College Football Best Bets, Odds for Saturday Week 7: Will Estime Run Wild Against Trojans?
College Football Best Bets, Odds for Saturday Week 7: Will Estime Run Wild Against Trojans?iv class=”bodyContent col-lg-9 mb-3″>

Twelve of college football's fourteen remaining undefeated teams are playing during a jam-packed Saturday college football slate, and we offer our college football best bets for Saturday of Week 7 based on the best NCAAF odds.

Seven teams that entered Week 6 with a record of 4-0 or better were underdogs, the most on a single day since the FBS/FCS split. Those squads went 2-5 straight up, with Oklahoma and Louisville the only winners. 

One trend to watch for the rest of the season is how AP top-five teams fare. Those schools collectively have won 25 of 28 games while covering in just 10 (10-16-2 against the spread).

To accompany our best bets and round out your picks, also look to our college football predictions for Week 7, SEC best bets for Week 7, college football upset picks for Week 7, and college football parlay picks for Week 7.

Here are our co llege football best bets for Saturday of Week 7 (odds via our best college football betting sites; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).

College football best bets for Saturday: Week 7

  • Bo Nix (Oregon) Over 18.5 rushing yards vs. Washington (-110 via DraftKings)  ????
  • Devontez Walker (UNC) anytime touchdown scorer vs. Miami (+165 via FanDuel) ????
  • Audric Estime (Notre Dame) to score 2+ touchdowns vs. USC (+280 via FanDuel) ???
  • James Madison/Wisconsin ML parlay (-119 via FanDuel) ????

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Week 7 college football schedule and odds for Saturday

(Odds via Caesars)

  • Oregon vs. Washington (-3)
  • Texas A&M vs. Tennessee (-3)
  • Auburn vs. LSU (-11)
  • USC vs. Notre Dame (-3)
  • Miami vs. North Carolina (-3.5)
  • UC LA vs. Oregon State (-3.5)

College football predictions

The Oregon-Washington Pac-12 clash is a matchup of the nation's top two offenses in yards per game (and two of the top three scoring offenses).The result could also go a long way toward determining the eventual Heisman Trophy winner, as Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix are two of the top three odds leaders to bring home the hardware.

We therefore expect Oregon head coach Dan Lanning to make sure the ball is in his veteran quarterback's hands for much of the game. Nix should break lose for some big runs with Washington's defensive attention focused on the Ducks' 1-2 running back tandem of Bucky Irving and Jordan James.

This is a contrarian play, as Nix has eclipsed 18 rushing yards in just one of five games during 2023.

However, his longest rush has been 10-plus yards in three games, and he's carried the ball at least five times in two of the previous four. He should get plenty of opportunities to exceed this total.

Nix is the only quarterback in the country with a completion percentage better than 80% and 15-plus touchdown passes. Washington's defense should therefore drop several defenders in coverage, which will open running lanes for Nix.

DraftKings is our go-to shop, as Caesars charges as much as -133 odds to back this Over, while FanDuel's total is the highest of among our best sports betting sites at 20.5

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The UNC Tar Heels received arguably their most explosive playmaker back just in time for the school's most high-profile game of the season to this point, as wide receiver Devontez Walker was finally granted NCAA eligibility las t week. Walker totaled a modest 43 receiving yards during his first game back. But the coaching staff clearly wanted to make him a focal point of the offense, as he registered a respectable six catches.

The Kent State transfer knows a thing or two about finding the end zone, as he logged 11 touchdowns on 58 receptions (for 921 yards) last year. Additionally, Walker recorded touchdowns in two of the team's three most significant games (at Washington, at Oklahoma, at Georgia) and went over the 100-yard receiving mark against the nation's best defense (Georgia).

This is a four-star play, as the way to beat Miami is through the air, with the Hurricanes ranking second in the country in rushing yards per game allowed (58.2). Therefore, look for Tar Heels quarterback Drake Maye to air it out early and often and for Walker to find the end zone as a result.

DraftKings is posting the next closest odds at +160, b ut its offering is part of a total for Walker's receiving touchdowns. We're getting a better price at FanDuel for Walker to score a touchdown of any kind, and his anytime touchdown odds go as low as +110 at bet365.

Notre Dame inexplicably abandoned the running game during its loss to Louisville in Week 6. Audric Estime, who entered the week leading the country in rushing, was given just 10 carries. Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman won't make that mistake again as the team sets out to play its fourth straight undefeated opponent. Notre Dame will also need to play keep away from USC, as the Trojans boast the nation's highest-scoring team (averaging 51.8 points per game).

Estime had recorded 13-plus carries in all six games entering last week while notching 100-plus scrimmage yards and a touchdown in five. Fighting Irish quarterback Sam Hartman's QBR has decreased for four consecutive weeks, and his completion pe rcentage is under 62% in three of those contests. With rain in the forecast and USC ranking in the top five nationally in sacks, look for Notre Dame to bully the Trojans on the ground while scoring plenty to be in the neighborhood of a 31.5-point team total.

The +280 odds found at FanDuel are a great value compared to the +200 offered at bet365, and it is worth the risk to back Estime to find the endzone twice, considering he has steep -265 anytime touchdown odds at Caesars.  

The point spread for James Madison's Week 7 matchup has spiked from -3.5 to -6 throughout the week, which makes us excited about the Dukes' chances to stay undefeated when they play Georgia Southern.

JMU boasts one of the nation's best defenses, and a unit that's been going under the radar while playing in the Sun Belt. It ranks in the top nine nationally in rushing success rate allowed, stuff rate, pressure rate, an d sacks per dropback. A Georgia Southern offense that sits 132nd nationally in explosive passing won't be able to dink and dunk its way down the field.

We're combining JMU's -225 moneyline odds with Wisconsin's -360 odds for an affordable wager, as oddsmakers clearly lack confidence in Iowa's offense this week. The Hawkeyes are 10-point underdogs in a game with a total of 34.5, so we don't expect much from backup quarterback Deacon Hill in his second career start. Hill started in place of the injured Cade McNamara (out for the season with a torn ACL), but he went just 6-of-21 passing. That's a big reason the Hawkeyes lost the time-of-possession battle by 11 minutes last week. 

FanDuel is alone among our best live betting sites while posting a parlay for these two moneylines at a better price than -127.

College football best bets made 10/12/2023 at 4:19 p.m. ET.

< h2 class='text-left'>College football betting odds pages

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