Kansas Jayhawks football vs. Oklahoma Sooners: Prediction, TV, sports betting line

The details

Kickoff: 11 a.m. Saturday

Where: Booth Memorial Stadium, Lawrence

TV: ESPN

Radio: WHB (810 AM) in Kansas City, KFH (1240 AM) in Wichita

The line: Oklahoma by 38 1/2.

Prediction

I mentioned all KU football’s gory numbers against the spread in this story. The Jayhawks have been dreadful against the Vegas line recently, and they’ll actually tie for a modern-day record for worst 17-game stretch ever if they fail to cover the 38 1/2 points against Oklahoma on Saturday.

It’s not easy, given recent performances, to come up with reasons to like a KU cover here. The Jayhawks are undermanned defensively, and quarterback Jason Bean has struggled in conference play, with defenses mostly taking his running ability away.

As mentioned in the linked story above, though ... oddsmakers are not seeing “sharp” bettors going crazy to take Oklahoma’s side here. The reality is that 38 1/2 points is a lot, and KU won’t need that many things to go right to keep it in that range.

The Jayhawks are at home too, which maybe gets them a generous call they’ll need. Bean needs to avoid the early turnover — that’s happened in KU’s last two contests — but if he does that with the Jayhawks showing any rushing ability, I could see them milking clock and at least getting to double-digit points.

ESPN Bill Connelly’s advanced rankings like Oklahoma by 34 here, and hey, that’s a lot too.

But it also means, if you trust his normally reliable numbers, the play is to swallow hard and take KU and the points.

I’ll go with that here, saying Oklahoma wins easily but fails to cover such a large number.

Oklahoma 51, Kansas 14

Last game prediction: Texas Tech 49, Kansas 35 (Actual: Texas Tech 41-14)

2021 record vs. spread: 3-3

2021 record on picks: 6-0