And then there were 54. That’s how many undefeated FBS college football teams remain heading into Week 3 action tomorrow. Is it wise that I’m (technically) betting against two of them? For my college football predictions and best bets for Week 3, we’re off to Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium in Evanston, Illinois, and Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Let’s go!
College Football Predictions & Best Bets for Week 3
#4 Oregon Ducks vs Northwestern Wildcats
Start Time: Noon EST
We’ll kick things off in Evanston, as the #4, 2-0 Oregon Ducks visit the 1-1 Northwestern Wildcats. This will be both teams’ first Big Ten game of the season, with the Ducks being the reigning conference champions.
Oregon, which entered last year’s College Football Playoff as the top seed before bowing out in the quarterfinals to Ohio State, has shown no hangover from last season’s disappointing end, blasting Montana State 59-13 and Oklahoma State 69-3 to start this season. Both those games were at home, also.
So this will be the Ducks’ first test on the road, and while the Wildcats dropped their opener to Tulane, they have a much stronger strength of schedule than the Ducks do this season (small sample size, I know).
After crunching all the numbers (strength of schedule, home field advantage among them), my line for tomorrow is Oregon -9.5. That would make Northwestern on the spread my play.
Best Bet: Northwestern +27.5 (-112)
#13 Oklahoma Sooners vs Temple Owls
Start Time: Noon EST
Now we head to Philly, where someone is going to lose their 0. The #13-ranked, 2-0 Oklahoma Sooners of the Southeastern Conference head across country to face a fellow 2-0 team, the Temple Owls of the American Conference.
The Sooners will be looking to bounce back from a very disappointing 2024 season, which saw them open as a ranked team, only to finish with a 6-7 record, including a season-ending loss to Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl. So far so good, as they’ve looked strong this year, including beating then #15 ranked Michigan 24-13 at home last week. Like Oregon, this will be their first road game of the season.
The Owls would have loved to go 6-7 last season, as they haven’t won six or more games since 2019 (they managed a 3-9 record last season). But they’ve already banked two wins this year, albeit against very weak opponents (Massachusetts and Howard). However, the UMass victory was on the road, which is encouraging.
Is Temple going to remain undefeated tomorrow and send the invading Sooners back to Norman with their tails between their legs? Not very likely – there’s a reason Oklahoma is -4000 on the moneyline tomorrow. However, once again after the number crunching, I have this game tomorrow afternoon much closer than expected – Oklahoma -2.5.
I’ll take a flyer on Temple covering the enormous spread on their home field tomorrow. It’ll be a moral victory for them.
Best Bet: Temple +23.5 (+100)
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