The pre-Thanksgiving week college football menu isn’t quite as appetizing as you would expect with just two weeks left before conference championships.
The biggest game with playoff implications for Week 13 is USC (+10) at Oregon (3:30 ET, CBS).
Steve Makinen has an opinion on this one in his Best Bets column, grounded in his recent study of home-field advantage for every college football team.
The USC-Oregon contest is another one in which there will be a big home-field advantage, 4.4 points in fact, after making my adjustments following this week’s study. USC is 1-3 ATS on the road this season, and while it has won three straight overall, it certainly doesn’t feel like head coach Lincoln Riley’s team is clicking, especially when matched against any team of quality. The Trojans were fortunate to come from behind and beat Iowa last week at home. Well, teams coming off a win over a ranked team and playing another ranked team are just 62-86 SU and 64-81-3 ATS (44.1%) since September 2019.
The line has moved from Oregon -9.5 to -10 since Steve posted his column, so I checked in with him.
Honestly I probably wouldn’t change at that price after the road-field performance article I just submitted showed USC as the 8th worst road team in terms of true road-field performance and only one of six teams under 33% ATS over last 3-1/2 seasons
You can read Steve’s true road-field rankings here.
Dave Tuley provides an opposing view on USC-Oregon in his Best Bets.
More Best Bets columns:
Josh Appelbaum’s CFB Sharp Report will be posted later this morning.
All 133 selections from the 19 Circa Friday Football contestants are available here.
Check to see what the Average Joe contestants picked after 10:05 a.m. ET.
Everything we post on CFB Week 13 will be here.
Other CFB resources
Having trouble finding a game on TV? Try the VSiN Game Finder.
NFL Week 12: Burrow status TBD
No word yet on whether Joe Burrow will start for the Bengals on Sunday vs. the Patriots.
The Bengals have until 4 p.m. ET today to activate him from injured reserve.
In: Lamar Jackson (ankle)
Probable: Daniel Jones (calf)
Questionable: Aaron Rodger (left wrist)
Out: Dillon Gabriel (concussion); Jaxson Dart (concussion)
Everything we post on NFL Week 12 will be here.
Today in college basketball
Greg “Hoops” Peterson has his picks for today’s college basketball menu.
Greg also posts daily handicapped lines and handicaps every game every day during the season on the Coast-to-Coast Hoops podcast.
Adam Burke will offer his college basketball Best Bets Monday-Saturday. You can find them on our college basketball page mid-morning.
ICYMI: A former Temple Owls men’s basketball player, Hysier Miller, placed 42 bets totaling $473 on games involving his team during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons — including three bets against his own team, according to NCAA findings. Details from ESPN’s David Purdum. (The NCAA definitely is working the “Friday afternoon news dump” angle on these gambling stories.)
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Quick Hits
NBA: Zach Cohen‘s Best Bets column and Steve Makinen‘s Analytics Report will hit around mid-morning on our NBA page. Our Opta AI NBA player props projections are here.
NHL: VSiN hockey analyst Jonathan Davis will post his Best Bets around mid-day.
Horse Racing: Mike Somich and Aaron Halterman, hosts of VSiN At The Track, share their Gulfstream and Churchill Downs picks. >Listen.
“Mr. Ed” Sehon has picks for today’s Tampa Bay Downs menu.
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Auto Racing: Cody Zeeb from the Sports Gambling Podcast Network offers Best Bets on on today’s F1 race in Las Vegas.
UFC: Lou Finocchiaro has his top plays for today’s card in Qatar. Dave Ross and Rob Moreno offer their opinions on the First Strike podcast (with guest Dan Vreeland). Rob has model predictions for VSiN.com.
FYI: The prelims start at 10 a.m. ET.
Soccer: Nigel Seeley offers his Best Bets for the EPL weekend menu.
