Texas Christian has defended the Unofficial College Football Championship ten times in a row, and the Horned Frogs are currently ranked number 2 in the country by the Associated Press. But the Frogs haven't been all that great on the road. They only won at Minnesota by six points, they only won by three points two weeks ago at Texas Tech, and last year they struggled in road games with Kansas and West Virginia.
So we should not be surprised if tonight's game at Kansas State turns into a donnybrook. K-State is usually not good enough to be a national power, but they are often good enough to beat solid teams who visit Manhattan, Kan. This year, the Wildcats opened with easy wins over South Dakota and Texas-San Antonio. Then they beat Louisiana Tech 39-33 and lost to Oklahoma State (on the road) 36-34.
There's no way that Kansas State is actually as good as Texas Christian, so this game sets up as an interesting test for the Frogs. If Texas Christian wants to stake a serious claim to being a national power, the Frogs need to show that they can dominate less talented teams on the road. The type of poor defense we saw two weeks ago against Texas Tech will not get it done. Eventually, you will lose one of those games -- and the Frogs can't afford a loss if they want to make the Final Four.
Vegas has the Horned Frogs as a 9 1/2 point favorite in a game where the teams are expected to combine for 63 points. That would work out to something like a 36-27 victory for the Frogs. To me, that would be a disappointing result for a team with National Title aspirations. But I'm sure the Texas Christian coaches would be happy to get out of the Little Apple with any win.
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