BYU Cougars 2025 Season Preview

BYU enters the 2025 season eager to build after an exciting 2024 campaign. The Cougars finished season number 1 in the Big 12 with a final record of 11-2, while ending the season on a big bowl win over Colorado. 

Head coach Kilani Sitake and offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick have built BYU up on the offensive side of the ball. McCae Hillstead, Treyson Bourguet and Bear Bachmeier will be fighting for the starting spot at quarterback after BYU their star QB Jake Retzlaff was kicked off the team for breaking BYU's honor code.

The Cougars defense is also set to improve in 2025 to build off a fun 2024 squad. Despite a successful 2024, BYU has long odds win the Big 12 in 2024 with consensus odds of +2500.

Betting on the BYU Cougars

BYU Spread

The spread is a staple of football betting, a wager on the margin of victory of a given game. Let’s use an example of a hypothetical Baylor point spread:

• Utah (+4.5)
• BYU (-4.5)

In the above example, the Cougars are noted as favorites with the minus sign (-) and the Utah Utes as the underdogs with a plus sign (+). As 4.5-point favorites, BYU would cover the spread only with a win of five points or more; meanwhile, a Utah victory, or a loss between 1-4 points, would see the Utes bettors cash their tickets.

BYU Moneylines

Many new bettors perceive point spread bets to be unreliable — it’s too risky to lay points with the favorite, and the payout isn’t worth backing the underdog. This is where the moneyline comes in, which is a wager on simply which team will win the game straight-up, no margin of error factored in. Just as with point spread bets, the favored team is tagged with a minus sign (-) and the underdog a plus sign (+).

Let’s revisit our earlier example to understand the moneyline better:

• Utah Utes +155
• BYU Cougars -190

In the above example, the odds are written in American format, which can be read as an expression of $100. For the favored Cougars, -190 odds indicate that it would take a bet of $190 to win $100; with the Utes as +155 underdogs, a wager of $100 would win $155 in the case of a Utah victory.

BYU Over/Unders

To finish off the holy trinity of standard football wagers, we have the over/under, also known as a total. This is a bet not on the winner of the game, but the total (get it?) number of points the two teams playing will combine to score.

In Big 12 football these totals tend to be higher than normal, given the quick pace and air-it-out style of offense played. For our hypothetical Utah-BYU game, let’s set a total of 56 points. Bettors would be able to wager either side of this number, taking the “over” or the “under.” If the two teams were to combine for 57 points or more, over bettors would win; 55 or fewer points would see under bettors cash their tickets. If the two teams combined for exactly 56 points, that would be considered a “push,” and all wagers would be refunded.

BYU Props

Bettors aren’t limited to betting just on aspects of the final score, whether it's on the total score or the margin of victory. Prop bets cover a vast array of miscellaneous bets, from wagers on a player’s stat line to specific events that may or may not happen throughout the game.

Many props are player props, or bets on an individual performance during a game. Popular player props include betting an over/under for a player’s yardage total (passing, rushing or receiving, for example), or betting a player to score a touchdown during the game.

Other props deal with more distinct events not tied to the game’s outcome, like which quarter will be the highest scoring or which team will win the coin toss. Prop bets vary from book to book, so make sure to read Action Network's review of the best sportsbooks to find the shop best for you.

BYU Futures

Futures are exactly what they say they are: bets on events that won’t be settled until sometime in the future. These bets are most often made before the season begins, but many books offer futures throughout the season.

Classic examples of futures would be betting BYU to go over or under its season win total, its odds to win the Big 12, its likelihood to qualify for the College Football Playoff, or even its chances of winning the national title. Futures can also be bets on individuals, such as betting that the winner of the BYU QB competition will win the Heisman.