The Baylor Bears (2-0) will travel across state to Houston, Texas to square off with the Rice Owls (0-2) in a Big 12/Conference-USA clash scheduled for Friday, September 16th with a scheduled kick-off time of 8:00 PM EDT. The last meeting between the two was all Baylor, all the Bears ran buckshot on the Owls by a score of 70-17 on September 26, 2015 in Waco, Texas. Baylor enters off a 40-13 victory against another intrastate foe in SMU. As for Rice, they crawl in off a 31-14 defeat at West Point against Army. The affair will be telecasted on ESPN.
The Bears are 2-0 out of the gate but they have not covered against the spread once this year. Despite getting off to a ferocious start, the Bears have been giving away some ludicrous points to any pooch they encounter. In Week One, the Bears were giving away 50 points to Northwestern State. A garbage-time touchdown generated a backdoor cover for any takers opting in on the points. Baylor had far more trouble with SMU, last Saturday as The Pony Express hung with Baylor late in to the third quarter before the Bears’ finally pulled away. Even with this being said, Baylor once again was spotting 34.5 points and could not foster the cover.
The Rice Owls have gotten off to a horrible 0-2 start. Rice was decimated by both Western Kentucky and Army in back-to-back road outings where the Owls were defeated by an average margin of 24.5 points. The Owls are not looking forward to this contest by any means either as Baylor had their way with them in 2015 but nonetheless Rice has the luxury of getting this adversary at home.
- Baylor has won the last 7 meetings.
- Baylor is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 overall.
- Rice is 1-6 SU in their last 7 contests.
- Owls are 2-7-1 ATS in their last 10 matches.
The public money is coming in heavily on the Baylor Bears in this week’s matchup against the Rice Owls with 90% of the bettors believing the Bears will cover the 30.5 point spread. 80% of the total bettors believe that the game total will go over the posted line of 66.