Alamo Bowl Odds 2012: Texas a two-point underdog

In terms of brand names and popular appeal, there's no comparison between Texas and Oregon State.

But, in terms of how they've played this season, the Beavers have been the much better team. So even though they have to make a cross-country trip to San Antonio to play in the Alamo Bowl, which is less than a hour's drive from the UT campus in Austin, Oregon State has been installed as the early 2-point favorite.

The Beavers got off to a fast 6-0 start to the season before narrow road losses to Washington and Stanford. Their only bad loss was to in-state rival Oregon, who narrowly missed out on their second berth in a BCS title game in three seasons.

In contrast, the Longhorns were killed by Oklahoma and Kansas State, beaten soundly by TCU and went 2-1 in toss-ups against mediocre Big 12 teams (West Virginia, Kansas, Baylor) that could have went either way.

The good news for Texas is that while their defense has struggled mightily to stop the run, Oregon State is primarily a passing team.

Both teams come into the Alamo Bowl with an uncertain situation at QB: Texas gave Case McCoy the start in their last game of the season, while Oregon State has been rotating Sean Mannion and Cody Vaz almost year round.

That may be why the odds makers have set the over/under at only 56, far below the point totals of Longhorns games in the Big 12 this year.