Houston-Arizona State
Saturday, Oct. 25
8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific
ESPN2
In 2025, the Big 12 is once again a place of parity and precarious pigskin positions. Nothing seems very certain or fixed in a strange and volatile conference. BYU leads the Big 12 going into Week 9, but the Cougars have a freshman quarterback and are heading into the teeth of their schedule. Arizona State, one of several teams pursuing the Cougars, has a legitimate chance to make the College Football Playoff, but the margin for error is slim at the end of October. Any loss here means ASU will not be able to afford another loss in November if it wants to stay in the thick of the Big 12 race.
Texas Tech and Cincinnati are right there in the Big 12 title chase alongside ASU, with all three teams trying to catch BYU and get a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game. It figures to be a wild scramble to the finish line. This is what the Big 12 offers these days. It is college football’s most unpredictable Power Four conference. Arizona State can’t take anything for granted.
Arizona State is hard to knock off at home
Houston has to show it can take down a good Big 12 team
This game shapes up favorably for Arizona State, despite its lengthy injury report and the absence of Jordyn Tyson. Yes, ASU is missing its best receiver, but the main thing for the Sun Devils is that quarterback Sam Leavitt is on the field. ASU was helpless without Leavitt at Utah. The Devils got demolished in that game. As long as Leavitt can play well, Arizona State should beat equal or inferior teams at home. Houston, which got hammered at home by Texas Tech earlier this season, has not been particularly strong away from H-Town this year. Houston was lucky to beat Oregon State in Corvallis. Oregon State has not yet won a game against an FBS opponent this year. OSU’s only win came against an FCS team, Lafayette. Houston was thoroughly outplayed for three and a half quarters at Oregon State before rallying late to force overtime and win in the extra period.
Arizona State, unlike Houston, defeated Texas Tech. Moreover, the Sun Devils pulled off that upset with a lot of players out of the lineup. It’s not as though ASU’s long injury report should be seen as a severe handicap; ASU has already proved it can win with backups, and now the opponent — Houston — is a lot weaker than the Texas Tech team ASU just defeated.
Houston Cougars-Arizona State Sun Devils Odds
Hear TJ Rives and Jason Powers break down this game on the 3Dog Thursday Podcast by clicking Play below:
Spread: Houston +7 (-110), Arizona State -7 (-110)
Total: 46.5 (Over -110, Under -110)
Underdog moneyline: Houston +225
The fact that ASU beat Texas Tech without a lot of starters should make one confident that the Sun Devils can do it again versus an ordinary Houston team which has not shown an ability to play top Big 12 teams on even terms so far this season.
If the line is ASU minus-7, you could take ASU with a slightly adjusted spread — minus-6.5 — for a few cents less but a much bigger likelihood of cashing. You could also wait 5-10 minutes and see if the line falls to ASU minus-6 in-game for the same price as the current minus-7 line. Either way, ASU remains the play, given how below-average Houston has been on the road.