Rice Owls

Two Rice Owls upsets, 14-12 at Louisiana and 37-34 over UConn, paid +290 and +280 and turned a 5-7 season into a moneyline that finished 0.31 units up in 2025. The Owls’ spread record was also 5-7, and lines of 13.5 or more did the damage.

Two prices that paid

Rice finished the 2025 regular season 5-7 and covered the spread in 5 of 12. One unit on the Owls to win every game still ended 0.31 units up, with all 12 games priced. The opener did most of it: 14-12 at Louisiana as 9.5-point underdogs, at +290. The second came on 25 October, 37-34 over UConn at +280, again getting 9.5.

Big lines, wide losses

Rice was the underdog eight times and won two of them. Once the line reached 13.5 or more, the Owls covered one of five: at Navy, a 13-21 loss with 14.5 points in hand. The other four went 9-35 to Houston, 14-38 to Memphis, 24-56 to North Texas and 3-52 at South Florida. Only 17 FBS teams scored fewer than Rice’s 19.83 points a game, and only 17 allowed more than its 32.25.

Home, away, favored

We would split Rice by venue before anything else. The Owls covered 2 of 7 at home and 3 of 5 on the road; one unit on them lost 0.36 over the seven home games and made 0.67 over the five away. As favorites they went 3-1 straight up and 2-2 against the spread. The one favorite loss, 21-27 to Florida Atlantic at -190, is the shortest price Rice lost at.

The total

Seven of Rice’s 12 games went over. The lowest total posted on a Rice game, 38.5 against Houston, went over by 5.5.

The season ended in the Armed Forces Bowl, a 10-41 loss to Texas State.

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