The Black Friday college football slate is one of the more underrated events on the sports calendar.
Friday's college football slate features 13 games ahead of the final full Saturday slate of the regular season. It also includes a number of rivalry games, including Iowa vs. Nebraska, Texas Tech vs. Texas and Oregon State vs. Oregon – plus much more.
Our college football writers came through with five best bets for Friday's slate, including picks for the Heroes Game, an AAC showdown and an in-state rivalry in the Lone Star State.
Check out all five of our staff's best bets for Friday's college football slate below.
Friday College Football Best Bets
The team logos in the table below represent each of the matchups that our college football betting staff is targeting from Friday's slate of games. Click on the team logos for any of the matchups below to navigate to a specific bet discussed in this article.
| Game | Time (ET) | Pick |
|---|---|---|
| 12 p.m. | Nebraska ML -140 | |
| 3:30 p.m. | UTSA +3.5 | |
| 3:30 p.m. | UTSA Team Total Over 23.5 | |
| 7:30 p.m. | Texas Tech TT Under 19.5 | |
| 7:30 p.m. | Michigan State TT Under 9.5 | |
Iowa'vs.'Nebraska
Friday, Nov. 2412 p.m.'ETCBSNebraska ML -140
By John Feltman
This was an easy motivation and situational handicap for me. Something to note right away is that with a record-low total of 25.5, every point will be important, which is why I'm targeting the moneyline.
From a motivational angle, head coach Matt Rhule will be looking to lead his team to a bowl in his first year at the helm. Rhule has always been an incredible motivator at the college level, so I would fully expect his team to rise to the occasion here.
Secondly, despite this being a rivalry game, why on earth does Iowa care about this game? It has the Big Ten Championship next weekend, and this game means absolutely nothing record-wise.
The Hawkeyes offense is amongst the worst in all of Power 5, and I'm trying to figure out how they score more than one touchdown in this matchup. I'm not joking – Nebraska may only need 10 points to come out with a victory.
I also really like what I saw from Chubba Purdy at quarterback last week. Purdy, the younger brother of 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, flashed a lot of talent with his arm and his legs.
Nebraska also hasn't had the easiest schedule, so it could very well have more wins here. I'd give it more of a fighting chance next weekend instead of the Hawkeyes.
The Huskers are the clear better team, and this line continues to steam up. I would grab the cheapest moneyline you could find or grab -2.5 before this reaches 3.
UTSA'vs.'Tulane
Friday, Nov. 243:30 p.m.'ETABC
By Mike Ianniello
The winner of this matchup will advance to the AAC Championship game, as both teams are in the conference title hunt for the second straight year.
Tulane will try to defend its AAC Championship, but something about it hasn't looked quite right all season. The Green Wave are 10-1 straight up but have gone just 4-7 agai nst the spread, failing to cover against the worst teams in the conference.
Quarterback Michael Pratt is still fantastic and the leader of this offense. The Green Wave have talent at the receiver position, but their top two targets in Lawrence Keys and Jha'Quan Jackson both missed last week with injury.
Keys has already been ruled out against UTSA, and Jackson is questionable.
Those would be huge losses because Tulane doesn't run the ball well. Makhi Hughes has OK numbers, but the Green Wave rank just 107th in Rushing Success Rate and 109th in explosiveness on the ground.
They have not been able to replace the explosiveness of Tyjae Spears, who was such a big part of last year's title run.
So much talent from last year's defense moved on, which has caused the unit to really struggle to defend the pass. The Green Wave have been really good against the run, but opponents are completing 66% of their passes against the Tulane secondary, whic h is the worst mark in the conference.
That is going to be a massive problem against Roadrunners quarterback Frank Harris. The veteran Harris has 52 career games under his belt and has been at UTSA so long that he likely has a Ph.D. already.
Dr. Harris leads an offense that ranks 28th in the nation in Passing Success Rate despite battling injuries early in the year.
He has excellent chemistry with Joshua Cephus, the school's all-time leading receiver, while Kevorian Barnes leads an explosive backfield.
UTSA's defense has been excellent against the pass this season and should be able to keep Pratt in check.
Rashad Wisdom is the quarterback of this defense, and the tackling machine is one of the best safeties in the country. On the outside, the Roadrunners have two great cornerbacks, including Kam Alexander who ranks fifth in the country in passes defensed.
These two teams have played five common opponents this season – UAB, North Texas, Ric e, ECU and FAU. Tulane beat those teams by 12, 7, 2, 3 and 16 points. UTSA beat them by 21, 8, 20, 14 and 26. The Roadrunners beat every common opponent by more than the Green Wave.
Dating back to their time in Conference USA, the Roadrunners have now won 16 consecutive conference games. UTSA enters this game playing better football right now and has a good matchup with Dr. Harris and this passing attack against a vulnerable Tulane secondary.
Back Meep Meep – and don't be surprised if it punches its ticket to the title game.
By Brett Pund