A wild Big 12 Conference race ended in a four-way tie for first place. After the tiebreaker rules were sorted out, the championship game will feature the No. 16 ranked Iowa State Cyclones (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) playing the No. 15 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils (10-2, 7-2) on Saturday in Dallas.
Iowa State looked like a lock to make the championship game through the first half of the season, starting the year with seven straight wins. A two-game losing streak cost them that certainty, but three consecutive wins – including a victory over then No. 24 ranked Kansas State – helped the Cyclones make the championship game.
Arizona State looked less like a team that would make the championship game, but a five-game winning streak – including victories over No. 14 BYU and No. 16 Kansas State – sealed the Sun Devils’ place in the spotlight this Saturday.
Can the Cyclones win their first conference championship in over 110 years, or will the Sun Devils steal the Big 12 Championship in its first season in the league? We’ll cover that and our three favorite player prop bets below.
Freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt has taken the Arizona State program by storm this season. The 6-foot-2 signal-caller has experienced plenty of highs and lows, completing 62.7 percent of his passes for 2,444 yards and 21 touchdowns in 12 games.
His past three games have been his strongest, completing nearly 67 percent of his passes for 813 yards and seven touchdowns with only one interception. Expect him to enjoy a similar outing against Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship game, covering this player prop bet.
Iowa State employs a “hot hand” approach to their running back stable as three different runners have recorded over 370 rushing yards this season. Since the first two games of the season, no running back has led the Cyclones in rushing yards for back-to-back contests, a measure of how balanced this offense can be.
The most consistent rusher is sophomore Carson Hansen. On the year, Hansen has 125 carries for 618 yards and 11 touchdowns to lead Iowa State in all three areas. Dating back to the beginning of the third game of the year, Hansen has attempted at least nine rushes in every game.
Against Arizona State, bettors should expect he’ll have that many or more rushing attempts. Only once in the past eight games has failed to eclipse the 38-yard mark, making this the best player prop bet for Saturday’s contest.
The Sun Devils have one of the league’s best running backs in senior Cam Skattebo. The 5-foot-11 runner has 1,398 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns on the ground while he’s also caught 35 passes for 468 receiving yards and two more scores.
While taking a bet on his running could be a risk proposition, targeting his receiving is not. The senior has exceeded 35 receiving yards only four times this season, so taking the under on this player prop bet for the Big 12 Championship game is a solid option.
While I’d love to go with this pick, it’s hard to bet against the Sun Devils, especially how this team plays. Arizona State smacked their in-state rivals 49-7, and their wins over BYU and Kansas State were impressive.
Iowa State is battling against tradition here. Their only championship came in a defunct conference that later gave way to become the Big Eight, and their drought in between titles is the longest in FBS history. Take the Sun Devil and the points for Saturday’s contest.