Let’s take a look at the College Football Week 6 odds, picks, and predictions for Saturday’s games.
Here are other game previews for Week 6:
- Texas A&M vs. Alabama
- Florida State vs. NC State
- Tennessee vs. LSU
- Texas vs. Oklahoma
- Ohio State vs. Michigan State
- Oregon State vs. Stanford
- Auburn vs. Georgia
- Wisconsin vs. Northwestern
- Boise State vs. Fresno State
- Massachusetts vs. Liberty
- UAB vs. Middle Tennessee
- Western Kentucky vs. UTSA
- Eastern Michigan vs. Western Michigan
- Notre Dame vs. BYU
- Ball State vs. Central Michigan
- Missouri vs. Florida
- Army vs. Wake Forest
- Iowa vs. Illinois
And check out our other Week 6 College Football betting content:
- Thor Nystrom's Best College Football Week 6 Bets
- Bogman's College Football Week 6 Best Bets & Predictions
- College Football Week 6 Odds, Picks & Predictions: Best Parlay Bets
- College Football Week 6 Odds, Picks, & Predictions: Under-the-Radar Plays
- College Football Week 6 Odds, Picks & Predictions: Longshot Bets
Check out Thor Nystrom’s Week 6 College Football Power Rankings >>
Virginia (+3) vs. Louisville
This will become my favorite bet of the week if Louisville QB Malik Cunningham is ruled out. But either way, I'm riding with Virginia.
Cunningham suffered an undisclosed injury in Saturday's loss to Boston College. He missed the final two drives in what turned out to be a 34-33 loss as double-digit favorites.
Cunningham is Louisville's entire offense. He leads the Cards in both rushing and passing yards and has accounted for 43.7% and 66.3% of the team's rushing and total yardage.
Cunningham was replaced by QB2 Brock Domann, who went 1-for-7 through the air while not providing any mobility. The downgrade from Domann to Cunningham is arguably worth a TD or more on the spread.
So if Cunningham is out, consider my spread more like UVA -7 or -8. Here was what SI's Louisville blog had to say: “Louisville is capital-S screwed if [Cunningham misses] time.” UL HC Scott Satterfield, who is on a seat hotter than the sun's core, has refused to discuss Cunningham's injury or prognosis.
Like Louisville, Virginia has been a “sell” team for us for much of the season. But the Cavs have started to figure things out, namely, how to work around a poor OL. That had also previously been Boston College's bugaboo, but Louisville wasn't exactly able to exploit that. In fact, BC rushed for more yards last week than they had against their past three P5 opponents combined.
Virginia played quality games against ODU and Syracuse last month before succumbing to Duke in a back-to-back road spot last week. I think the Cavs will get back on track by upsetting Louisville.
Pick: UVA +3
- Thor Nystrom
#4 Michigan (-22.5) @ Indiana and OVER 58.5'
We took Michigan last week, and it worked, so we are going to ride again! The most impressive part of the Michigan victory last week to me was the offense dominating Iowa!' Iowa only had 1 sack and no turnovers for a defense that had utterly dominated everyone they played. Michigan had a balanced account that went for over 300 yards, and RB Blake Corum rushed for 133 yards which no team had hit against Iowa before this game. QB J.J. McCarthy was efficient, going 18/24 for 155 yards and a TD.
Michigan did all of this against a top-tier defense in Iowa, and Indiana is on the other end of the scale.' The Indiana defense is giving up an average of 30 points per game, ranks 118th in passing yards allowing 277.8 YPG, and allows over 142 rushing yards per game, ranking 69th. Michigan is 6th in the country in PPG, averaging 45.4 PPG, and are averaging just over 30 PPG in their two games against Power 5 teams (who both have better defenses than Indiana, IMO).
The biggest mismatch in this game is on the other side of the ball. Indiana has been a bit one-sided on offense with a strong passing game, ranking 33rd in the country behind transfer QB Connor Bazelak. The problem is they can't run the ball efficiently, they rank 116th in rushing total and 110th in YPC. The lack of a respectable run game will make 2nd and 3rd long, bad news for an offensive line that ranks in the bottom 15 of pass blocking by PFF's metrics.' Michigan has 15 sacks from 11 different players, and I expect it to be a long day for Bazelak.' Michigan will have to do the heavy lifting on the score, but I see this as a 52-14 or 49-21 type of game that Michigan should dominate!
Pick: Michigan -22.5 (-120) AND Over 58.5 (-110)
- Scott Bogman
Mississippi State (-9) vs. Arkansas
Arkansas is in a terrible situation, traveling to an opponent they match up poorly against. And Arkansas may be playing without their star quarterback.
Arkansas QB KJ Jefferson has not practiced this week as of Wednesday. The Hogs have been pretty mum about his status. So much so that it's getting weird. HC Sam Pittman on Wednesday corrected a reporter who asked about Jefferson being in the concussion protocol.
“I didn’t say that,” Pittman said. “Anybody else?” The rest of Pittman's presser, he was affable, joking about bands and jukeboxes. Usually polite, Pittman, during one answer, said “Bless you” to a reporter who'd sneezed. He was only short that one time. Is it any coincidence that it was a response to the only question he was asked that day that mattered?
Jefferson took a huge shot and suffered a head injury last week. Pittman can say what he wants, and HIPAA laws certainly allow him to say as little as he ends up saying. But if Jefferson weren't in concussion protocol right now, Arkansas' team doctor would be facing a fate much worse than the Dolphins’ doctor who was just fired for his handling of Tua Tagovailoa's injury.
Pittman went on to say that he thought Jefferson would travel with the team to Starkville. This, too, was a telling quote. If Pittman thought Jefferson was playing on Saturday, he'd know – not think – Jefferson was traveling to said game.
A reporter halfway through the presser asked a clever question that revealed another telling Pittman quote. Asked what practice day during the week was most important in terms of deciding on an injured player's availability, Pittman said: “Wednesday is always our day, they have to do something by Wednesday, or we pretty much count them out for the game.” Again: Jefferson did not practice on Wednesday.