Fiesta Bowl 2012: Last-Second Bets Against the Spread for Stanford vs OSU

One of the most anticipated bowl games of the season will take place tonight, when No. 3 Oklahoma State battles No. 4 Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl. Vegas has the Cowboys as a four-point favorite over the Cardinal.

If you have some extra money from the holidays, you probably want to put your money on Stanford.

One of the things that can absolutely doom a team is motivation for bowl games, and Oklahoma State’s could be either really good or really bad. The team was a couple of plays away from playing for the national championship, so they could come out with something to prove, or flat because they don’t want to be in the Fiesta Bowl.

But the biggest thing going for the Cowboys is that they are comfortable in shootouts, something which this game is more than likely to be—the over/under on the game is set at 74 total points. The Big 12 and Pac-12 are both high scoring leagues, but Stanford’s success has only come in the last couple of years.

The only shootouts the Cardinal has won were both against USC, and Andrew Luck needed to pull some fourth-quarter heroics in order for it to happen.

Oklahoma State frequently gets into shootouts and has won three high-scoring games in the past three years by one score or less.

As a general rule, when a game is expected to be a shootout, you want to stay away from lines that deviate too much from even because anything can happen with explosive offenses. Four is a pretty sizable line, and it’s up to five on Bovada.

It certainly wouldn’t be surprising if Stanford won this game—it would hardly be considered an upset by most people. Oklahoma State should rightfully be the favorite in this game, but with a line like that, taking theJ Cardinal to cover is your best bet.