Since week 2 of the College Football season there has been a ranked team either lose, or be on upset alert most of the game, on Friday night’s. Last Friday, though they were betting favorites, Miami took out then #17 Virginia in Miami. Friday night has specifically been cruel to ranked Pac-12 teams as then #10 Utah fell to a USC team that was playing their third string QB and one week later then undefeated, and ranked #15, California fell at home to Arizona State. Two weeks back saw then #18 UCF lose for the first time in 19 conference games at Cincinnati.
Will we see another ranked team go down this Friday? If so, it’ll be a massive upset as #4 Ohio State travels to face the 1-4 Northwestern Wildcats in Evanston. The other three Friday night games are Pitt at Syracuse, Marshall at Florida Atlantic and UNLV at Fresno State.
Below are my picks for the Friday night college football action. All lines are from the FanDuel Sportsbook.
#4 Ohio State (-28) at Northwestern: O/U 49.5 points (-110/-110)
The Ohio State Buckeyes had a bye week last week, but two weeks back the #4 ranked team in the country knocked off their first ranked opponent of 2019 after drubbing then #25 Michigan State 34-10. Besides for the MSU win Ohio State has also won at Nebraska and Indiana, by a combined 82 points, and have beaten Florida Atlantic, Cincinnati and Miami-Ohio at home by a combined 137 points. OSU are 5-1 ATS, 5-0 in their last five, and the under has hit in three of their six games.
Northwestern is also coming off a bye week last week and will be looking to end their three game losing streak Friday night. The Wildcats have had a tough schedule to start the season and still have not beaten a Power Five opponent. Northwestern has losses to then #25 Stanford, then #8 Wisconsin, unranked Michigan State and at unranked Nebraska. Northwestern’s lone win this year has come against the 2-4 UNLV Rebels. NU is 2-3 ATS and the under has hit in four of five games.
Series History: Ohio State has dominated this series leading 62-14-1 and not having lost since 2004, a span of seven games
Game Prediction: Northwestern is not good, but they do weird things to their grass to slow the players down and they’ve only lost one game so far this season my more than 10 points, so I am backing Northwestern at +28.
Pittsburgh (-3.5) at Syracuse: O/U 52 points (-105/-115)
Pitt had a bye last week, but will be looking to extend their winning streak to four games with a win Friday night at Syracuse. The Panthers started this winning streak with 35-34 win over then #15 UCF before surviving FCS Delaware 17-14 and avoiding an epic collapse at Duke. Pittsburgh’s two losses this season have come against then #13 Penn State, by seven points, and at home against then unranked Virginia 30-14. Pitt is 4-2 ATS and the under has hit in four of six games.
The Syracuse Orange are still searching for their first Power Five win of 2019 after falling 16-10 last week at North Carolina State. Syracuse is now 3-3 this season with losses at Maryland and NC State and at home against Clemson. The Orange three wins this year have come at Liberty and at home against Western Michigan and Holy Cross. Syracuse is 2-4 ATS this season and the under has hit in four of six games.
Series History: Pittsburgh leads the all-time series 39-32-3 after coming away with a 44-37 OT win in Pittsburgh last season
Game Prediction: Pitt seems to only play close games, so I am going to back Syracuse at +3.5 in this one.
YTD College Football Results: 18-13
