 carries in the SEC championship.
Junior quarterback Greg McElroy stepped up big time down the stretch for the Tide with two good performances. He hit on 67% of his passes with two touchdowns and no picks in the teams come from behind victory the day after Thanksgiving against their archrival Auburn. He followed that up hitting on 12 of 18 passes for 239 yards a touchdown and no picks in the teams win against Florida. The Crimson Tide quarterback has looked like a more confident quarterback as the season wore on. The signal caller hit on 61% of his passes this season with 17 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. He guided the Alabama offense to average 31.7 points a game on the year.
The Crimson Tide was outstanding on the season on defense allowing just 11 points a game. They were number two in all of college football against the run, allowing just 79 yards per game and 2.8 yards a carry. The Tide was 7th against the pass nationally allowing 163 passing yards a game and only gave up 9 passing touchdowns all season. An eye opening performance was the game the team had against an explosive Arkansas Razorbacks offense in which the Tide allowed just 7 points. NFL prospect Ryan Mallet completed just 12 of 35 passes in that game and the Razorbacks could only convert on 2 of 14 on third downs. The Crimson Tide showed they could shut down the two explosive offenses they faced this season in Florida and Arkansas.
Nick Saban is in his third season coaching the Alabama Crimson Tide and is leading them to his third straight bowl game. Alabama is 1-1 straight up and against the spread in the teams 2 bowl games under Saban. Alabama was embarrassed in last years Sugar Bowl losing to a non BCS school in the Utah Utes 31-17 as a 9 ½ point favorite. The Tide landed in last years Sugar Bowl after a disappointing loss in the SEC title game to Florida. It was a huge letdown last season for the storied Alabama Crimson Tide to have to face a team from a non-BCS school such as Utah.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Texas Longhorns are 2-0 to the under this season against the two best defensive teams on their schedule in Oklahoma and Nebraska
The Wagerline consensus has 59.0% of the CFB bettors on Alabama –3 1/2
The Wagerline consensus has 65.2% of the CFB bettors playing over 44 1/2
Tags: college football betting odds, texas longhorns versus alabama crimson tide abc tv bcs championship game college football betting odds pick preview
