Ben Burns
**9** BEST BET!!
OVER 63.5,BRIGHAM YOUNG COUGARS -vs-Utah State Aggies 9:00:00 PM
Reason: I'm playing on BYU and Utah State to finish OVER the total. At first glance, this o/u number seems very high. However, there's good reason for it being that way and I actually don't think that it's high enough. Let's take a look. The heavily favored Cougars are almost certain to score big points. Since their opening defensive battle vs. Oklahoma, the Cougars have averaged greater than 40 points per game, including 54 and 42 in the two games where they were favored by greater than two touchdowns. They'll face a Utah State defense which has given up 34 or more points every game. While we know the Cougars will score, the Aggies should also be able to help out. They scored 17 against a very good Utah defense, 30 against Texas A&M and then a whopping 53 vs. S. Utah last week. While that was obviously a lower tier opponent, the Aggies still did gain more than 600 yards of total offense (most since 2001) which can only be good for their confidence. QB Diondre Borel has topped 300 yards passing in back to back games, the first Aggie to do so since 2002. Both the Aggies lined games finished above the total. Meanwhile, BYU has seen three straight finish above the number. I expect the Cougars come in with a chip on their shoulder - they won by 19 last week but dropped in the AP rankings - and expect that they'll be happy to run up the score. With the Aggies doing their part, look for that to be enough and for the final combined score to finish above the total. *9 Best Bet