The Kansas Jayhawks take on the Cincinnati Bearcats. Check out our college football odds series for our Kansas Cincinnati prediction and pick. Find how to watch Kansas Cincinnati.

The Kansas Jayhawks are happy on Friday night for one reason. Reports are emerging that Michigan State is focusing on Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith for its head coaching vacancy. That's great news for Kansas, since KU head coach Lance Leipold was viewed as a possible target for Michigan State. Leipold staying around is exactly what Kansas needed. The Jayhawks were terrible before he arrived. Now the Jayhawks are in a bowl game in back-to-back seasons. It's right where they want to be. Now Kansas can prepare for its regular-season finale against Cincinnati knowing that its head coach is a lot more likely to stick around for 2024.

Cincinnati is struggling this season under coach Scott Satterfield. The Bearcats got Satterfield in a most unexpected way. He bolted from Louisville for the job at UC, a surprising plot twist which enabled Louisville to hire Jeff Brohm. Louisville made out like a bandit in that deal. Cincinnati, after losing Luke Fickell to Wisconsin, has received a downgrade with Satterfield, whose star once seemed to be ascendant in the coaching industry but has now plummeted. A win over Leipold and Kansas would be a great way for Satterfield to enter 2024 with real momentum and a renewed belief that Cincinnati can win on a large scale, which is exactly what it did under Luke Fickell.

Here are the Kansas-Cincinnati College Football odds, courtesy of FanDuel.

College Football Odds: Kansas-Cincinnati Odds

Kansas Jayhawks: -6.5 (-120)

Cincinnati Bearcats: +6.5 (-102)

Over: 57.5 (-115)

Under: 57.5 (-105)

How To Watch Kansas vs Cincinnati

Time: 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT

TV: ESPN2

Stream: fuboTV (click for a free trial)*

Why Kansas Could Cover the Spread

The Jayhawks have the better team and the better coach. Ignore the injuries. Leipold and Kansas have had to work around injuries this season and last season, and they have managed to do that. The Jayhawks aren't riding a wave of luck to get to a bowl game. They have actually had to travel over a rocky and difficult path and have found ways to persevere. This team is resilient, not just good. Cincinnati is the opposite. The Bearcats have found ways to lose games this season and have not evolved very much over the course of these three months. Kansas has earned trust and UC has not. Kansas has more speed than Cincinnati. Kansas has more toughness than Cincinnati. Combine that with the coaching advantage and the overall morale inside the locker room at both programs, and you have a pretty clear dynamic which points to Kansas winning this game comfortably. At only 6.5 points instead of nine or 11 points, Kansas is a good spread pick.

Why Cincinnati Could Cover the Spread

The Kansas Jayhawks are good, and they are better than Cincinnati, but they just lost a very tough and draining game to Kansas State. Kansas badly wanted to win that game. It played hard, but it came up short. After losing a rivalry game, this team is going to be mentally fried heading into Cincinnati. It's a situation ripe for a Kansas letdown and a very flat performance by the Jayhawks. Cincinnati can take advantage of this.

Final Kansas-Cincinnati Prediction & Pick

The letdown factor for Kansas is very real, but KU is a lot better than Cincinnati and can cover the spread even if it wins by just one touchdown. That's hard to pass up here. Take Kansas.

Final Kansas-Cincinnati Prediction & Pick: Kansas -6.5