Fiesta Bowl Odds, Trends and Betting History

What better way to wrap up 2022 than with a Sportsbook to play in the national championship game. 

The Horned Frogs were inches away from their first perfect season since 2010 and a Big 12 championship title before a 31-28 OT loss to the No. 11 Kansas State Wildcats. In 2014, with an 11-1 record, the Horned Frogs were snubbed in their bid for a playoff spot. But that wasn’t happening again this year and now TCU is the first team in the state of Texas to reach the CFP.

The road to the postseason was less intense for the Wolverines after they pushed past the Ohio State Buckeyes 45-23 during Rivalry Week. Michigan defeated the Purdue Boilermakers 43-22 to secure its second straight Big Ten crown and preserve its undefeated record.

History for @UMichFootball this season! 🔥〽️ pic.twitter.com/mwIJebLRgN

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) December 5, 2022

As a holiday gift for you, we’ve filtered through all the most important information about betting trends and the betting history of the Fiesta Bowl odds. It’ll be the gift that keeps on giving as you unwrap the best bets for TCU vs Michigan and everything you need to make your picks for the game.

For a complete statistical breakdown of the Fiesta Bowl odds, see our TCU vs Michigan Matchup Report, or you can check out our College Football Bowl Schedule for all NCAAF games this winter.

2022 Fiesta Bowl Odds

According to online sportsbook Sportsbook, the Wolverines enter as 7.5-point favorites ahead of kickoff at State Farm Stadium. Michigan is 6-3-1 ATS when favored this year, with the team spotting their opponents 7.5 points or more in all but one of those games. In fact, more than half of the Michigan matchups featured a spread of two touchdowns or more.

The Horned Frogs have been a pleasant surprise this season and were viewed as underdogs often, especially at the beginning of the campaign. TCU has gone 9-3-1 ATS for the eighth-best cover rate in the nation and is 4-2-1 ATS as the underdog. Nine of its last 11 matchups have been decided by 10 points or less. The Horned Frogs haven’t hit the OVER past a 59-point mark since Week 9 while the Wolverines haven’t done so yet this season, probably because their defense allows only 13.4 points per game, tied for the second-fewest in Division 1.

2022 Fiesta Bowl Betting Trends:

Betting History of the Fiesta Bowl

The Western Athletic Conference watched its champions, the Wyoming Cowboys and Arizona State Sun Devils, miss out on bowl invites in 1968 and 1969. The straw that broke the camel’s back came the following year when an undefeated Arizona State squad had to settle for the Peach Bowl in 1970 – this was a big deal back in the day. To take matters into their own hands and make sure their teams got credit where it was due, the Fiesta Bowl was born.

The inaugural game in 1971 pitted Arizona State (9-1) against the Florida State Seminoles (8-2). In a sign of things to come, the Sun Devils knocked off the Seminoles in a 45-38 thriller. Arizona State won four of the first five bowl games on its home field in Tempe, Arizona. Their last appearance came in 1983 when they defeated Oklahoma.

During the intervening decades, the game shifted conference allegiances from the WAC (1971-1980) to an at-large system with the Power Five conferences sending top-tier talent. From 1980 through today, the Fiesta Bowl has featured two AP Top 25-ranked teams every year except 1995 when No. 4-ranked Colorado beat unranked Notre Dame. Do you know what else happened that year? Michael Jordan unretired and the cost of a loaf of bread was $2.02.

Over time, the Fiesta Bowl has become an increasingly prominent postseason spectacle, beginning with the 1987 edition. That year, top-ranked Miami battled second-ranked Penn State. In a showdown of 11-0 juggernauts – also a great name for a wrestling tag team – the Nittany Lions prevailed 12-10 to capture the de facto national championship.

One of college football’s most memorable upsets occurred in 2006 when the undefeated Boise State Broncos were a 7-point underdog against the Oklahoma Sooners but won outright in a 43-42 overtime nail-biter. As for favorites, they covered easily on the betting lines in 2014 and 2015, but dogs won outright in the two prior editions of the game.

The 2010 edition of the Fiesta Bowl featured No. 6 Boise State taking down the No. 3 TCU Horned Frogs in a 17-10 finish. It marked the first time two undefeated teams went head-to-head in a BCS matchup, aside from the national championship game.  

Sportsbook

On January 1, 2019, the No. 11-ranked LSU Tigers (9-3) and the No. 8-ranked UCF Knights (12-0) battled it out. With the total set at 58, OVER bettors found themselves able to relax as the teams combined to put up 72 points.  With a spread of +7.5, LSU covered easily in the first meeting ever between these football programs.

Last season saw another upset as the No. 9 Oklahoma State Cowboys knocked off the No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a tight 37-35 win. The sportsbooks predicted a close call with the Irish entering as -2.5 favorites, which the Cowboys covered by winning outright. But the oddsmakers were off when they set the total at 44.5 points, which the teams soared past in the Sportsbook minutes of the third quarter.

Fiesta Bowl Bites

• In 1996, BYU students and professors burned bags of Tostitos to protest their fifth-ranked team not receiving an invite to the Fiesta Bowl – that’ll show ’em!

• This bowl has awarded the MVP title to many future NFLers like Deshaun Watson, Alex Smith, Tedy Bruschi and Matt Millen.

• NCAA Division I FBS Independent schools have made the most appearances in the Fiesta Bowl with 21.

For updated betting lines and great props for all bowl games, head over to Sportsbook today.

How To Bet On Fiesta Bowl Odds

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a first-time bettor, you have the opportunity to make some cash betting on Fiesta Bowl odds. These are the bets we recommend making:

• A moneyline bet requires you to pick a Sportsbook 

• An OVER/UNDER or totals bet involves gambling on the total combined score from both teams and deciding if it will be OVER or UNDER a certain amount

• Point spread betting is a wager placed on whether the favorite or the underdog will win or lose by a set number of points

• Props are bets made on individual players (how many rushing yards will a certain player have, how many sacks will another player have, etc.), and things like which team will win the coin toss

• Parlays give you the chance to bundle two or more bets on one betting slip

• Go to our How To Bet On College Football page for more information on Fiesta Bowl betting odds

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