College Football Week 8 Sharp Betting Picks

We are officially entering the second half of the 2016 college football season, and that means the competition in the league will expectedly dial up, as teams look to finish the year strongly and grab the remaining slots for the bowl games at the end of the season. With all the drama from last week’s absolutely action-packed weekend in the rear, let’s march forward by highlighting our early sharp college football betting picks for the coming weekend.

College Football Week 8 Sharp Betting Picks

New AP Poll is out!

1. @AlabamaFTBL 2. @OhioStateFB 3. @UMichFootball Full rankings: https://t.co/ei3Ggho2IL pic.twitter.com/QQtItzWy2b — NCAA Football (@NCAAFootball) October 16, 2016

Miami-FL (4-2, 1-2 ACC) at Virginia Tech (4-2, 2-1 ACC)

Thursday, October 20, 7:00 PM ET

Both the Hurricanes and the Hokies are coming off disappointing losses in their previous games, with Miami-FL losing 13-20 to UNC, and V-Tech losing to 17-31 to Syracuse. Of the two defeats, the Hokies were the worst losers, as they’d been favored to win by 23 points at home, only for them to fall flat by double-digits. Things won’t be getting any easier for the Hokies, who will be hosting the Canes, a team that has won the last two straight meetings against Virginia Tech (30-20 in 2015 and 30-6 in 2014). QB Brad Kaaya failed to score a touchdown against North Carolina last week, and that should psyche him up for a strong bounce-back performance this week, alongside the likes of RB Mark Walton. Meanwhile, Miami’s solid D that has not allowed more than 21 points in ACC play—and is ranked fourth-best in the nation in scoring defense (allowing just 14.0 PPG this season)—shouldn’t have that many difficulties against V-Tech’s inconsistent offense. Sharp NCAA Football Pick: Miami (+4.5)

Colorado (5-2, 3-1 Pac-12) at Stanford (4-2, 2-2 Pac-12)

Saturday, October 22, 3:00 PM ET

The legend of Colorado continues to grow stronger, thanks to the enterprising Buffs offense that is led by an explosive QB-RB combo in in Sefo Liufau and Philip Lindsay, and a receiving corps that is capable of making crucial plays when needed—headlined by the athletic Bryce Bobo. Meanwhile, Colorado’ defense seems to get better every week, progressively posting some really good numbers. The balance of this team was evident last week, when the Buffs manhandled the Arizona State Wildcats to the tune of 40-16, with ASU coach admitting after the game that “they kicked our tail.” Mind you, this was a Colorado program that had never beaten the Sun Devils. Up next for the Buffs is a test against Stanford, a program that Colorado hasn’t beaten since 1990. The Cardinal didn’t play the best of games last week, but the team was able to force a couple of turnovers and string some key defensive stops to earn Stanford a 17-10 win over Notre Dame. But even after such a performance, it’s hard to believe that Stanford—even with Christian McCaffrey likely to return after missing last week’s game—will be able to stop the more talented Buffs. Stanford’s offense (19.0 PPG scoring) is a mess and the Buffs (39.00 PPG scoring) should be more than capable of taking advantage of that to pull a minor upset over the Cardinal, who are false favorites in this game, according to most sharps. FYI, Colorado is the lone team in the nation that enters Week 8 with a perfect mark against the spread, standing at 7-0 ATS this season. Sharp NCAA Football Pick: Colorado (+2.5)

TCU (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) at West Virginia (5-0, 2-0 Big 12)

Saturday, October 22, 3:30 PM ET

Facing the nation’s leading passer in Texas Tech’s quarterback Patrick Mahomes is always a problem for any team. That, however, wasn’t an issue for the Mountaineers last week, as they held Mahomes to 305 passing yards, one touchdown and one reception in a 48-17 road rout by WVU. Following that performance, and pretty much every performance of their undefeated 5-0 start to the season, our sharps strongly believe that the Mountaineers– at home– should be able to use the same formula to keep Kenny Hill and the Frogs in check. Like Mahomes, Hill is a big-time passer—with his 2142 passing yards placing him 5th-best in the nation—but the Horned Frog don’t have much of a defense (just like the Red Raiders). With that, the underrated Mountaineers (who are currently been favored by less than a touchdown vs. TCU) look to offer some very sweet sharp betting value in the early markets. The sooner you jump on the WVU line at its cheap buying value, the better for you, given that this spread is likely to go up as sharp money is pounded on West Virginia. Sharp NCAA Football Pick: West Virginia (-4.5)

Oregon State (2-4, 1-2 Pac-12) at Washington (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12)

Saturday, October 22, 6:30 PM ET

Yes, Oregon State held its own quite well in the 19-14 loss to Utah, but we all know that they were helped a bit by injuries in the Utah squad along with bad weather in Oregon State’s home stadium. Don’t expect any of such factors to affect the Huskies, who will be playing at home in a forecasted good weather on Saturday evening. Jake Browning—he of 1,418 passing yards and 23 touchdowns against just two interceptions (on 72.2 percent completion of passes) plus three running scores—is virtually unstoppable and he rarely takes his foot off the gas once he has his game going (see the 70-21 blowout win at Oregon for reference). Apart from the fluid Browning- led offense that ranks best in the Pac-12, the Huskies also have the best defense in the conference, which could easily shutout Oregon State’s below-average offense. Add that to the extra rest the undefeated Huskies have from their bye in Week 7, it’s almost as good as cast on stone that the playoff-hunting Washington team will continue to impress with another big win here. Sharp NCAA Football Pick: Washington (-33.5)

Washington State (4-2, 3-0 Pac-12) at Arizona State (5-2, 2-2 Pac-12)

Saturday, October 22, 10:00 PM ET

This game’s line offers the classic tale of betting overreaction due to results, setting up a potentially strong value-betting option for sharp contrarian bettors. The Huskies are on a roll, having routed Oregon and Stanford by a combined 93 points before surviving a late rally to beat UCLA in a 27-21 win, though failing to cover the spread as closing 10-point favorites. Of course, those who listened to us at the start of last week and took the line when it was at -5.5 got paid on a Wazzu ticket. Meanwhile, ASU is coming off the devastating 24-point loss to Colorado that we mentioned earlier. With Arizona State having health issues at QB and struggles in the defensive department, this game definitely looks to favor Wazzou. But then again, the Josh Rosen-less Bruins proved to be a handful to the Cougars (in Washington) last week, so it wouldn’t be far-fetched to expect a similar game against Arizona State, who will be playing at home this weekend. After all, the Sun Devils are always a tough team to beat at home (Arizona State is 6-1 SU in its last 7 games at home) and they’ve dominantly owned this series against Washington State– ASU is 10-2 SU in its last 12 overall vs. Washington State, and 5-1 ATS in its last 6 home games against Washington State). So, even if they won’t win outright, the Sun Devils should at the very least be able to keep things close to cover the point spread vs. Washington State on Saturday. Sharp NCAA Football Pick: Arizona State (+7)