Texas looks to even Holiday Bowl mark

A slight favorite over Arizona State in the 30th Holiday Bowl tonight in San Diego, Texas is under .500 in the game.

In two of their three trips to Qualcomm Stadium, the Longhorns have been defeated. They lost to Oregon, 35-30, in the 2000 Holiday Bowl and fell to Washington State, 28-20, in 2003. Sandwiched around the losses was a 47-43 victory over Washington in 2001.

Although many in Austin would consider this season a failure because the Longhorns are not in a BCS bowl, Texas did go 9-3, marking the 10th consecutive year that the school has won at least nine games.

Under first-year Coach Dennis Erickson, Arizona State had a rejuvenation. The Sun Devils, who have never played Texas, won 10 of 12 and would have been playing in the Rose Bowl, at worst, had they been able to defeat USC in Tempe on Thanksgiving night.

Like Texas, Arizona State does not have a glorious Holiday Bowl history. The Sun Devils are 0-2 in the game, having lost to Arkansas, 18-17, in 1985 and Kansas State, 34-27, five years ago.

According to the website Vegasinsider.com, Texas opened a two-point favorite at Caesar’s Palace, but the line had been cut in half as of Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, at the Mirage, the Longhorns began a one-point favorite, but had risen to two on Wednesday.

Under Coach Mack Brown, Texas was 4-6 against the spread as the favorite this season. Arizona State was 0-2 as an underdog.

Future bettors seem to have discovered what local hockey fans have known for a while.

The Kings are at the bottom of the NHL. On Vegasinsider.com, the future book odds on the Kings to win the Stanley Cup next spring have risen from 60-1 to 125-1, the same price as Washington, which opened the season at 70-1.

While 125-1 is a vast underlay on both the Kings and Capitals, Los Angeles deserves to stand on its own as the NHL’s worst. Before the Christmas break, Washington had one more win and four more points than the Kings despite playing one less game.

The current favorite to win the Cup is Detroit. The Red Wings, the league’s points leader at 55 before their game Wednesday with St. Louis, are 9-2 after opening at 8-1.

Ottawa is the 5-1 second choice, and the defending champion Ducks are the 11-2 third choice, which is the same price they were when the season began in October.

bob.mieszerski@latimes.com