2005 TCU Horned Frogs Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

The Texas Christian University Horned Frogs entered their final season of Conference USA play in 2004 as the league’s flagship team and powerhouse. The Frogs were coming off an 11-1 season in 2003, which had them in serious contention for a Bowl Championship Series berth all the way until their showdown at Southern Miss in their eleventh game of the season, which they lost 28-40 as 2.5-point dogs. While TCU had increased in appeal to many sports bettors and was regularly included on the lists of football picks for many bettors, their overall sports handicapping value had been eroding since 2002.

TCU had finished in the black against the odds four straight seasons as they entered the 2002 campaign and had become a well-respected perennial bowl program. Despite a 10-2 straight up record in 2002, the Horned Frogs failed to get the cash in seven of those twelve games. In their epic 2003 season, in fact, they lost four of their first five games against the odds despite winning all five games straight up. They the reclaimed some of their value after that slow start and beat the sports betting odds in four of their next five games, which made them 10-0 straight up and 5-5 against the odds heading into that showdown at Southern Miss. Many sports betting bloggers were flabbergasted that the Frogs were installed as dogs for that game and TCU loomed large on many lists of football picks that fateful night.

sports betting bloggers continued to believe in TCU at the start of 2004 as the Frogs had a well established record of straight up success that translated into extra action from the masses of asses.

It was apparent right from the start of 2004 that the Frogs had slipped a notch, at the very LEAST. After a 48-45 overtime home win over Northwestern as 6.5-point chalks, TCU seemed to be back on track in their next game, which was a 44-0 decimation of SMU as 23-point home chalks. All this did, however, was set up the sports handicapping market correction that followed. TCU, as a 6-point dog at Texas Tech, was exposed as pretenders in a 35-70 loss that served as the beginning of a steak in which the Frogs dropped seven of their final nine games against the odds to finish 5-6 straight up and 3-8 against the odds to fully complete the sports handicapping market correction. TCU enters Mountain West Conference play in 2005.