College Football Week 9 Picks You Must Bet On

Last week, we saw that Penn State and Notre Dame are the real deal — and could both appear in the College Football Playoff at the end of the year. We saw Baylor come within a score of knocking off another ranked opponent before falling late to West Virginia (and running their record to 0-7). We saw Louisville go down to Florida State and drive a bus over the Seminoles’ ACC ambitions. Now as we turn our attention to College Football Week 9, there are several NCAAF odds that you should consider. All home teams are in caps.

Must-Bet College Football Games Week 9

Week 9 Power Rankings: Notre Dame is this week’s biggest riser after trouncing the Trojans https://t.co/aZFMmSb9O7 pic.twitter.com/87e5mGMguh

— SI College Football (@si_ncaafb) October 23, 2017

Friday, October 27

Tulsa (+10) over SMU (9:00pm ET, ESPN2)

One of the oddest scores from this college football season so far has been the 45-17 win that Tulsa delivered over Houston on their homecoming. The week before that, the Golden Hurricane took a 62-28 hammering from Tulane — and then the week after they went up to Connecticut and lost 20-14 to a Huskies team that is one of the American Athletic Conference’s basement dwellers. We do know that Tulsa has an offense than can click — they put up 51 points on Toledo in a loss and put up 66 on Louisiana-Layafette in a Week Two win. We also know that SMU can put up points. They needed all 31 of the points that they scored to beat Cincinnati on the road in overtime last week, securing the victory with an interception in extra time. However, defense has not been the Mustangs’ friend for much of this year, as they have given up way too many points in losses to Houston and TCU. Ben Hicks leads a potent SMU offense, with standout wide receiver Courtland Sutton one of his favorite targets, but that defense is not reliable. So I see SMU holding on for dear life for another win — but I don’t see them winning by 10.

Saturday, October 28

WEST VIRGINIA (+7.5) over Oklahoma State (12:00pm ET, ABC)

Let’s see…Oklahoma State needed overtime to survive unranked Texas last week, while West Virginia went down to Baylor and only beat the winless Bears by four points. What we have are two teams that rely heavily on their offenses to win, because their defenses have a hard time getting stops when they need them. The Texas defense frustrated the Cowboy attack, which is how the Longhorns were able to hang around even though quarterback Sam Ehlinger was in and out with injuries. West Virginia is traditionally one of the toughest road destinations in all of college football, and we know that Oklahoma State almost always lays a road egg and loses late in the season to dash their hopes of contention in the playoff. Will West Virginia post the upset and win? I’m not sure, but I see this turning into a track meet — and I don’t see the game’s final margin being more than a touchdown in either direction, so give me the Mountaineers and those points.

SOUTH FLORIDA (-10.5) over Houston (3:45pm ET, ESPNU)

The 7-0 South Florida Bulls represent coach Charlie Strong’s road back to redemption. A year after the Texas Longhorns sent him packing, Strong (and quarterback Quinton Flowers) have the Bulls sniffing at that Group of Five spot in the top tier of bowl games. They avoided what could have been a disastrous trap game in New Orleans last week, holding off the Tulane Green Wave, 34-28. The three weeks before that, they had opened conference play with three wins by a combined score of 137-41 — and 31 of those points were scored by East Carolina. They prepare to host a Houston team that has played well at times (in wins at Arizona and at home over SMU and Rice) but has played awfully at times (in a rout at Tulsa) and inconsistently on defense (in a four-point Memphis loss last week). I see the Bulls coming in with focus and taking the game right to Houston — and covering that spread.