College Football: Week 3

Fresno State +2 Wisconsin - The home opener for the Bulldogs after they opened with an easy win at Rutgers. The Badgers hit the road, where they've been a different team, after a couple of home gimmes. Wisconsin was 0-5 ATS on the road last year and they've gone 3-6-1 against the number in roadies over the last 2 years. Fresno has been a predictable covering machine, paying their bettors in 7 of their last 10 and winning 7 of their last 8 home games SU. Plus, Wisconsin plays in the Big Ten, so there's a pretty good chance that Fresno State is the better team.

Michigan -2 Notre Dame - The Notre Dame offense is still absolutely terrible. I expected some improvement from the unit that was 119th (dead last) in college football last year but didn't see any as they sputtered along against a bad, bad San Diego State team. The Irish have been a non-covering machine (which I ignored last week, apparently), going 3-11 ATS in their last 14 at home. The Wolverines are in game 3 of the Rich Rogriguez era and have some of their own problems to address, but they're a lot closer to a functional football team than the Golden Domers.

Kansas / South Florida UNDER 48 1/2 - These two teams return a combined 16 starters on their defenses from units that ranked 12th (Kansas) and 28th (South Florida) in the country last year. This year's Kansas defense has given up 3 points in two games and while South Florida appeared to struggle last week with Central Florida, the defense played well...only giving up 226 yards and 12 first downs. Both teams ranked in the top 20 in turnover margin last year, Kansas by not giving many and taking some and South Florida by giving a bunch and taking more.

Akron +7 Ball State - Both of these teams feature offenses that use a pretty balanced attack to move the ball down the field and both teams are pretty good at it. Any time you have a game that could break out into a "who has the ball last?" track meet, getting a touchdown with the home team is a value play. Akron's defense has arguably shown a little more...as they haven't given up much against the pass. The flip side of that is that Wisconsin beat them by running them over, so they didn't need to pass, and Syracuse just isn't very good.

Leans:

Oklahoma -21 Washington
Arkansas State -2 1/2 Southern Miss
USC -11 1/2 Ohio State
USC / Ohio State UNDER 44 1/2