TCU vs Houston Odds: Visiting Horned Frogs Favored to Take Down Houston

Houston Ready to Play Its First Big 12 Game Against TCU

Texas Christian, coming off a run to the national title game, made news for all the wrong reasons with a loss to Deion Sanders’ Colorado team in the season opener. When looking at the TCU vs Houston odds, the Horned Frogs are favored to pick up their first win against a Football Bowl Subdivision team.

Although TCU topped Nicholls State in Week 2, the Horned Frogs failed to cover for the second straight game. Houston is coming off a 43-41 loss to Rice when listed as a seven-point favorite according to the college football odds.

The line opened with visiting TCU favored by 6.5 points and with much of the early money coming in on the Horned Frogs, the line has moved to 7.5. The Moneyline is at -290 for TCU and +240 for Houston.

Running back Cam Cook as well as receivers John Paul Richardson, Savion Williams, and Dylan Wright are questionable for TCU.

Running back Noah Guzman and defensive back Re’Shaun Sanford are out for the season for Houston.

TCU is tied for seventh at +4000 in the odds to win the Big 12 title with Houston well back at +15000 in the Cougars’ first season in the Big 12. This will be the first conference game since Houston left the American Athletic Conference to join the Big 12.

After reaching the college football playoffs in 2022, TCU is priced at +40000 to win the national title with Houston well back at +100000.

Horned Frogs A Bit Too Generous

The TCU defense was exposed in the loss to Colorado as the Horned Frogs allowed 565 yards and surrendered seven yards per play. Keep that in mind when it comes to the TCU vs Houston odds.

Stanford is the only team from a Power-5 conference to allow more passing yards per game than TCU with opponents completing 66% of their passes and that could result in the game going over the total.

When it comes to some recent NCAA football games, TCU was 10-4-1 against the spread in 2022 and 3-1-1 as the road favorite so there is some work yet to be done to get back to that level.

Smith Still Getting Comfortable

Houston quarterback Donovan Smith did not throw a pass in two games against Texas Christian when he was at Texas Tech. That will change on Saturday.

Smith has thrown for 493 yards with four touchdown passes and three TD runs in his first two games for the Cougars.

Houston was not an underdog at home a season ago, but this is the second time that the Cougars have been the underdogs at home this season.

When it comes to the TCU vs Houston odds, Houston had lost six games in a row as a home underdog before topping SMU in 2021 and UTSA in the 2023 season opener when listed as underdogs of 1 and 2.5 points in those two games.

Last Meeting

The teams haven’t met since 2003. The scoreboard operator got a workout in that matchup with TCU winning 62-55 as a 7.5-point underdog. The total was set at 47 with both teams topping that mark.

Looking at NCAA football scores, bear in mind that the 2001 matchup, won by TCU 34-17, went over the 47-point total.

What to Expect

Houston is 119th and TCU 127th among 133 FBS teams in passing defense and rank 13th and 14th among 14 conference teams in total defense so this doesn’t figure to be a 17-14 final.

The early results have shown that TCU and Houston aren’t quite the dominant teams that they have had in some past years so it will be interesting to see which team takes control in this matchup.

TCU takes a six-game road winning streak into the game
TCU has won its last five games against Houston. Four of the last six games played by TCU have finished over the total with 12 of Houston’s last 18 games also going over the total. The total for Saturday’s matchup is set at 64.5 and that seems like an attainable number.

Houston has covered in just one of its last seven games and has lost its last six matchups against Big 12 teams.

TCU is 10-2 in its last 12 games against teams from Texas.

With the way these teams have been struggling on offense, it might be worth checking out the +104 odds for at least one of these teams to hit the 40-point mark in this matchup.

For NCAAF betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.

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