College Football Week 14 Best Bets
| Game | Time (ET) | Pick |
|---|---|---|
  | 1:30 p.m. | |
  | 2 p.m. | |
  | 3:30 p.m. | |
Specific betting recommendations come from the sportsbook offering preferred odds as of writing. Always shop for the best price using our NCAAF Odds page, which automatically surfaces the best lines for every game. | ||
It's been a fun week of college football, and now it's time to roll right into the Saturday afternoon action.
Our college football writers came through with three best bets for Saturday afternoon's games, including picks for Pitt vs. Boston College, Eastern Michigan vs. Western Michigan and USF vs. Rice.
Let's dive right into our college football picks for Week 14, along with our Saturday afternoon best bets — and be sure to check out our top predictions for the noon and evening kickoff windows.
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Eastern Michigan vs. Western Michigan Best Bet and Pick
By Greg Liodice
There’s nothing like an East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry, right? Sure, it’s not New York vs. Los Angeles like we saw in '90s hip hop, but Kalamazoo vs. Ypsilanti is close enough!
The Eastern Michigan Eagles travel two hours west to take on the Western Michigan Broncos, with identical 5-6 records. Whoever takes this game will be the winner of the Michigan MAC Trophy — a trophy awarded between EMU, WMU and Central Michigan — and reach bowl eligibility.
For today’s battle, though, we won’t be looking for an outright winner. The weather calls for a cold and windy day, with a high of 28 degrees and wind gusts up to 25 mph. Because of that, I’d expect Saturday's battle to focus more on the ground.
The Eagles haven’t been a very good running program this season, ranking 93rd in Rush Success Rate. They're even worse at stopping the run.
That doesn’t bode well for them since WMU is a top-30 running program in the FBS, with Jaden Nixon and Jalen Buckley combining for 19 rushing touchdowns.
Nixon is also averaging 6.8 yards per carry, but he’s struggled in the past two games after ripping 90-plus rushing yards in six of his seven games.
Typically, when games are run-heavy, we usually see a low-scoring battle and with the wind gusts looming, I don’t foresee a ton of big plays through the air.
With the total slotted for 56.5, I’m happy to take the under here.
Pick: Under 56.5 (Play to 54)
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USF vs. Rice Best Bet and Pick
By Joshua Nunn
South Florida is surging right now after scoring 122 points combined in the last two weeks while racking up 1,266 offensive yards in the process.
The ground game has been electric over the last month of the season, as USF has averaged 278 yards rushing over the last four weeks on 6.1 yards per carry during that stretch.
Rice looked very impressive a couple of weeks ago catching Navy in a crazy spot and picking up an impressive home win, but outside of that, the Owls have been a real disappointment.
The USF defensive line has been excellent this year in creating Havoc and pressuring opposing quarterbacks. It's registered a whopping 30 sacks and 88 tackles for loss this season.
Rice quarterback EJ Warner has done well to avoid a ton of sacks, but the pressure has still been constant, and it has resulted in turnovers and throwaways.
The turnover margin here is a huge indicator. USF is +8 in turnovers this season, while Rice is -11 and has played too flippantly with the football all year.
The Owls have scored more than 20 points against FBS competition just twice this year and have been terrible in the red zone. For the season, Rice is scoring touchdowns inside the 20-yard line just 48% of the time. Given its lack of production here and on third down this season, I fear it won't score enough points to keep up.
Rice just hired its next head coach in Scott Abell, who comes over from Davidson and runs an intricate triple-option scheme. One would assume he plans to assemble his own staff, so this Rice coaching staff is likely entirely out searching for new jobs after this one. I wonder how motivated they are to grind out a win here.
USF has been playing much better football and is humming offensively. This is not a wagon I want to step in front of here, so I;m backing the Bulls laying less than a touchdown.
Pick: USF -5 (Play to -6.5)
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Pitt vs. Boston College Best Bet and Pick
Projections and systems both favor the Pitt Panthers to cover in Week 14 against the Boston College Eagles.
Stacking up our numbers to the market reveals one of the better grades of the entire week.
Pitt was a popular fade during October when it was playing great, but there are key advantages to taking the underdog at the current market price.
Grabbing +4.5 is excellent stacked up to the PRO line of just Boston College -2. We expect the game to be a bit closer, pocketing +3 and +4 in the process.
Secondly, the “Road Streak” PRO System also sides with Pitt.
Teams traveling — like Pitt — tend to be downgraded in the market. However, we found certain conferences actually cover the spread more often than not when anywhere between their second and fifth consecutive roadie, likely due to public bettors leaning into the fatigue narrative.
It’s a bet on the Nard Dog.
Pick: Pitt +4.5 (Play to +3)
