College Football Parlay Picks: Saturday, October 24

Following a full slate of midweek action on the gridiron, Week 8 of the college football season gets underway in earnest with a massive slate of games on Saturday. We have a showcase game in the SEC (Ole Miss vs Texas) as one of the clear highlights on the card, along with a significant showdown in the Big 12 between Houston and Utah. Elsewhere, we have a huge Group of Six matchup between North Dakota State and New Mexico in a game that could go a long way to deciding the winner of the Mountain West and a potential College Football Playoff berth.

Ahead of another fabulous weekend of college football, it’s time to break down our weekly CFB parlay, consisting of our expert's favorite plays of the week at massive +1046 odds, courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook. For more predictions and analysis, be sure to check out our CFB picks for every FBS game this year, as well as our CFB best bets for our most confident selections this week.

UCF ML (+230)

Houston vs Utah Over 56.5 (-110)

North Dakota State vs New Mexico Under 41.5 (-122)

Week 8 CFB Parlay odds: +1046

CFB Parlay Pick: UCF Knights ML over BYU Cougars (+230)

From a situational perspective, this is about as good of a spot as we'll get all season. After all, not only did BYU just win one of the biggest games in program history, it did so in thrilling fashion over one of the premier programs in the sport. Now, the Cougars will have to travel all the way across the country for a date with UCF in Orlando. With that in mind, it's reasonable to expect a slow start out of Bear Bachmeier and company, especially with warm temperatures and high winds expected at kickoff. As for the hosts, the Golden Knights are expected to be without Alonza Barnett III once again, but they have been able to adapt and win multiple games without the former James Madison quarterback under center, and they even were very competitive in road losses to Houston and Oklahoma State. UCF boasts a rock-solid defense (32nd in EPA per play, 27th in EPA per rush), which should give them a high enough floor to compete for four quarters in this matchup. Let's back the Golden Knights to keep things within a touchdown.

CFB Parlay Pick: Houston Cougars vs Utah Utes Over 56.5 (-110)

Despite having faced a pretty solid schedule of opponents to this point, Houston's offense sits atop the nation in EPA per play, while checking in at fourth in success rate. Even on the road, the Cougars should be able to tally plenty of points against a Utah defense (48th in EPA per play allowed) that has yet to face an elite offense this season. On the other side, Utah's offense has been a machine all season long, and I'd expect offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven to have plenty of tricks up his sleeve involving both Devon Dampier and Byrd Ficklin at quarterback in the backfield. Utah has scored at least 30 points in all but one of its games this season, and seeing that Houston's defense struggled against the only offenses its played with a pulse (28 points allowed against Texas Tech and Oklahoma State), I have a hard time believing that the Utes are going to be consistently stopped at home. I'll back both offenses to keep on rolling on Saturday.

Don't miss our expert's full Houston vs Utah prediction

CFB Parlay Pick: North Dakota State Bison vs New Mexico Lobos Under 41.5 (-122)

For the final leg of our parlay, we'll go to the Mountain West for a huge showdown between North Dakota State and New Mexico. In a game of this magnitude, I generally tend to focus on the defenses — especially in a game where both stop units should hold an edge over the opposing offenses. On one side, North Dakota State's offense is down to 124th in EPA per play on the season, while sitting at 100th in EPA per rush and 105th in EPA per dropback (Game On Paper). That spells trouble against a New Mexico defense that is ranked seventh in EPA per play and second in success rate allowed, despite playing a tougher schedule of opponents to this point. The Lobos offense has been more efficient compared to the Bison, but North Dakota State's defense is still a top 20 unit in EPA per play and a top 40 unit in success rate allowed. With that in mind, I'll gladly grab the under at 41 or better.

Grab our expert's full North Dakota State vs New Mexico prediction