Holiday Bowl 2012: Baylor vs. UCLA odds and lines

Oddsmakers apparently expect this year's Holiday Bowl to be quite the competitive game, as the Baylor Bears and UCLA Bruins are listed at even for Thursday's match-up according to the folks at Odds Shark. UCLA has the stronger overall record this year, but the Bears have performed better of late.

With two of the better offenses in the country taking the field, the odds makers have set the over/under for the game at 80.5 points. That may seem high, but Baylor has the fifth-best scoring offense in the nation while UCLA ranks 29th; these are teams that have racked up points week in, week out.

While the Bruins boast an impressive 9-4 record this year and nearly won the Pac-12 conference title, they lost their final two games of the season, both to the Stanford Cardinal. UCLA did beat some quality opponents this year, though, including the Big Ten champion Nebraska Cornhuskers and Pac-12 foes such as USC and Arizona State.

Baylor didn't play nearly as well at the beginning of the season, but the Bears rounded into shape over the final few weeks of the season. After narrowly losing to then-No. 12 Oklahoma on Nov. 10, the Bears rebounded by upsetting then-No. 1 Kansas State, Texas Tech and then-No. 23 Oklahoma State over consecutive weeks.