College football Week 13: 6 best bets to take to the bank

College football best bets for Week 13 include a top-five team as a heavy favorite and several other wagers that you can take to the bank this week.

Normally the week of Thanksgiving in college football is the conclusion of the regular season for the majority of Power 5 teams, which is why it’s often so heavy on rivalries. Many of the rivalries remain in place for Week 13 at the same time — the big difference is that there are still games on the schedule after these matchups. But it does set up some intriguing best bets for this week.

Rivalry matchups, for the most part, can be difficult to predict. Even if the two teams aren’t evenly matched on paper, there are many times where you can throw that out of the window when bad blood gets involved. Subsequently, conventional logic might suggest avoiding rivalry matchups when identifying best bets. But that’s not entirely the approach we’re taking in Week 13.

Instead, we have an assortment of best bets for college football Week 13 that features some rivalries and others that don’t fit that bill. With that said, let’s dive into the bets you can bank on this week. All odds are courtesy of The Action Network.

6 best bets for college football Week 13

6. LSU vs. Texas A&M – Over 62.5

For as impressive as Texas A&M was looking prior to a handful of postponements and cancelations due to COVID-19, the Aggies defense has not played up to its talent level throughout the year. The same is most certainly true for the LSU defense, which has been one of the worst units in the SEC.

We’ve seen LSU and Texas A&M put up absurd numbers on the scoreboard before and this could be another one of those games. Though the Tigers offense has been up-and-down, they appear healthy and ready to strike, which should allow this over to hit pretty comfortably on Saturday.

5. UMass vs. Liberty (-37)

UMass might be the worst team in college football this season. Through three games against Georgia Southern, Marshall and FAU, the Minutemen have managed to score only 12 points while giving up 116. Now that they match up against a Liberty team coming off of their first loss of the season, things could get ugly. Malik Willis and the Flames are an explosive offense that can pour it on. Even if their defense is suspect, it won’t matter against this opponent as they win in blowout fashion.

4. Oregon vs. Oregon State (+13.5)

Considering that this rivalry formerly known as the Civil War features the No. 15 Oregon Ducks and an Oregon State Beavers group that is only 1-2 on the year, this might seem like an obvious situation to take the ranked favorite on the road. But you’d be wrong.

Oregon State has not played in a game that wasn’t close this season, the same of which is true for Oregon. Furthermore, the Beavers have a dangerous rushing attack and the Ducks run defense has given up just under 200 yards per game thus far. The Beavers might not pick up the win but they should pretty easily keep this one inside of two touchdowns on Friday night.

3. Northwestern vs. Michigan State – Under 41.5

Northwestern is one of the surprise teams of the 2020 college football season, moving up to No. 8 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings after a 5-0 start. They are a hard-nosed team capable of shutting down teams on defense with an offense that is unspectacular but solid.

This matchup against Michigan State, however, begs for an extremely low total. Northwestern has hit under 41.5 points in three of their five games already this season while Michigan State has scored seven or fewer points in each of their last two outings. It’s a low total but the Wildcats and Spartans are more than capable of still going under.

2. Georgia vs. South Carolina – Over 49

The arrival of JT Daniels in the Georgia offense gave the Bulldogs more life on that side of the ball than we’ve seen at any other point this season as he threw for 400 yards and the Dawgs put up 31 points. And even though things have gotten ugly for South Carolina, they have put up 24 or more points in at six games this season. Throw in the injuries to the UGA defense that have kept them from being a total shutdown unit of late, this total feels too low to not take the over.

1. Pittsburgh vs. Clemson (-23)

We all know that Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers are at least somewhat angered by Florida State canceling last week’s game at the last minute; but you have to think that Pat Narduzzi and the Pittsburgh Panthers are just as angry about it as they now have to go to Death Valley and face an angry team that is not only coming off a loss but got motivated by the Noles last week.

With Trevor Lawrence returning to the field this week, this should be a bloodbath in favor of the Tigers. Pitt doesn’t have the offensive firepower to keep up, especially against Clemson’s defense. In fact, I’d venture to say that the Panthers would do well to lose by less than 30 points on Saturday.

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