Most Vegas oddsmakers on Tuesday cut the spread in half for the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners and unranked Texas Longhorns in the Red River Rivalry at 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday in Dallas after a new report surfaced about OU starting quarterback John Mateer.
Mateer's status for Saturday has been unclear because of a right hand injury, but ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Tuesday morning that Mateer “is pushing to return this week” and “there’s a belief that his return is possible" for the Red River Rivalry. Within hours of Thamel's report, despite OU head coach Brent Venables pleading otherwise, Vegas made the Red River Rivalry nearly an even matchup after Texas originally opened as a massive favorite.
Vegas still favors Texas over Sooners
As of Tuesday afternoon, after the recent report on Mateer, DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM all had the Sooners as 1.5-point underdogs, while some oddsmakers had it as close as a point. On Monday, DraftKings had its spread at 3 points, while FanDuel and BetMGM set theirs at 2.5 points in Texas' favor.
The Sooners were surprise underdogs as the undefeated top-10 squad headed into the matchup, with Texas just dropping out of the rankings at 3-2 and coming off an ugly loss to Florida. Tuesday's movement, though, proves Mateer's status could somewhat be deciding this spread, even if it might not really matter if the Sooners have him behind center.
Josh Pate reported Tuesday afternoon that FanDuel's 1.5-point spread was based on Mateer playing. According to Pate, if Mateer doesn't play, FanDuel would instead set the spread at 5.5 in Texas' favor.
That was still a monstrous shift compared to when the Red River Rivalry was one of the few college football games to get an opening spread back in August. The Longhorns opened as 11.5-point favorites then as they were projected national championship contenders and quarterback Arch Manning had the best odds to win the Heisman Trophy.
The landscapes on both sides of the Red River continue to shift, though, so by kickoff Saturday afternoon, the way bettors are viewing this matchup could be a 180 from August.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.