Last year, the Bears surged down the stretch to win their final 6 games while looking like one of the better teams in the country in the process. This year's club, felled by a subpar defense, is still seeking to become bowl eligible. But we like this spot for the Bears against an Arizona club in dangerous of a letdown spot off its big road upset of Cincinnati.
We can safely classify this season as a disappointment for Baylor, which was expected to advance from last year's Texas Bowl entry, yet instead finds itself scrambling for bowl eligibility in late November. Dave Aranda's calling card is supposed to be defense but that's been missing from the Bears ever since the opening week loss to Auburn. Baylor has allowed 40+ in three of its last four games, and note a spread losing that had earlier reached six before a win over UCF at Waco. Meanwhile, Arizona could be sitting at 9-1 with a break or two, and QB Noah Fifita has sufficiently recovered from a subpar 2024 campaign by throwing for 24 TD passes with just 4 picks in his bounce-back campaign. Play Arizona
