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Get free college football picks for the best action throughout 2025-26 season, including college football picks against the spread, straight-up, money line picks, and total picks (over/under). Our data-devouring experts find you the best betting trends and NCAAF picks this week.

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9:00 PM ET

Tue Dec 16

ESPN

Troy

Jacksonville State

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Point Spread Pick

Jacksonville State +2.5(-110)

Reasoning

Tuesday night will feature the Troy Trojans taking on the Jacksonville State Gamecocks as these two teams compete in the IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl. Troy finished their season with a record of 8-5, and they ended on the top of the Sun Belt West with a conference record of 6-2. They earned the right to play in the Sun Belt Conference Championship, but they fell to eventual College Football-bound James Madison 31-14. Quarterback Goose Crowder finished the season as the Trojans’ starting quarterback, throwing for 1314 yards and 11 touchdowns in 7 games played. Their top rusher this season was Tae Meadows who finished the season with 695 yards and 6 touchdowns. Jacksonville State finished their season with a record of 8-5. And they had a conference record of 7-1 in Conference USA. The Gamecocks played Kennesaw State in the conference championship, but they came up short 19-15. Quarterback Caden Creel finished the season as the Gamecocks top passer with 1341 yards and 8 touchdowns. Jacksonville State finished the year with two 1000 yard rushers. Running back Cam Cook finished the season with 1659 yards and 16 touchdowns, while Creel ran for 1085 yards and 7 touchdowns.

Bowl games are beginning to lose their feeling of importance in recent years in college football with players sitting out and some teams declining the option to compete. But this matchup between in-state rivals Troy and Jacksonville State will not fit that narrative. This game will be played in Montgomery, Alabama, which sits right in the middle of these two campuses. Motivation for in-state bragging rights will be on the line, making this one of the better bowl game matchups. My key matchup for this game is Jacksonville State’s running game versus Troy’s defense. Troy has struggled against the run this season, allowing 192 rushing yards per game. That number has them ranked 115th in the nation in that category. Against James Madison, Troy allowed their opponent to run for 318 yards on 42 attempts. That came out to 7.6 yards per attempt. With both their running back and quarterback rushing for over 1000 yards this season, Jacksonville State thrives running the football. If Troy cannot stop the run again this Tuesday, this could be a game we see Jacksonville State win as the underdog.

Jacksonville State +2.5 is available at the time of publishing. Playable at the moneyline.

BET +2.5 NOW WITH

Ben Dezell

College Football Picks This Week

With so many conferences and hundreds of matches played every weekend, the biggest test with any college football picks is unearthing those hidden gems. Here at Pickswise, that is exactly what we do. By focusing on the Power conferences and the Top-25 teams, along with a select number of other matches, our experts can focus on the key games and leave no stone unturned in our research. Pickswise is the home of free NCAAF picks, and we break down all of today’s college football action, with each pick coming with accompanying analysis, including all of the key stats, trends, and reasons for our pick.

Be sure to check back each week during the season for all of our top college football picks today.

Expert College Football Picks Against The Spread (ATS)

The most popular college football pick is against the spread (ATS). Against the spread betting isn’t about picking a winner of the football game, it’s about picking the team who will cover the spread.

Let’s say you bet your money that Team A covers the spread (wins by a certain amount of points), Michigan State -6.5 for example. Or that Team B will cover the spread (keep the game closer than oddsmakers expect), Ohio State +6.5. If Michigan State beat Ohio State 30-27, then Ohio State covers the spread, and underdog backers are cashing tickets with +6.5 on Ohio State.

Against-the-spread betting is extremely popular in football and that’s one of the main reasons why it’s one of the most popular college football picks on our site.

NCAA Football Today – Today’s NCAAF Picks

At Pickswise we cover all of the Power NCAA football today, with full game previews, picks, and betting analysis brought to you by our college football experts. A typical college football season runs from August to December and is preceded by the College Football Bowl Season and College Football Playoff, culminating in The College Football Playoff National Championship game in January.

When Do You Post Your College Football Picks

We post our college football picks for this weekend a couple of days before the scheduled match. We post our picks early enough so that you can digest the information, do your own research into the match, and make sure you get the best lines and odds for that particular pick. Like anything in sport, some things are unpredictable, and on occasion, we may choose to delay posting a pick if there is something like a key injury or likely conditions that could have an impact on the outcome of the match, or our pick itself. Check back leading up to the weekend every week throughout the season to see what NCAAF Picks we have for today.

Free Expert NCAAF Picks

All of our NCAAF picks are absolutely free, all season long. We have a team of expert NCAAF handicappers on hand to preview the very best of the Power conference or Top-25 ranked match, every week, all season long. Each of these previews comes with our experts’ NCAAF pick on the three main markets (Money Line, Spreads & Totals) with a full breakdown of why they like a particular side, as well as a confidence rating for each individual NCAAF pick. You can find every NCAAF pick throughout the season right here on the NCAAF Picks page, or check out our NCAAF Parlays for even more insight into betting better on NCAA Football this week.