College football odds, picks, top predictions for Week 5, 2024: Proven model loves Notre Dame in best bets
By CBS Sports Staff,
23 days ago
The latest AP Poll lists five SEC programs among the top six teams in the nation, and with nine members of the conference cracking the top 25 overall, the SEC has to like its chances of having several teams making the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. However, as we get into the meat of conference play, it is inevitable that the conference cannibalizes itself to an extent. That could begin on Saturday when No. 2 Georgia visits No. 4 Alabama. It's a new era at Alabama with Kalen DeBoer taking over for the retired Nick Saban and his matchup with Kirby Smart could be one of the most important on the Week 5 college football schedule.
The Bulldogs are favored by 1 point on the road in the latest Week 5 college football odds via SportsLine consensus. So which side should you be backing in Alabama vs. Georgia, and what other Week 5 college football lines should you be targeting as you put together your college football bets and parlays? Before locking in any Week 5 college football picks on those games or others, be sure to see the latest college football predictions from SportsLine's proven model.
The model simulates every FBS college football game 10,000 times. Since its inception, it has generated a profit of well over $2,000 for $100 players on its top-rated college football picks against the spread. It is also coming off a profitable 13-9 season on top-rated spread picks. Anyone who has followed it has seen strong returns.
One of the college football picks the model is high on during Week 5: No. 16 Notre Dame (-6.5) picks up a double-digit win over No. 15 Louisville in a 3:30 p.m. ET matchup on Saturday. The Irish got off to a sluggish start last week and Notre Dame fans probably feared the worst after suffering a loss to a MAC program already this season. However, Marcus Freeman's group found its rhythm late in the first half and cruised to a 28-3 win over Miami (OH) .
Riley Leonard rushed for 143 yards and two touchdowns in the win and the transfer QB from Duke has now rushed for 243 yards and five touchdowns in the two weeks since the loss to NIU. Now he'll match up with a Louisville defense that just gave up 410 yards of total offense in a win over Georgia Tech last week. This will be Louisville's first road game of the season and the model is predicting that Notre Dame puts itself back in the College Football Playoff conversation by covering in nearly 60% of simulations. See the rest of its Week 5 college football picks here.
Another prediction: No. 21 Oklahoma (+1.5) notches a comfortable road win at Auburn in a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Saturday. The Sooners made their SEC debut last week against Tennessee and suffered a 25-15 loss at home. However, the Sooners did manage to hold the Volunteers nearly 40 points below their season scoring average entering the week and a quarterback change from Jackson Arnold to Michael Hawkins Jr . seemed to spark the offense late.
Hawkins led the Sooners on a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives and went 11-for-18 for 132 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for 22 yards. Meanwhile, Auburn looked lethargic in a 24-14 loss to Arkansas last week and also only scored 14 points in their only other matchup against a power conference opponent, a 21-14 loss to Cal. That's a big reason why the model has Oklahoma covering the spread in well over 60% of simulations on its way to the first SEC win in program history. See picks for every other game in Week 5 here.
How to make college football picks for Week 5
The model has also made the call on who wins and covers in every FBS matchup in Week 5, and it's calling for a whopping 10 underdogs to win outright, including an upset in one of the biggest games of the week. You can only get every pick for every game at SportsLine .
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