With some fascinating matchups in Week 7 of the 2018 college football season, these are the best bets for you to count on come Saturday.
We’ve reached the midway point of the 2018 college football season, so things have started to take shape. As things currently stand, there are six teams with the most viable shot at making it into the College Football Playoff, and those six just happen to be undefeated and sitting as the six highest-ranked teams in the country. Of course, with conference play wearing on, nothing is decided.
As I’ve said many times in recent weeks, this is the time of year where contenders and pretenders separate themselves. Just last week, we saw the then-undefeated LSU Tigers go on the road against a Florida Gators team that, on paper, they should have prevailed over. However, with the strain of conference play already starting to take its toll and with the talent that Power 5 teams often possess, the Tigers came up short.
We’re going to see many more of those types of matchups in the coming weeks, and Week 7 of the 2018 college football season is no exception to that. With the Georgia Bulldogs going on the road to face the aforementioned Tigers, with the Washington Huskies and Oregon Ducks facing off in a top-20 showdown and even with the Wisconsin Badgers and Michigan Wolverines going toe-to-toe, things will continue to take shape.
Given the state of the sport at this point in the season, you can think you’re sure about many things, but it’s a long season where things can change drastically in any week. Even still, you have to be able to bank on some things. And in Week 7 of college football, these are the bets that you can count on coming through.
Note: All odds come courtesy of Odds Shark.
5. Pittsburgh at Notre Dame (-20.5)
Despite not having a loss early in the season and taking care of business against a good Michigan Wolverines team in their opener, there were viable concerns about the ceiling of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. With Brandon Wimbush at quarterback, this team seemed like a defensive stalwart that would have to win on that side of the ball given the mistakes and inconsistency of Wimbush with him helming the offense.
Since Ian Book’s inclusion as the starting quarterback for Notre Dame, however, those concerns have been quelled entirely. Over the three games that Book has started (against two ranked opponents and first Wake Forest), the Irish have averaged 46.3 points per game. They have life on that side of the ball in a way that wasn’t possible with Wimbush.
Now ranked as the No. 5 team in the country and with a viable shot at making it into the College Football Playoff, there’s legitimate reason to believe that Notre Dame could run the table. The next step in making that happen will be getting past the Pittsburgh Panthers in South Bend on Saturday. And, in truth, I don’t see a way that Pitt even keeps this one close.
Pitt has been one of the most wildly inconsistent teams in the country to this point, looking abysmal against both good and bad teams, while winning tough matchups with Syracuse and Georgia Tech. However, when they’ve faced quality competition (UCF and Penn State), they lost 45-14 and 51-6, respectively. Thus, despite the large point spread, take Notre Dame as the favorites. It’s not going to be pretty for the Panthers on Saturday.