College football best bets for Week 10 as the Pac-12 is welcomed back to the mix along with two critical top-10 matchups out of the ACC and SEC.
There will be three dominant storylines in college football Week 10. The first, naturally, will be the return of Pac-12 football as the last of the Power 5 conferences joins the party. Beyond that, though, we have two marquee matchups with the Florida-Georgia matchup going down from the SEC while No. 1-ranked Clemson takes on Notre Dame. But does any of this have any effect on the best bets for college football Week 10?
In terms of the two top-10 matchups, they are too close to call. Not only is the Cocktail Party always difficult to call from a betting angle but injuries for the Bulldogs make things more complicated. Similar things are true for Clemson as Trevor Lawrence is out with COVID-19, which makes you wonder what they’ll look like against a very good Fighting Irish team.
But while we may not be looking at the two best games of the week to make our best bets, there are still numerous other opportunities to make some money. Bank on these college football Week 10 best bets and you’ll be just fine. All odds are courtesy of The Action Network.
5 college football best bets for Week 10
5. Arizona State vs. USC – Under 58.5
With conferences making their debuts, I’ve tended to try and be more cautious. We simply haven’t seen the USC Trojans or Arizona State Sun Devils this year and the offseason was anything but normal. The truth is, we know very little about these two teams, which makes it a tough game to confidently bet on — at least in terms of the point spread.
The over/under total is a different story, however. Given the truncated season, this game will be kicking off at 9 a.m. local time in Los Angeles. That’s not a situation either team is accustomed too and I expect to see some sleepy early football in the first half with low scores. Even if they wake up after halftime, they should still hit the under on a relatively high number.
4. Kansas vs. Oklahoma (-37.5)
The Kansas Jayhawks are, by far, the worst team in the Big 12 this season while the Oklahoma Sooners, despite early stumbles out of the gate, might be the best team in the conference as the season rolls on. So it stands to reason why Spencer Rattler and the Sooners are favored so heavily in Norman.
But it’s not heavy enough to deter me. Not only is Oklahoma the vastly superior team but they also have a point to prove if they want to improve public perception. They need to run up the score against bad teams and a matchup with Kansas is the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.
3. Air Force vs. Army – Under 41
Whenever service academies match up with one another, the under is often the safe play, at least according to historical trends. And that trend is even stronger when it involves Army and Air Force, despite the incredibly low total of just 41 points.
In the past five years, these two teams have combined to score more than 40 points in just one game (2016). And even then, they only got to 43 points, of which Air Force accounted for 31 of those. The game-script for triple-option teams means burning clock and running the ball. That’s a safe under bet, even at this number.
2. Houston vs. Cincinnati (-13.5)
For my money, Memphis has a better offense and a better defense than the Houston Cougars. And what did Desmond Ridder and the Cincinnati Bearcats do to the Tigers last week? They absolutely boat-raced them.
This feels like an easy call. Cincinnati has earned their distinction as a top-10 team with their performance to this point while Houston is a fun but flawed team. The result is going to be heavily in favor of Luke Fickell’s squad, especially at home.
1. Nebraska vs. Northwestern (-3.5)
This is one of the most perplexing lines of college football Week 10 to me, which is obviously why I’m jumping all over it. Not only is the only time we’ve seen Nebraska this season a 52-14 blowout at the hands of Ohio State where they failed to score in the second half but they had an unscheduled week off due to cancelation and Northwestern has looked impressive to this point.
With an offense that is starkly improved from the paltry performance of last season and one of the Big Ten’s best defenses, the Wildcats at home should be able to win by more than a touchdown against a Huskers group that appears to be more in name-brand than in substance.
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