One would have thought that Week 7 of the college football season was setting itself up to be a dud without a single game pitting two Top 25 teams against each other. What we got were four upsets of teams ranked in the Top 10.
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Week 8 returns us to our normal chaos with a couple major battles on tap, including a Michigan/Penn State game that could go a long way towards deciding the Big Ten title and a USC/Notre Dame game that will surely serve as a National Championship eliminator.
The Numbers
5: The number of games in a row Michigan has been favored over Penn State. The Nittany Lions aren’t just favored in this game against the Wolverines; they’re favored by 12.5-points. PSU has been favored by double-digits in this series exactly once since 1995, that coming in 2008 when the Nittany Lions rolled over Big Blue 46-17 at Beaver Stadium. Penn State has a bit of a score to settle with the Wolverines, too. It was crushed last season in this game 49-10 in Ann Arbor, and that was the only thing separating James Franklin’s club and a spot in the College Football Playoff.
9: The number of times Alabama has been favored over Tennessee by at least two touchdowns. In a related story, the Volunteers have since fired Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley, and they’re about to do the same with Butch Jones. What makes this game worse than the others is that the point spread is a whopping 33-points, the biggest spread in any Tennessee game regardless of foe since at least 1985. Phillip Fulmer led Tennessee for 17 seasons and coached in 204 games. He never had a single game in which he was a dog by more than 17.5-points. Since firing Fulmer, this is UT’s 12th such game.
21: The number of consecutive road games in which Purdue has been an underdog. As if we needed any further proof that Jeff Brohm was the right coach for this job, he’s ending that streak right here in Week 8 of the season for the Boilermakers. Sure, Purdue has gotten some help here by traveling to Rutgers for the first time since the Scarlet Knights joined the Big Ten, but this is also a testament to the job Brohm has done in West Lafayette. The Boilermakers are a solid 3-3 through six games, and there hasn’t been a game this year they haven’t been in, including last week’s 17-9 loss at Wisconsin.
38: The number of points TCU is favored by over Kansas, making it the biggest favorite on the board in Week 8. The Horned Frogs have every right to think that this game is going to be a walkover. The Jayhawks have lost 43 games in a row on the road, and their last conference win outside of Lawrence came back in 2008 at Iowa State. Kansas hasn’t beaten a ranked team since Mark Mangino was the coach. Needless to say, even for as bizarre of a college football season as this has been, even this seems the unlikeliest of the unlike upsets.
Opening Week 8 College Football Odds
Memphis at Houston (-3)
UL Lafayette at Arkansas State (-13)
Western Kentucky at Old Dominion (+10)
Marshall at Middle Tennessee (+2.5)
Air Force at Nevada (+5.5)
Colorado State at New Mexico (+6.5)
Iowa at Northwestern (+1)
Tulsa at Connecticut (+7)
Troy at Georgia State (+10)
SMU at Cincinnati (Off)
North Texas at Florida Atlantic (-6.5)
Buffalo at Miami-OH (Off)
Akron at Toledo (Off)
Kent State at Ohio (-21)
Northern Illinois at Bowling Green (+14)
Western Michigan at Eastern Michigan (Off)
Indiana at Michigan State (-7)
UAB at Charlotte (+4)
Temple at Army (-6.5)
BYU at East Carolina (+7.5)
Purdue at Rutgers (+8)
Pittsburgh at Duke (-8)
Syracuse at Miami (-14.5)
Central Michigan at Ball State (+2.5)
Wake Forest at Georgia Tech (-8,5)
Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State (Off)
Michigan at Penn State (-12.5)
Maryland at Wisconsin (-24)
North Carolina at Virginia Tech (-21)
Boston College at Virginia (-7)
Wyoming at Boise State (-14)
Kansas at TCU (-38)
Rice at UTSA (-18.5)
Georgia Southern at UMass (-7)
UCF at Navy (+6.5)
Idaho at Missouri (-14)
Kentucky at Mississippi State (-10)
South Florida at Tulane (+11)
Utah State at UNLV (-2)
Southern Miss at Louisiana Tech (-3.5)
Oregon at UCLA (-6.5)
Arizona at California (-1.5)
Illinois at Minnesota (-14.5)
Tennessee at Alabama (-33)
Oklahoma State at Texas (+6)
West Virginia at Baylor (+9.5)
Auburn at Arkansas (Off)
Louisville at Florida State (-6.5)
UL Monroe at South Alabama (Off)
USC at Notre Dame (-3.5)
Oklahoma at Kansas State (-12.5)
LSU at Ole Miss (+7)
Iowa State at Texas Tech (-5)
Arizona State at Utah (-10.5)
Colorado at Washington State (-10.5)
Fresno State at San Diego State (-11.5)
(Odds Courtesy of BookMaker.eu)
