College Football Parlay Picks: Saturday, October 31
Following a full slate of midweek action on the gridiron, Week 9 of the college football season gets underway in earnest with a massive slate of games on Saturday. We have a showcase game in the Big 12 (Arizona vs Texas Tech) as one of the clear highlights on the card, along with a significant showdown in the SEC between Florida and Georgia. Elsewhere, we have a couple of fun matchups in the Pac-12 featuring Texas State vs Boise State and Oregon State vs Fresno State.
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 +702 odds, courtesy of DraftKings 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.
USC ML (+200)
Utah ML (-270)
Oregon State team total over 32.5 (-105)
Week 9 CFB Parlay odds: +702
CFB Parlay Pick: USC Trojans ML over Ohio State Buckeyes (+200)
It's hard to price the loss of Julian Sayin into the full game spread for this matchup, but the Buckeyes offense looked considerably worse when Luke Fahey was inserted into the game. Now, the market is essentially expecting the Buckeyes to maintain a similar level of offensive production in a game that has massive stakes given the rest of their schedule. Even against a USC defense that has clear issues, I have a hard time seeing Ohio State's offense playing at a fast enough tempo to score quick touchdowns with consistency. The Buckeyes are also ranked 57th in EPA per rush and rushing success rate, so they might not be able to stay ahead of the chains on early downs, making things harder on Fahey in his first start at this level of football. On the other side, USC should primarily look to run the ball and shorten the game — which should play into this being a close, lower-scoring game. With so much variance on the Ohio State side, I'll back the Trojans to spring the upset.
CFB Parlay Pick: Utah Utes ML over Cincinnati Bearcats (-270)
Even though Utah is generally a weaker team on the road, the Utes are a bit underpriced in this spot. Just a week ago, we saw Texas Tech close as an 11.5-point favorite at Cincinnati. Even though that line was clearly inflated (and I was all over the Bearcats in that spot), this is too much of an adjustment after just one result. Utah is still one of the three best teams in the Big 12 and Cincinnati's offense has generally not fared well when stepping up in class this season. The same can be said for the Bearcats defense, a unit that is outside the top 100 in EPA per play and success rate allowed. That doesn't bode well against a Utah offense that is extremely dynamic and has the ability to generate explosive plays and scoring drives at the drop of a hat. They haven't played clean football in recent weeks, but I have to take the Utes to remain undefeated.
Don't miss our expert's full Utah vs Cincinnati prediction
CFB Parlay Pick: Oregon State team total over 32.5 vs Fresno State Bulldogs (-105)
For the final leg of our parlay, we'll go to the Pac-12 for a game between Oregon State and Fresno State. The Beavers offense has been as dominant as it gets, and they have tallied at least 33 points in each of their last five games. The problem for Fresno State in this game is the Bulldogs have struggled mightily when stepping up in class. Yes, they are 4-3 on the season, but almost all of those wins have come against extremely bad teams (Sacramento State, Rice and Washington State). Oregon State is a significant step up in class, and the Bulldogs just allowed San Diego State to total nearly 400 yards a week ago, and that followed a game in which Boise State put up over 500 yards and tallied 38 points on the Fresno State defense. Oregon State is averaging a whopping 51 points per game over its last five contests, and I'll bank on the Beavers to keep up their high-scoring ways on Saturday.
Grab our expert's full Oregon State vs Fresno State prediction
