LK’s College Football Week 3 Betting Slate

Oregon looks to keep the explosives going as they travel to Northwestern to open up conference play (Image via Lydia Ely/AP Photo)
​By: Lucas Kochevar

College football betting takes no prisoners as offenses figured out they can move down the field and score this week. Games like Baylor-SMU, Illinois-Duke and Virginia-North Carolina State showed us that anyone, any week can score over 30 points in a game. Week three of college football shows us a number of games that’ll teach us a lot for certain teams. Georgia and Gunner Stockton will be tested in their first road SEC game. Notre Dame looks to bounce back with a showdown against Texas A&M. USF looks to buff its group of five resume with another win against a highly ranked opponent in Miami. For now, there are picks that have to be made and here’s three helpful picks for week three.

Oregon -28 @ Northwestern

In case you missed last week's Oregon vs Oklahoma State game, I’ll recap it with a quote from “Stand By Me”: “You guys want to see a dead body?” It was ugly last week as Oregon signed and sealed Mike Gundy’s pink slip with a 69-3 win. The Ducks now enter Big 10 conference play in Chicago as they take on the journalism school known as Northwestern. The question here isn’t whether Oregon will win or not, it’s by how much. The noon spot and traveling halfway across the country plays against the Ducks but four touchdowns feels like too small a gap for how good Oregon has looked.

Texas Tech -24 vs Oregon State

The ‘Fade Oregon State’ strategy is 2-0 on the year and feels too good to be true this week as the Beavers travel to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech. Head coach Joey McGuire has quietly built a strong Big 12 contender with the backing of some big time boosters that make the Red Raiders one of the better teams in the conference. Texas Tech has scored over 60 points in their first two games with blowout wins over Akron and Arkansas Pine-Bluff. This would be a good spot for a disappointing performance from the Red Raiders, but Oregon State is so bad that they should still cover in this spot. 

Texas A&M @ Notre Dame u49.5

These two teams don’t scream track race as Mike Elko and the Aggies are built more for grinding out wins. On top of that, Marcel Reed’s status has been covered up throughout the week and if there’s any doubt he can play to his max, Texas A&M’s offense will be dragging down the field. On the other side, Notre Dame is still in ‘break him in’ mode with their new quarterback CJ Carr. With quarterbacks that aren’t playing at their max potential, the offenses don’t seem explosive enough to run up for the total Vegas is giving here. Notre Dame won in a gross, low-scoring affair last year and the air feels the same for this matchup in South Bend.