Baylor Opens as 18.5-Point Favorites Over Kansas State Wildcats

The oddsmakers in Las Vegas apparently believe in Jarrett Stidham and the Baylor offense, because the Baylor Bears are opening as a heavy favorite over the Kansas State Wildcats, whom they face on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. CST in Manhattan, Kansas. Both the Wildcats and the Bears were idle yesterday.

The Bears clinched back-to-back conference titles last year against the Wildcats in Waco, and defeated the Snydercats in 2013 in a nervy battle in Manhattan. Despite the loss of Seth Russell, the Bears head to Manhattan loaded with weapons on both sides of the ball, and stud defensive lineman Andrew Billings appears set to return on Thursday.

Here are some other lines from around the Big 12 (and the country):

Texas Tech @ West Virginia -7 (already moved to -8)

Kansas Jayhawks @ Texas Longhorns -31.5 (I wouldn't touch that line with a 10-foot pole)

-5 TCU @ Oklahoma State (moved to -4 already)

Iowa State @ Oklahoma -25.5 (now down to -24.5)

Auburn @ Texas A&M -8.5

Minnesota @ Ohio State -23

LSU @ Alabama -7 (down to -5.5)

Interestingly, Clemson vs. Florida State doesn't have a line yet.

A Note About The Regular Schedule...

Since the game is on a Thursday night, we'll have a sort-of condensed schedule this week. Mark and I are cutting a podcast tonight that will serve as the K-State Preview Show (due to travel conflicts the rest of this week). You can expect to see both the Meet the Press at its regular time and the First Look tomorrow. I'm going to also try and get the Advanced Stats preview out on Tuesday. Expect the Roll Call and Preview/Predictions posts on Wednesday most likely. We'll see. Sic 'em!