BYU Football Opens as Double-Digit Underdog Against SMU

Casey Lundquist | Sep 1, 2024

BYU WR Keelan Marion / BYU Photo

On Saturday night, BYU was a 14-point favorite over Southern Illinois. The Cougars outperformed Vegas' expectations and beat the spread, winning 41-13. Going into week two, the oddsmakers remain bearish on the 2024 BYU football team.

On Sunday, DraftKings released the opening betting line on BYU-SMU. The Cougars opened as 11-point underdogs on DraftKings sportsbook.

Despite BYU's overperformance (according to oddsmakers) in week one and SMU's underperformance in week zero, the oddsmakers still like SMU's chances against BYU.

The predictive models, specifically early in the season, are heavily weighted to the prior year's performance, and that's why BYU is a double-digit underdog heading into Dallas. FPI, for example, gavy BYU a 19.7% chance to beat SMU in the preseason. After two games of data for SMU and one game of data for BYU, the FPI model hardly moved. Now, FPI gives BYU a 21.3% chance to defeat the Mustangs.

The Cougars and the Mustangs have a short week to prepare for a Friday night matchup. The game kicks off at 5 PM Mountain Time and will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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