Stanford vs. Arizona NCAA Football Betting Report

Posted by Daniel Strum on Friday,October 2, 2015 1:02, EDT in

The streaking Stanford Cardinal and their College Football Odds fans will look to extend their winning ways and tame the Arizona Wildcats when they square off in their Week 5, Pac-12 pairing on Saturday. Now, let’s find out which team is going to cover the spread and cash in for collegiate gridiron gamblers everywhere.

How To Bet the Cardinal vs. Wildcats NCAA Football Odds & Game Info

When: Saturday, October 3, 12:00 PM ET
Where: Stanford Stadium, Stanford, California
NCAAF Odds: OFF

Why Bet on the Stanford Cardinal

Stanford laid a huge, 42-24 smackdown on Oregon State in Week 4 to cover the spread as a 14-point favorite. Cardinals quarterback Kevin Hogan had a spectacular game despite playing on an injured ankle. Hogan completed 9 of 14 passes for 163 yards with two touchdowns and one interception after being a game-time decision and running back Christian McCaffery rushed for a career-high 206 yards while posting 303 all-purpose yards.

The senior signal-caller has thrown for seven touchdowns and one interception in the last three games while completing an impressive 66.7 percent of his passes and averaging 261.0 passing yards per game. “I’m out there, the adrenaline is kicking in,” Hogan said. “I feel good. I feel no limitations.”

Why Bet on the Arizona Wildcats

Arizona got beaten like a rag doll in its 56-30 Week 4 loss to UCLA while never coming close to covering the spread as a 1-point home dog. Making matters worse is the fact that the Wildcats will be without All-American linebacker Scooby Wright for this contest and could also be without starting quarterback Anu Solomon. The Wildcats’ defense got toasted for 497 yards while allowing the most points they’ve given up since allowing 58 points in a 58-21 loss at Arizona State in 2013.

Coach Rich Rodriguez expects his team to face another offensive onslaught against Stanford. “They do a lot more scheme wise and formation wise, personnel group wise than you would think,” Rodriguez said. “They are in a groove right now. So there is no question, we have to do a better job, one, just recognizing what is coming at us defensively, but also getting off blocks and making tackles. Two things we did poorly in the game was getting off blocks and then tackling. That is going to be critical for us.”

My Expert Game Analysis, Pick & Prediction:

With injuries all over the place, no point spread has been released for this contest, but that’s okay…I’ve got the winning wager anyway. The Stanford Cardinals have won the last three meetings while scoring at least 37 points in each affair, including last season’s 54-48 overtime win at home. This time around however, I like the Cardinal to record a similar win to the 37-10 beat-down they handed the Wildcats two years ago.

Arizona is just 2-5 ATS in their last seven conference games and an identical 2-5 ATS in their last seven games following a double-digit home loss. Conversely, Stanford is 4-0 ATS in their last four conference games and a near-perfect 6-1 ATS in their last seven games overall. While the road team in this series is 9-4 ATS in their last 13 meetings, Arizona is just 3-7 ATS in the last 10 meetings against Stanford overall.

The Pick: Stanford 41 Arizona 27