WSU Football: Cougs Small Favorite This Weekend Vs Cal, Rutgers Game Moved Up For 2014

Sep 28, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Washington State Cougars running back Jeremiah Laufasa (43) carries the ball during the 2nd half against the Stanford Cardinal at CenturyLink Field. Stanford defeated Washington State 55-17. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

The Cougs are supposed to be the homecoming queen this weekend at Cal, but Vegas has the Cougs coming out on top, barely.

Washington State is a 1.5 point favorite, which is the first time that has happened for a Wazzu football team on the road since 2006 against Oregon State in Corvallis. For the record WSU did win that game 13-6.

In an odd coincidence, the Golden Bears and Cougars played very different games to nearly the same score last week. Both gave up 55 points, but the Cougars scored 17 while the Bears scored 16. It doesn’t mean anything this week, but it’s weird that it worked out that way on the week prior and then the week of the odds-makers give the same difference. That’s probably the first time that’s ever happened.

In other news the “Seattle Game” for 2014 has been moved up a day, so the Cougars will now be opening up next season on a Thursday. The reason for the change is unannounced.

By the way, Rutgers is going to start play as a Big 10 Conference representative next season? When did that happen? The conference shuffle continues, which I always find interesting.

Going back to the Seattle game briefly, we do know that athletic director Bill Moos is under a lot of pressure to cancel the game going forward and play all home games in Martin Stadium. This week he did say his wish is for Cougars in Pullman to begin to fill up Martin Stadium every week so that we can keep every game in Martin. He also mentioned that even the difference of fans that came to the game last Saturday (40,000 plus) and available seats in Martin (around 33,000) was a difference of around half a million dollars and helped the school turn a healthy profit for the game.

According to Moos, the game will be reassessed moving forward based on the budget until the Cougars can be confident that they will cover, but next season is unchanging as they promised Rutgers the game in Century Link, which the home-and-home is contingent on. After a rainy, miserable day last Saturday and quite frankly a bad six year stretch in the game, I think there are a whole bunch of Cougar fans that are all for that reassessment.

Go Cougs!