Free College Football Picks: Today's Expert Picks Against the Spread, College Football Best Bets, Predictions and Parlays.

2019 TCU Horned Frogs College Football Odds and Expert Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2019

Gary Patterson has been down this road before. In both 2013 (4-8) and 2016 (6-7), the Horned Frogs were coming off rare seasons with fewer than 10 wins. They rebounded to go 12-1 and 11-3, respectively, in their follow-up seasons. And after last year's 7-6 slog, Patterson has his Horned Frogs in a perfect position to bounce back once again.

2019 Texas Tech Red Raiders College Football Odds and Expert Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2019

Last year, I mused about how much more rope the Texas Tech athletic department would give Kliff Kingsbury. The answer was apparently, "not much". I predicted an easy 'under' winner on this shoddy program in 2018. Kingsbury was then fired (as predicted), only to fail himself upward by stealing an NFL head coaching slot.

2019 West Virginia Mountaineers College Football Odds and Expert Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2019

For the first time in years, West Virginia football begins a season without Dana Holgersen on the hot seat. The only reason that's the case is that Holgersen bolted for Houston this offseason. Holgersen left the WVU roster in shambles, and now new head coach Neal Brown is left to pick up the pieces.

2019 Baylor Bears College Football Odds and Expert Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2019

Matt Rhule was a revelation in his second season in Waco. After suffering through a disastrous 1-11 first year, he turned things around, getting the Bears to seven wins and a bowl game. It was one of the best turnarounds in the country and has Bears backers excited about what is to come as the team seeks out a ninth bowl game in 10 years.

2019 Kansas State Wildcats College Football Odds and Expert Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2019

I will start this Kansas State preview the same way I start most Kansas State previews. By pointing out that Bill Snyder is a goddamn national treasure. Unfortunately, Snyder has moved on, finally retiring last season. The man is truly one of the greatest college football coaches in the sport's history. And he was one of the best underdog coaches in North American sports history. The guy was a moneymaker.

2019 Kansas Jayhawks College Football Odds and Expert Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2019

absolutely no idea why Miles would self-exile himself to Kansas. But here he is. I find it hard to believe he couldn't have landed a better job, maybe somewhere in the ACC, but he's decided to take over a Jayhawks program that hasn't been to a bowl game in more than a decade.

2019 Florida State Seminoles Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2019

Let's talk about the last few years for Florida State football for a second. From 2012 to 2016 the team won 59 games in five years and a national title. They were a machine. Feared. Then Jimbo Fisher had his mid-life crisis and checked out of what became his final season in Tallahassee, and they went 7-6. And last year they were just 5-7 under Willie Taggart and missed a bowl game for the first time in 37 years.

2019 Miami Hurricanes Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2019

Last year was such a strange year in Miami. In 2017, the team was one of the big stories of the year. They went 10-3 to win their division convincingly, the Turnover Chain became legendary, and after winning their first 10 games people were dreaming of another Miami title. They went into last year with reasonably high expectations.

2019 Tennessee Volunteers Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2019

It wasn't that long ago that Tennessee football mattered. People feared the Volunteers. They won a national title in 1998 and were dangerous both before and after that. But the Phil Fulmer era ended with a fizzle, Lane Kiffin was a stunning disaster of a hire, Derek Dooley was incompetent, and Butch Jones made no progress at all.

2019 Stanford Cardinal Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2019

David Shaw in one of the top coaching minds in the country. I am confident in that. But it feels like he needs to get his mojo back a little bit. His last couple of years haven't been disastrous by any means - many coaches out there would kill to win nine games just once, and he has done it the last two years. But after winning three conference titles in four years leading up to 2015, Stanford just hasn't felt quite like the unstoppable force in recent years that they once did.

2019 South Carolina Gamecocks Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2019

Will Muschamp is such an interesting case - proof that being viewed as a genius doesn't always mean you are actually a genius. In 2008, Texas made him their head coach in waiting, the guy who would replace Mack Brown whenever he left. The defensive coordinator got impatient waiting, though, so in 2010 he took the job replacing Urban Meyer as head coach at Florida. And it mostly went horribly.

2019 Mississippi State Bulldogs Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2019

I have pet peeve when it comes to college football coaches, and Mississippi State's Joe Moorhead, who I quite respect, has become guilty of it this offseason. Luke Getsy was his offensive coordinator last year, but he left this year to take the position of QB coach for the Green Bay Packers. So, Moorhead, a decorated offensive coordinator at Penn State and elsewhere, has chosen not to name a coordinator.

2019 Minnesota Golden Gophers Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2019

P.J. Fleck made a big name for himself in his head coaching debut at Western Michigan, taking a hapless program from 1-11 to 13-1 in four seasons. But he has found since moving to Minnesota that it is much tougher being a small fish in a very big pond like the Big Ten than it is rising up in a relatively flat and even conference like the MAC. He's hardly the first guy to figure this out, and he has actually done better than most. After starting off at 5-7 in 2017, he climbed to 7-6 last year, including a bowl win.

2019 Ohio State Buckeyes Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2019

It's a new era at Ohio State. Urban Meyer is officially gone - though after missing the first three games of last season, it felt like last year was a transition year. Ryan Day is in charge now, and he's making changes to make the team his own. It's a tough position he is in - after being the interim coach last year when Meyer was out, he needs to prove that he is a viable long-term solution and not just a stop-gap before the next real guy comes along like Luke Fickell was after Jim Tressel left and before Meyer arrived.

2019 LSU Tigers Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2019

At their best last year, LSU could be a very good team - which they proved by beating up on Georgia. But they also had the potential to be a frustrating, lousy team - like when they didn't even show up against Alabama. Their defense wasn't as good as we are used to last year, and that's a concern that Dave Aranda, the defensive coordinator, will have to address this year.

2019 Michigan State Spartans Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2019

After reaching double digits in wins in four of the five prior years, the 7-6 record the Spartans tallied last year was a serious step back for the team. But it wasn't one without excuses. Namely, 10 different offensive starters missed a combined 48 games due to injury.

2019 Oregon Ducks Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2019

There are few guys in the country who are going to be more interesting to watch this year than Oregon QB Justin Herbert. When highly-touted QBs come back for their senior season, it is usually because they have work to do to improve their draft stock. Herbert was in play as the first overall pick last year if he had entered the draft, though, and would very likely not have been worse than the second player off the board.

2019 Virginia Tech Hokies Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2019

Man, can bad seasons ever sneak up on you in this sport. Through his first two seasons at Virginia Tech, Justin Fuente was looking like a genius. He won 10 games his first year, then nine, and had reinvigorated a great program that lost a little mojo in the last couple of years of the Frank Beamer era. And heading into last year, expectations were again high. Another season of double-digit wins seemed like a real possibility. Even a likelihood.

2019 Boise State Broncos Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2019

The Boise State Broncos have won at least eight games in each of the last 20 seasons and at least 10 in 15 of those 20. Sure, they play in a lesser conference. But winning that many games that many years in a row is incredible. No off years. No rough transitions. Just steadiness. Frankly, it has made the Mountain West Conference a little boring.

2019 Northwestern Wildcats Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2019

It was, to say the least, an odd season for the Northwestern Wildcats last year. Not an unsuccessful one by any means. Just a weird one. They couldn't play out of their conference at all and got off to a horrible start. But in the Big Ten they forgot how to lose and somehow won their first divisional title. Ran away with it, really.

2019 Baylor Bears Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2019

Matt Rhule has done a remarkable job in his two years coaching the Baylor Bears. He took over a team that was in a total mess after the Art Briles era, broken psychologically and badly undermanned. And Rhule;s first year went about as well as expected - 1-11, with the lone win coming at a Kansas team that seems incapable of actually playing football.

2019 Army Black Knights Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2019

Jeff Monken is a very good coach. Two years ago, he won 10 games with Army, and last year he won 11. No Army team in a history that dates back to 1890 had ever had consecutive double-digit win seasons. Heck, the program had only had one 10-win season ever. Monken has now won three straight bowl games - with a team that had played in only three bowl games in the previous 35 years. They finished last season ranked 19th, which is the high-water mark for the team since 1958.

2019 Alabama Crimson Tide Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/27/2019

Last season did not end exactly the way that the Tide hoped. To put it bluntly, they got their butts kicked all over the field by Clemson in the national title game. It was the most humiliating performance we have seen from Alabama during the Nick Saban era. And it has led to a whole lot of change with the program.

2019 Georgia Bulldogs Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/27/2019

There are reasons for Georgia fans to be very excited. They have played Alabama very tight the last couple of years and are loaded again this year. This could finally be the year. From my perspective, though, I'm just most excited that the QB drama has finally been minimized. With Jacob Eason and now Justin Fields gone, this is finally and unquestionably Jake Fromm's team.

2019 Michigan Wolverines Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/27/2019

Maybe this is the year that Jim Harbaugh finally puts it all together. Or maybe that just isn't ever going to happen in Michigan. The coach is coming off a season that left a bad taste in the mouths of so many. It led to an offseason of change. Pep Hamilton, Harbaugh and others were trying to run the offense

2019 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/27/2019

The Irish have double-digit wins two years in a row for the first time since Lou Holtz was in charge of this team and did it from 1991-93. That's a lot of down time for this team, so Brian Kelly deserves a lot of credit for this stretch of success. I will admit, though, that I was highly skeptical of this team last year - which didn't turn out well for me, since they made the playoff.

2019 Florida Gators Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/27/2019

Dan Mullen pulled off a heck of a turnaround in his first season with the Gators last year, improving from just four wins the year before he arrived to 10 last year. Now he needs to prove that it was no fluke and that he can build on that progress. The most striking change last year had to be QB Feleipe Franks. He was an absolute disaster two years back and looked like a guy who had no place in the FCS, never mind the SEC.

2019 Wisconsin Badgers Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/27/2019

That crashing sound you heard early last season was the wheels falling off in Madison. The Badgers were ranked fourth in the country last year, had a schedule widely viewed as favorable, and were serious playoff contenders. Hopes were very high, and Paul Chryst was at 34-7 at Wisconsin entering the year and looking like a genius.

2019 Texas A&M Aggies Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/27/2019

It is really tough to judge where Jimbo Fisher is at in his new role at Texas A&M. Sure, winning nine games in his first year was solid after a couple of rough years for the program. But they lost to three of the four best teams they played and needed seven overtime periods to get past the fourth. Aside from one bad loss, they took care of business in the games they had to take care of, but they didn't shock anyone.

2019 UCF Knights Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/27/2019

Taking over for Scott Frost at UCF was going to be a very tough job no matter what. In short order, he took this team from the bottom of the barrel to an unbeaten season, and then he returned home to save Nebraska. But Josh Heupel made it look easy.

2019 Clemson Tigers Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

The Tigers won their second national title since 2016, and it was probably more impressive than the first time. Trevor Lawrence was an incredibly highly-touted recruit, but his play in the postseason has ratcheted those expectations up to a dramatically higher level. He's two years away from being draft eligible, and many people have already written his name on the 2022 Pro Bowl roster in pen.

2019 Oklahoma Sooners Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

The first question we must ask when looking at the Sooners is if Jalen Hurts is going to win the Heisman. On the surface, it's a bit of a silly question. But the last two seasons a transfer QB has won the Heisman for the Sooners, and coach Lincoln Riley has never coached a season without having a QB win the Heisman, so it is far from a crazy idea.

2019 Washington Huskies Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

Washington was the best team in the Pac-12 last year, winning 10 games and dispatching Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game in what had to be by far the most unwatchable of all title games. Of course, being the best team in the Pac-12 last year is about as impressive as being the best figure skater in Bermuda. Playing top football is just not what that conference is known for right now.

2019 Penn State Nittany Lions Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

After several years of looking like a genius as his team seemed to be getting closer and closer to true national contention, James Franklin had an ugly year last year. He took a step back at a time when Michigan and Ohio State remain strong - both are likely to start the season ranked in the Top 5 nationally. And they lost their offensive core and had a whole lot of attrition - 11 transfers out of the program - and didn't quite recruit as well as the previous year.

2019 Syracuse Orange Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

Dino Babers is quietly doing a spectacular job coaching Syracuse. Two years ago, his team went just 4-8 but pulled off that amazing upset of Clemson. Last year they took a massive leap forward, going 10-3 and recording the first double-digit win season for the program since 2001. Last year was his third year at Syracuse, so it took him one more year to pull off the turnaround than it did for him at Eastern Illinois or Bowling Green.

2019 Iowa State Cyclones Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

I am very surprised that Matt Campbell is back for a fourth year as head coach at Iowa State. He did a very good job at Toledo, and he's done very well here as well. He reportedly turned down an interview with the New York Jets, and he surely had other programs looking at him this offseason. The Cyclones are lucky to have kept him around.

2019 Auburn Tigers Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

Remember when Gus Malzahn was a genius? It wasn't too long ago that Auburn thought he was - they signed him to a seven-year, $49 million deal in 2017. But last year was such a debacle for Auburn that there were boosters allegedly angling to get him out already. Much like Wisconsin, Auburn entered the season with sky-high expectations, a preseason ranking to go with it, and dreams of a playoff berth.

2019 USC Trojans Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

The USC Trojans went 5-7 last year - a record that is completely and totally indefensible giving everything that the program has going for it, and the rich history it has. And it's not like they just fell short in a tough conference, either - the Pac-12 is mostly a farce right now.

2019 UCLA Bruins Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

Chip Kelly is getting dangerously far removed from genius status at this point. He last coached at Oregon in 2012, going 46-7 in his four years. His three years at Philadelphia never really took off, and his year at San Francisco was a 2-14 disaster without a single positive thing about it. After a year off, he wound up at UCLA, and the first year was ugly 3-9. Sure, there were improvements. But going from horrible to less horrible is hardly something to celebrate. And he did not recruit well this year at all.

2019 Missouri Tigers Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

It's going to be a bit of an odd season for the Missouri Tigers. They are a solid team that should easily win enough games to be bowl eligible, but they won't be able to play in a bowl no matter how well they do. They also wouldn't play in the SEC Championship Came if they made that, but there seems to be little risk of that happening.

2019 Utah Utes Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

Utah is coming off a win of the Pac-12 South. The impressive part, though, is that they are in better shape this year and are in a very strong position to again play in the Pac-12 title game - with a rematch against Washington the most likely outcome. The team is deep and talented, has an enormous amount of returning experience, and is currently staring at a window that is as wide open as one gets at a place like Utah.

2019 Virginia Cavaliers Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

Bronco Mendenhall took over a mess of a program when he left BYU for Virginia after Mike London has driven the Cavalier program into the ground. London took the job in 2010, made his only bowl appearance in 2011, and then won a total of just 15 games in the next four seasons. It was ugly. Mendenhall was helpless in his first year facing too many challenges to overcome, and he went 2-10 in 2016.

2019 Iowa Hawkeyes Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

There are things you could knock the Iowa Hawkeyes for if you wanted, but coaching stability is not one of them. Hayden Fry coached his 20th and final season in 1998. He handed the reins to Kirk Ferentz, who had been an assistant for Fry since the 1980's, and Ferentz is entering his 21st season with the program. Two coaches in 41 years. Off the top of my head for turnstile programs, Kansas is going with their 11th coach this year since Fry began, and Houston their 13th in that time. Even Florida is on their eighth, and two of those won national titles.

2019 Nebraska Cornhuskers Football Predictions and Odds to Win National Championship
by Trevor Whenham - 7/26/2019

Last year Scott Frost arrived in Nebraska as the savior. A star player at the school in his day, Frost had coached the lights out at UCF and faced massive expectations returning home to fix a Nebraska program that had fallen way off the tracks over many years of struggles - pretty much since Frost was a player.

College Football Game of the Year Odds Released: Expert Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 5/31/2019

This week has marked one of my favorite times of the summer as a diehard college football fan. This week some of the sportsbooks started to post lines for the biggest games of the year. That means we are getting close. However, with a full, glorious summer between us and the first game, I don't want the season to get here too fast. When these numbers are posted, my favorite thing to do is to pick out a few of the more interesting ones and do a first-reaction take on them.