Vegas line has Arizona favored by 1.5 points over Cal

The transitive property isn’t real in sports—I know this and you know this. But there are still some times when we think it should be applied.

For example, the Wisconsin Badgers were a Top-25 team, but were beaten by the BYU Cougars; the Cougars had one loss, which came to the then-undefeated California Golden Bears. One would think the rankings would reflect that Wisconsin < BYU < Cal, but this was not the case.

In more non–transitive property sports, said Cougars defeated the Arizona Wildcats by 5, but lost to the Golden Bears by 3. One would expect a hierarchy of Cal > BYU > Arizona, but Vegas does not think this is the case. Vegas has Arizona favored in their stadium by 1.5 points over Cal.

With home-field advantage accounting for 3 points, this means Cal would be favored by a mere 1.5 points on a neutral field. Knowing how Arizona has struggled this year, this means Cal is being regarded pretty poorly at this point in the year.