The Kansas Jayhawks took another step forward on Tuesday night as head coach Lance Leipold continues one of the biggest turnarounds in college football.
No, winning the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, 49-36, over UNLV isn’t anyone’s idea of a crowning achievement, but it’s entirely symbolic of what the program has accomplished. Kansas won a bowl game for the first time since 2008. It finished with nine wins in a season for the first time since then, too. It went to back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 07-08 and it absolutely lit up a nine-win UNLV team that had a much shorter trip to Phoenix for the contest.
Yet the game itself wasn’t without controversy and intrigue — especially for those who bet on it. Here’s what happened, and why you may be seeing erroneous — and satirical — claims online about it a failed attempted to rig the outcome.
1
Late movement on the spread
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
The Guaranteed Rate Bowl opened with Kansas (-12.5) as heavy favorites. That line held for quite awhile as the Jayhawks saw only a couple of starters opt out.
Yet despite the majority of Kansas’ offense and defense suiting up, the line began to swing towards UNLV a few hours before the game.
The line on tonight's Guaranteed Rate Bowl between Kansas and UNLV has been dropping all day. Kansas was as high as a consensus 13-point favorite this morning.
Jayhawks now -8.5.
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) December 26, 2023
Typically this would signal some big news dropping — injury, transfer portal, etc. — but that never happened. After dropping to Kansas -7.5 at some books, the line began moving back towards the Jayhawks just before game time.
So what did happen? It was a combination of late money coming in on UNLV (as pro bettors tend to wait until closer to kickoff before making bowl game picks) and rumors of KU quarterback Jason Bean dealing with an illness.
While Leipold told media days before the game that there had been an illness going around the team, there was no indication Bean wouldn’t start, let alone not suit up.
The markets, it seem, didn’t take that at face value.
There's a chance the market overreacted to the Jason Bean rumors.
— Jonathan Von Tobel (@meJVT) December 27, 2023
Per @SuperBookSports' Chase Michaelson (@Chasemarino13) on this massive Kansas-UNLV Guaranteed Rate Bowl line movement:
"We have taken some big public money, but not a ton of sharp money, as we've been consistent with the market throughout the day."
Kansas down to -8.
— Patrick Everson (@PatrickE_Vegas) December 27, 2023
2
An unusual amount of penalties plagued Kansas
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY
Calling these penalties “unusual” might actually be underselling it.
There were a historic amount of flags on the field Tuesday night. The final tally was 27 penalties for 309 yards.
Kansas — which had been called for 55 penalties all year, the 14th-fewest nationally — was flagged a Guaranteed Rate Bowl record 18 times for 210 yards. That included four personal fouls, three pass interference calls, two unsportsmanlike conducts and two facemask penalties.
Leipold was furious. Coaches usually try not to bash officials in their postgame comments. Kansas’ leader didn’t even wait until the final whistle to publicly criticize these referees. He went after them on his halftime radio interview.
Lance Leipold less than thrilled with the first half officiating. On how to cleanup the penalties: “I don’t know if we can get a new crew or not in time.”
pic.twitter.com/Sbwvh9uQrb— Glenn Kinley (@glenn_kinley) December 27, 2023
ACC referee Tim Hedgepeth was the official this game, and considering the two teams playing were from the Big 12 and Mountain West, that may have had something to do with it.
But the penalty narrative was aided by another issue.
3
The ESPN broadcast was totally disjointed
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY
As much chatter as there was about the officials on Tuesday, the broadcast itself took plenty of heat, specifically because of the lack of replays.
It seemed nearly every time the Jayhawks were hit with a personal foul or unsportsmanlike conduct, there wasn’t a replay available to show viewers a close-up of the incident.
This only added to the supposed conspiracy. Though if you take more than a minute to think about it: ESPN’s broadcast, ACC officials and pro bettors all working together to rig the Guaranteed Rate Bowl feels less likely than the Pistons winning an NBA title this year.
4
A prior UNLV-New Mexico game investigated for suspicious betting
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY
Bettors were also quick to recall that an earlier UNLV game was investigated for suspicious betting activity this year. That’s true, and we previously explained the situation here.
However the bulk of the investigation — which so far has not publicly produced any concrete evidence of wrongdoing — was focused on UNLV’s opponent, New Mexico, and not the Rebels.
Each of these reasons on its own is not enough to support a theory about the game “script” getting leaked. Taken together, they are even more ridiculous.
But there’s one reason massive reason why none of this makes sense: UNLV lost straight up and against the spread. If this was an attempt to fix the outcome for the underdog, it may go down as one of the worst ever.
