College Football Week 8: Early Lines and Point Spreads
The lines have been posted for week 8 and as we’ve seen just about every week we’re probably in for a good amount of volatility.
While most places won’t have the games or odds posted until tonight these are the current point spreads for this week’s games. While I haven’t taken a close look at them nor done any research at all as usual there are some surprises. Let’s take a look and see what’s in store.
For Thursday we have 2 games with road favorites, Florida State is favored by 11 1/2 over NC State and BYU is giving 1 1/2 to TCU. While last week I did manage to have Wake over Clemson I haven’t been my best on Thursdays. Neither of these lines surprise me much but if I were to guess they may go higher.
On Friday night Boise is favored by 25 1/2 over visiting Hawaii. Boise usually light it up during these midweek games on the blue turf though they didn’t score 25 points all last week.
As we move into Saturday’s games we see:
Connecticut is +1 at Rutgers. This is a little surprising as UConn has been pretty good and Rutgers has been pretty bad, maybe someone knows something.
Wake Forest is -1 at Maryland. The Terps have been playing a lot better but we have a consistent team against a non-consistent team.
Clemson is - 1 1/2 against visiting Georgia Tech. Clemson opens as a favorite once again; it will be interesting to see how their backers treat them after the way they have been treating their backers.
East Carolina is -9 1/2 over visiting Memphis. ECU has gone from world beater to doormat in a month; this should be a good barometer game for the rest of their season.
Miami is -5 1/2 at Duke. Traditionally Miami has had a hard time covering against the Blue Devils.
Boston College is a soft + 2 1/2 over Virginia Tech. Both teams come of bye weeks and both need this win.
South Florida is -24 against Syracuse. The Orangemen just covered a similar number at West Virginia this past week.
Wisconsin is +3 1/2 at Iowa. Wisky has dropped 3 in a row in Big Ten play and Iowa comes off of a win against Indiana.
Northwestern is - 3 1/2 against Purdue. Both of these teams played very physical opponents last week and it will be interesting to see how they rebound.
Oklahoma is -18 against a ranked Kansas team. Oklahoma will be looking to rebound from a game they were well ahead in a lost last week to Texas.
Central Michigan is -3 against Western Michigan. This is a rivalry that doesn’t get a lot of national attention but it’s pretty heated when they hit the field.
Nebraska is -5 at Iowa State. The Huskers cam e up just short last week in a major upset bit against Texas Tech.
Tennessee is -8 1/2 against Mississippi State. It’s been a tough season at Rocky Top and this line looks a little big.
Alabama is -13 1/2 against Ole Miss. These teams both come off of a well earned bye week.
Georgia is -15 against Vandy. Vandy came back to earth last week suffering a 3 point loss to the other SEC Bulldogs.
Utah is - 23 1/2 against Colorado State. Big point spreads is something pretty common to both of these teams.
USC is -42 at Washington State. You read that right, 7 touchdowns.
Colorado is -2 1/2 against Kansas State. After a strong start the Buffalo have looked like a tired team of late.
Oklahoma State is -17 against Baylor. While both of these teams appear headed in the right direction it’s pretty clear the Cowboys are a little ahead.
LSU is - 3 1/2 at South Carolina. It will be interesting to see how the Tigers come out after the blow out loss last week at Florida.
Texas is -7 against Missouri, The Horns are the new #1 while the Tigers look to rebound from the loss last week.
Ohio State is -3 at Michigan State. Oddly enough the two teams that these two beat last week play each other as well.
North Carolina is -5 at Virginia. Both of these teams have been playing well as of late and come of pretty big wins.
Penn State is -24 against Michigan. While it just feels like a a lot of points it’s probably about right.
Pittsburgh is -3 1/2 at Navy. Both of these teams come in hot riding winning streaks.
Oregon State is -14 at Washington. This is the second week in a row the Beavers are double digit favorites.
Kentucky is -11 against Arkansas. Arkansas got a big win as a 19 1/2 point underdog last week against Auburn.
Arizona is -1 against Cal. This one may move to even or Cal favored as the Bears are ranked by some.
Tulsa is -17 1//2 against UTEP. The Golden Hurricane had their closest game of the season this past week.
UCLA is - 2 1/2 against Stanford. We don’t see the Bruins favored often and it’s for good reason.
Illinois is -16 1/2 against Indiana. The Illini lost outright last week as double digit favorites.
Troy is - 7 1/2 against FIU. Florida International comes in riding a 3 game winning streak.
San Jose State is - 2 1/2 at New Mexico State. The Spartans are thinking Bowl game and the way they are playing it isn’t too far fetched.
Louisville is - 14 1/2 against Middle Tennessee State. This is usually one of those back and forth high scoring games though neither of these teams have been too impressive this year.
This isn’t all of the lines that are out there but just a sample of all of the action on the schedule for this week as we’re right in the middle of college football season. Tomorrow I’ll be making my first set of picks for the week.
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