Seventy-four games are on tap for FBS teams this week and the headliner is a doozy. Third-ranked LSU travels to Austin, Texas to play the sixth-ranked Longhorns and, while LSU is ranked higher, Texas is listed as a one-point favorite in large part because of the play of Longhorn quarterback Sam Ehringer.
Last week, I was 74-9 in predicting games (89%).
Alabama should remain number one after an easy win over New Mexico State and Oklahoma should put away South Dakota despite the Sooner defense being curiously overrun last week by Houston.
Clemson (#5) is favored over Texas A&M, but I think the Tigers’ predicted advantage of three points will be more like three possessions.
Both USCs lost their starting quarterbacks on the same day, but South Carolina should have no problem this week with Charlotte, while USC has been dropped from a one-point favorite to a three-point underdog against Stanford.
According to my data, Colorado over Nebraska is a surprise but trends established by those teams support a good showing by the Buffs even if not an 11-point spread.
In other PAC-12 games . . .
Washington should beat a four-point spread against California.
Oregon is a 38-21 choice over Nevada.
UCLA needs to get Dorian Thompson-Robinson to settle down to beat San Diego State.
Washington State 54-7 over North Colorado.
Arizona 42-17 over Northern Arizona.
Utah by one score over Northern Illinois.
Arizona State by 45 over another patsy before its showdown with Michigan State.
And Oregon State is a one-point underdog at Hawai’i in one of the nation’s highest-scoring games.
To see our predictions for all 74 games this week, click here.
