Texas Tech Red Raiders vs Arizona State Sun Devils Prediction, Odds and Picks for Saturday, 10/18/25

One of the biggest games of the season in the Big 12 takes place in the desert this week, as the Texas Tech Red Raiders face the Arizona State Sun Devils. Texas Tech comes into the contest at 6-0 and rapidly climbing the national rankings as voters realize this team is not a pretender. The defending conference champ Sun Devils, though, find themselves in an early must-win spot; if they take a second conference loss, it will be hard to climb back into that conference title game from there. The biggest issue in this game is injuries, and especially when it comes to the starting QBs, and that makes this game especially hard to handicap. I am, for now, taking the Red Raiders at -7.5.

It looks like Sam Leavitt will suit up for the Sun Devils after missing last week’s game against Utah. ASU was whooped soundly in his absence. Even with Leavitt though, this is not last year’s Sun Devil team. The previous two games saw ASU narrowly survive against TCU and Baylor, and Texas Tech is far better than either of those squads. To me, too much of this offense is just about forcing the ball to star WR Jordyn Tyson, and defenses are catching up to it. On the other side, Behren Morton is listed as questionable, but my sense is he is on the doubtful side. The Raiders are better equipped to play with a backup QB than is ASU though, and they might be okay. Arizona State is a strong rush defense, but their passing defense is much more vulnerable, and they have some injuries in that second on top of that. This is a spot where Texas Tech can show that they have talent and depth across the board, and I think they win; winning by more than a touchdown is a tougher bet, but I’ll go with it. Tons of early money is flooding the ASU side too, and I generally prefer to avoid that.

Texas Tech vs Arizona State Prediction: Texas Tech -7.5 (-110) available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.