COLLEGE PICKS
THURSDAY
Baylor (plus 14) at No. 13 West Virginia: Bears need two more victories for bowl eligibility and will need to pull off at least one upset to get there ... WEST VIRGINIA 35-24. No. 25 Appalachian State (minus 10½) at Georgia Southern: Former Southern Conference rivals in FCS now battling for first in Sun Belt East ... APPALACHIAN STATE 28-21. FRIDAY
No. 23 Utah (minus 10) at UCLA: How messy is the Pac12 South? UCLA, 2-5 overall, with a victory this weekend could be tied for first in the division ... UTAH 28-16. SATURDAY
No. 2 Clemson (minus 16½) at Florida State: Seminoles have a chance to turn their season around, but face a difficult back end of the schedule, starting with the Tigers ... CLEMSON 31-14.
No. 3 Notre Dame (minus
23½) vs. Navy at San Diego: Fighting Irish had an open date to prepare for the triple option ... NOTRE DAME 35-17.
No. 6 Texas (minus 3½) at Oklahoma State: Longhorns have lost three straight to the Cowboys, who are pretty much out of the Big 12 race but could play spoiler ... OKLAHOMA STATE 24-21, UPSET SPECIAL. No. 7 Georgia (minus 6½) vs. No. 9 Florida at Jacksonville: First time both teams are ranked in the top 10 since 2008 meeting ... GEORGIA 23-17. Kansas State (minus 24½) at No. 8 Oklahoma: Wildcats are completing 53.5 percent of their passes, last in the Big 12 ... OKLAHOMA 49-20.
No. 12 Kentucky (plus 7) at Missouri: One-dimensional Wildcats will need a big defensive effort against QB Drew Lock ... MISSOURI 24-21. No. 14 Washington State (plus 3) at No. 24 Stanford: Can Cougars keep the Pac-12’s fleeting playoff hopes alive? ... WASHINGTON STATE 28-24. No. 15 Washington (plus
11½) at California: Huskies have won eight of nine in the series and still control their
Pac-12 title hopes ... WASHINGTON 28-14.
No. 16 Texas A&M (plus 2½) at Mississippi State: Bulldogs have passed for 226 yards total in the last three games, not breaking 100 in any of them ... TEXAS A&M 24-21.
No. 18 Iowa (plus 6½) at No. 17 Penn State: No Big Ten team is punting less per game
(3.25) than the Hawkeyes ... PENN STATE 24-23.
No. 19 Oregon (minus 9½) at Arizona: The demise in the play of Wildcats QB Khalil Tate, uncertain with an ankle injury this week, has been one of the sadder stories of this season ... OREGON 28-21.
No. 20 Wisconsin (minus 7) at Northwestern: Those 11 a.m. local kickoffs in Evanston, Illinois, can induce sleepy performances ... WISCONSIN
27-17.
No. 21 South Florida (plus 7) at Houston: First big test for the unbeaten Bulls ... HOUSTON 34-28.
No. 22 North Carolina State (minus 2½) at Syracuse: Orange have a QB conundrum after Tommy DeVito replaced Eric Dungey last week and led Syracuse to an OT victory ... NORTH CAROLINA STATE
27-24.
TWITTER REQUESTS Miami (minus 3½) at Boston College, Friday — @SkinnerKNTU: Eagles star RB AJ Dillon (ankle) should be back after missing last two games ... BOSTON COLLEGE 24-21. North Carolina (plus 9) at Virginia — @MBeutell25: Last season, the Cavaliers broke a seven-game losing streak in the South’s oldest rivalry (122 meetings dating to
1892) ... VIRGINIA 28-16. Texas Tech (plus 3) at Iowa State — @novig69: Cyclones try to make it three straight victories behind freshman QB Brock Purdy, who has completed 75 percent of his passes for 572 yards and seven touchdowns in wins against Oklahoma State and West Virginia ... IOWA STATE 31-30. Tennessee (plus 7½) at South Carolina — @jclowersVFL: Last six meeting have been decided by an average of
3.0 points with each team winning three ... SOUTH CAROLINA 27-24.
Arizona State (plus 6½) at Southern California — @bferrer: Since 2-0 start, Sun Devils have lost four one-score games and beaten lowly Oregon State ... USC 27-21.
Last week: 14-5 straight; 7-12 against the spread.
Season: 130-45straight; 8984-2 against the spread. Upset specials: 4-4 (straight up).
Best bets: 3-5 (against the spread).
— Ralph D. Russo, Associated Press Follow on Twitter @ralphDrussoAP