Iowa vs Minnesota Prediction & Picks: College Football Week 8

Iowa is a road favorite in this one, and the guys came armed with why: the show noted Iowa is 5-0 ATS in its last trips to Minneapolis and 7-0-1 ATS in its last eight road games, and it beat Minnesota 41-3 last year and 31-14 the year before. Iowa was a 6.5-point favorite with a total of 40.5 when the guys taped on October 20. Kickoff is Saturday, October 24 at 12:30 PM PT / 3:30 PM ET in Minneapolis, MN, and the table split two to one: Ryan and Sean lay Iowa -6.5, Colby takes Minnesota +6.5. The whole segment is on the College Football Picks Week 8 episode.

Iowa vs Minnesota Odds

Iowa was a 6.5-point favorite over host Minnesota with a total of 40.5 when the guys taped on October 20. On air the money line was read as Iowa -260 and Minnesota +210.

Our Picks

The first word on Iowa was bafflement about the quarterback. How does a program keep getting its starter wrong, one of the guys asked, and can’t they tell from practice? Either way he was buying the new-look Iowa team and turned straight to Colby to ask what he was doing. Colby took the points. He liked the quarterback Iowa is starting now, conceded he is the better option, and still called six and a half a gigantic number for Iowa.

Then came the road record, and the admission that came with it: the books are hanging 6.5 so you take Iowa, and the Iowa side said it was falling for the bait anyway. Colby countered with history. Minnesota’s coach got his one win over Iowa on a fair-catch call that was waved off and then taken back, he said, and these games are always close. His prediction is Iowa 20, Minnesota 14, which means Iowa wins and Minnesota covers.

The pushback leaned on the scores. Iowa owns this series lately, 41-3 and 31-14, and the 12-10 Minnesota win was waved off on air as a fugazi. Go back a few more years, though, and the scores tighten up enough that Minnesota would have covered this number in three of the last six, which the Iowa side conceded was Colby’s point. Both sides agreed this is the best Iowa offense in a long while, one that can actually throw the ball. Colby’s answer is that this is also the most talented Minnesota team its coach has had, held back by injuries. Nobody got to a side on the 40.5 total, though there was a slight look to the over.

Hear the full breakdown on the College Football Picks Week 8 episode, or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Watch every game on YouTube, and download the SGPN app at sg.pn/links. See all our College Football Picks.