Week 12 of the 2018 college football season is one of those weeks in which there aren’t a lot of marquee games. The sport takes a bit of a breather before the rivalry games, which dominate the schedule in Week 13. A lot of teams schedule easier games this week to give themselves a chance to rest. Here are the top 5 betting trends for NCAA football games which might offer some excitement and intrigue:
The over is 14-4 in Oklahoma State’s last 18 home games. It’s also 16-9 in their last 25 Big 12 games. However, the under has cashed in four of the last six Oklahoma State-West Virginia matchups.
The Oklahoma State Cowboys have been wildly inconsistent this season, which makes this game against West Virginia hard to predict, in addition to the contradictory trends mentioned above. However, when Oklahoma State has played a highly visible team at home this season in a game which attracted considerable media attention, it has done well. The Boise State game in September was the first really big game of OSU’s season, a contest it had waited all offseason to play. The Cowboys won that game big. The next especially huge home game on the 2018 schedule was Texas, which at that time had not yet lost a Big 12 game. Oklahoma State played at a very high level and clearly outplayed the Longhorns to send them to a defeat. Now comes West Virginia, which is tied with Oklahoma for the Big 12 lead and has a fat target on its back. Oklahoma State has done well in recent matchups against West Virginia, including a win the last time these teams met in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It sets up well for the Cowboys.
Related: College Football Betting Guide | College Football Parlays
USC is 6-2 ATS and 7-1 SU in their last eight as a road favorite. UCLA is 2-5 ATS and 1-6 SU in their last seven as a dog of 3.5 to 10 points.
This is a game in which USC is playing for the job of its head coach, Clay Helton. He is squarely on the hot seat, and while his fate might have already been privately decided by USC administrators, the players don’t know where the situation stands. UCLA had a brief surge in the middle of October but has come back down to earth and struggled in Chip Kelly’s first season. USC is not a good team, but UCLA doesn’t offer clear evidence that it is any better. How much do you think USC wants to play for Helton and keep him on the job? Do his players have his back? If you think so, you should go with USC. If not, take UCLA.
Notre Dame is 3-0-1 ATS and 4-0 SU as a favorite of 3.5 to 10 points this season. Syracuse has covered 10 of their last 14 road games but won just four of them outright.
This is technically a Notre Dame home game, but it is essentially a neutral-site contest being held not in South Bend, Indiana, but at Yankee Stadium in New York. Syracuse should have plenty of fans for this game. That’s the good news for Syracuse. The bad news is that outdoors in cold weather, the Syracuse passing game isn’t likely to work as well as it would in a domed stadium with climate-controlled conditions and a faster playing surface on field turf. Notre Dame is better equipped to handle cold weather with a running game Syracuse will have a hard time stopping. The Irish are more likely to adjust to the conditions.
Iowa State is 17-6 ATS in its last 23 as an underdog. They are 11-5 ATS in their last 16 road games. Texas is just 3-9 ATS and SU in last 12 as a home favorite of three or less.
Matt Campbell has been exceptionally good in his Iowa State career as an underdog. Iowa State might not win at the level of an elite program, but the Cyclones are so much more competitive than they used to be in the Big 12. They don’t get blown out very often and have been able to respond to adversity. They keep scores close. It would be surprising if this game did not go down to the wire late in the fourth quarter.
Washington State has covered all but one game this season (9-1). They are just 4-5 ATS in their last nine as a home favorite of 7.5 to 10 points but 7-2 SU in those games. Arizona is 4-10 ATS and SU in their last 14 road games.
The Cougars have made a lot of bad teams in the Pac-12 look really bad this season. Arizona might not be a bad team, but it also isn’t a good team. The Wildcats have admittedly gotten better in recent weeks, but they have not done well on the road this year. Arizona needs to prove it can play a good team close on the road. It hasn’t done that yet in 2018.
