College football Week 10: What we learned

I would say last week was kind of a big one for college football. The Georgia-Tennessee game was a bit of a dud, but Alabama vs. LSU was a fun one and we got some significant results with losses by the Crimson Tide and Clemson Tigers, likely eliminating them from playoff contention. 

The Big Ten looked not so good early but Ohio State and Michigan won, preserving that matchup for now. TCU won too, showing some moxie and firmly establishing themselves as the best team in the Big 12. 

Out West, Oregon and USC keep winning, keeping the pressure on the teams ahead of them in the rankings to do so as well. If we get one more stumble above, we might not be able to say that the Pac-12 has been shut out of the playoffs much longer. 

It was a good week. Let's fine-tune things and look a little closer at where we can go next. 

Georgia is pretty darn good

Tennessee is a very good team but Georgia broke through last year and they are not looking back. It was a bad weather game, which might have been in the Dawgs' favor, but they also shut down an offense that scored more than 50 points against rival Alabama. Watching the way they attacked the Vols in the second half was impressive.
 
Betting Takeaway: There is Georgia and there is everyone else. 

Michigan might be gaining on Ohio State for real

Both of these teams are undefeated so far this season and both had moments where they were sluggish against inferior opponents last week. Be that as it may, with each week Michigan looks more and more like a truly elite program instead of one that just "clicked" last year. When you go position by position there are just not many advantages for Ohio State.

Betting Takeaway: I am already looking at the lookahead lines and trying to get a nice value on Big Blue. You can still get a TD now but it might be +3 

MACtion is still in full effect

We got four mid-week games in the MAC last week. From those, we got three outright upsets and three covers from road teams (not a total overlap). This is just more data for the MACtion file. These teams are always pretty evenly matched so anything can happen, but there is just something about these midweek games, and this week we have six of them.

Betting Takeaway: Embrace the Chaos. You are probably a football and betting junkie so you are watching these games anyway, might as well take a shot. As it turns out there are no bad bets. 

Nebraska needs to be forgotten

Nebraska has already jettisoned their coach this season and expectations were low. They were up 10-0 against Minnesota at home last week, before losing 20-13. The game was an ATS win but how can you feel comfortable about a program that even when the situation presents itself can't do much with it. This program has 3 more games this season and might not score another TD.

Betting Takeaway: Getting over our historical biases is tough. Nebraska is this bad. 

Something, something, something, Houston-SMU

I am not sure this last one was a true learning experience other than that sometimes you see something you just never could have expected. The total in this game between these rivals was 65.5 points. SMU scored 77 points all on their own in a game that went over the total before halftime. There were some turnovers but no defensive or special teams TDs. It happens (and I am sure someone took the under).

Betting Takeaway: There isn't one ... just enjoy the game sometimes.