College Football Week 8 Top Betting Picks

We’re moving into the second half of the 2017 college football season. We saw some big surprises last week, as Clemson went to Syracuse and lost to an Orange team that had lost to Middle Tennessee State earlier in the season. Washington State traveled to Cal and took a 37-3 shellacking, as Luke Falk through FIVE interceptions. Oklahoma and Texas tangled in their annual bout at the State Fair of Texas, with the Sooners just barely escaping the Longhorns’ clutches. What can we expect to see this week? Take a look at our College Football Week 8 betting predictions with the latest NCAAF odds, as you consider your wagers. As always, home teams are in all caps.

College Football Week 8 Top Betting Picks

Week 8 Power Rankings: Welcome to the top five, TCU and Ohio State https://t.co/PtqpzhnfWQ pic.twitter.com/fBYpAJmHA6

— SI College Football (@si_ncaafb) October 17, 2017

Tulsa (-6) over CONNECTICUT (12:00pm ET, ESPNU)

This is definitely a head-scratcher of a game. The Tulsa Golden Hurricane have exactly two wins this season. One was over Louisiana-Lafayette – and then the other was a 45-17 whitewashing of the Houston Cougars last week at home. The week before that, they went down to Tulane and permitted 62 points, but two weeks before that they had held their own in a close loss at home against Navy. They travel to Connecticut to take on a Huskies team that had given up 198 points over four games before traveling to Philadelphia to upset the Temple Owls, 28-24. The Hurricane have an offense that gains almost half again as much as the Huskies, and the Huskies’ defense has been suspect, to say the least. I see Tulsa continuing the momentum they built against Houston and picking up a road win and cover in College Football Week 8.

MIAMI (FL) (-15) over Syracuse (3:30pm ET, ESPN)

Yes, the Orange knocked off the #2 team in the nation at home last Friday night. But Clemson almost won that game despite having their starting quarterback leave with a concussion. If Dabo Swinney hadn’t panicked and called a late fake punt and instead had pinned the Orange deep, they likely get the ball back in time to tie things up or even get that game-winning touchdown. Besides, if the Orange were able to surprise Clemson, you know they won’t be able to surprise Miami. It is true that the Hurricanes have won their last two games by a combined five points, but the first win was by four at Florida State in a rivalry game that just about always features a razor-thin margin of victory, and last week saw Miami hold off a Georgia Tech team that features a triple option offense that chews up the clock and is hard to stop. I see Miami winning easily at home over a Syracuse team that snuck up on an overconfident Clemson squad but won’t have nearly as much luck on the road.

LSU (-6.5) over OLE MISS (7:15pm ET, ESPN)

LSU followed up a humiliating Homecoming loss to Troy State with big SEC wins over Florida on the road and Auburn at home, winning last week by a score of 27-23 over the Tigers. It’s pretty clear that LSU is still finding their way under new head coach Ed Orgeron, but even ugly wins are still building the LSU cause in the SEC West. They face an Ole Miss team that beat Vanderbilt last week, 57-35, but had lost their last three games by a combined score of 137-42, including a 66-3 shellacking at Alabama and a 44-23 loss at Auburn. The Rebels are still reeling after losing quarterback Chad Kelly to graduation, and while they did find their offensive gear against the Commodores, LSU has a defensive at an entirely different level. I see LSU winning and covering on the road.

BAYLOR (+9) over West Virginia (8:00pm ET, FS2)

There is no problem with the West Virginia offense — they have scored at least 24 points in each game, and in their four wins, they have piled up 217 points on the likes of East Carolina, Delaware State, Kansas and Texas Tech. The problems for West Virginia come on defense. They simply couldn’t get key stops in their loss to TCU or Virginia Tech, and they gave up 35 points in their win over Texas Tech. West Virginia also has a history of fading a bit on the road — and Baylor has already put a scare in Oklahoma, putting up 41 points on the Sooners (unfortunately, they gave up 49). So while Baylor still is looking for their first win, I see them staying closer than nine points with West Virginia. The Mountaineers will likely win this, but I’m taking the Bears with those points in College Football Week 8.