Looking ahead to Week 5 of the 2015 college football season, most ranked teams play home games, and are favored. But there are still five teams on upset alert.
Last week was a minefield for ranked, favored teams on the road, but despite a few close calls, most survived. More than half a dozen teams ranked in the Top 25 were forced to play on the road against quality opponents, though the only two to lose – BYU and Missouri – were actually underdogs.
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Looking back at the five teams we put on upset alert, Stanford and UCLA were clear misses, TCU and Oklahoma State each got a huge scare but came out on top, and Georgia Tech suffered a big loss to Duke, giving us three consecutive weeks with at least one outright upset.
This week, there are only a few games in which a highly ranked team goes on the road, and even fewer in which the favored team faces an opponent worthy of pulling the upset. No. 1 Ohio State plays Indiana in Bloomington, and though the Hoosiers are 4-0, the odds are stacked high against beating the Buckeyes, even at home. Ohio State is a three-touchdown favorite. Similarly, Florida State plays at Wake Forest, and though a trip to Winston-Salem can be tricky, there’s little reason to believe the Seminoles will struggle enough to put themselves on upset alert.
The only other ranked road favorites this week are Michigan, who squares off against Maryland, and Ole Miss, who travels to The Swamp for a date with a surprisingly undefeated Florida team. One team should be wary of an upset, though the other is likely to cruise. Who will it be? And what teams should be on upset alert at home? Let’s take a look.
Note: The point spreads referred to in the pages that follow come from VegasInsider.com and are accurate as of Tuesday September 29, 2015.
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