For the second straight week, my college football parlay of the week won two legs and lost one. Congratulations to you if you are also playing these games straight up, but my condolences if you are just playing these as parlays. I am now down money with my parlays on the year, even though my individual selections are 6-4 ATS. Let’s get back to basics with a simple two-team parlay in Week 6 college football betting.
Week 1: No Play
Week 2: +$267.68
Week 3: -$100
Week 4: -$100
Week 5: -$100
College Football Parlay Betting Odds (Courtesy of BetDSI)
Utah State +2.5 at BYU
Virginia Tech +6.5 vs. Notre Dame
$100 to win $262.90
If you’ve read this column in the past, you know I’m high on Bill Connelly’s S&P+ Ratings. They are the best college football advanced metrics around if you know what goes into them and how to read them. If you take his ratings into account and play every game on the board, you are hitting 55 percent on the year.
That’s the reason I love Utah State this week. The Aggies are ranked No. 40 in the country in these ratings, and they have looked good in each of their four games. They blew out bad teams like New Mexico State and Tennessee Tech, took care of business against Air Force, and held a one-point lead late in the fourth quarter against Michigan State.
Quarterback Jordan Love has improved by leaps and bounds as a sophomore. He had typical freshman struggles in 2017, but there was a reason behind Matt Wells’ decision to start playing him last year. Love is completing almost 12 percent more of his passes than he did last year, and he is averaging a full yard more per attempt.
BYU just isn’t that good. The Cougars picked up a very nice road win against Wisconsin a few weeks ago, but they showed their true colors against Washington last week. This offense can’t move the ball at all. Their offense is ranked 101st in the nation according to S&P+, and Tanner Mangum’s yards per attempt average has dropped in each of the past three seasons. The running game is averaging just 3.8 yards per carry, and they just don’t have an offense that can keep up with Utah State.
For the second leg of this parlay, I’m going with Virginia Tech. The Hokies aren’t getting any love from the public after their loss to Old Dominion, but they have looked sharp in every other game. Their defense has been lights out in every game but that one, and I am willing to give Virginia Tech the benefit of the doubt. The Hokies simply overlooked the Monarchs, and Bud Foster will come up with a gameplan that shuts down Notre Dame’s offense.
The narrative regarding a rejuvenated Irish offense is misleading. Notre Dame has certainly looked better on offense with Ian Book under center instead of Brandon Wimbush, and Book hasn’t made the mistakes Wimbush was making. However, Book’s two starts were against a bad Wake Forest defense and a Stanford defense that wore down in the fourth quarter. He will face his first real test this week, and the Hokies will be a much tougher team to pass on.
