This season, Rivals.com's weekly college football predictions involve anyone on the national staff brave – or foolish – enough to risk embarrassment by making their picks against the spread.
The crew suffered a bloodbath in a wacky Week 7, dropping the overall combined record below .500 for the first time this season.
Here are the Week 8 picks versus Wednesday's Vegas line, according to MGM Mirage.
LOCKS OF THE WEEK
ROB CASSIDY: UCF (-7.5) over Navy. "The Orlando Covering Machines keep rolling. I’ve taken UCF in this space the last two weeks, and I’ll do it again now. There’s no possible way a team running an option offense is keeping pace with the high-powered Knights. This is almost one of those looks-too-good-to-be-true lines, but whatever. Trust in Scott Frost, who is 5-0 against the spread this season."
MIKE FARRELL: Purdue (-9.5) over Rutgers. "Purdue is much improved and I think the offense rolls up at least 30 on Rutgers, while the Scarlet Knights struggle to score."
ADAM FRIEDMAN: LSU (-7) over Ole Miss. "Coach O is going to have his team focused this week. The Tigers cover on the road against their head coach's old team."
ADAM GORNEY: Missouri (–14) over Idaho. "This might be the biggest sucker bet of all time but until I'm proven wrong here I have to go with the Tigers. They're playing Idaho. And they're only two-touchdown favorites. I cannot believe a team in the SEC will not blow out Idaho. Idaho! UNLV beat the Vandals by 28 early this season. My rule of thumb is if I can't name one player on an opposing team and that team is traveling to an SEC school and that team is only 14-point underdogs, then you have to pick the SEC school. Missouri has been horrible this season. But this is Idaho, people!"
JOSH HELMHOLDT: Minnesota (-14) over Illinois. "It appears Demry Croft will take the reins of Minnesota’s offense and he showed the skill set last weekend to get these Gophers rowing their boat in the same direction. P.J. Fleck makes a statement in front of the home fans against an Illinois team whose ship is sinking."
DEREK SAMSON: UCF (–7.5) over Navy. "I want to say I'm a UCF believer. Or a Scott Frost believer. But, really, I'm a Rob Cassidy believer. And the silver lining: If I lose on this lock, it means I have successfully jinxed first-place Cassidy."
BILL TROCCHI: UCF (-7.5) over Navy. "I don't know how you could go against UCF here. Scott Frost is running the option for the scout team! I teased this game down to 1.5 points in my betting column because I'm so tired of losing teases, but this really shouldn't that difficult to cover for a team whose closest win so far has been 28 points."
WOODY WOMMACK: UCF (-7.5) over Navy. "I hate to jump on Cassidy's bandwagon but UCF -7.5 against Navy seems like a pretty odd line. The Knights have been blowing through opponents this season and while Navy presents a unique challenge, I expect UCF to keep the wins coming."
FIVE SPOTLIGHT GAMES
Midweek lines according to MGM Mirage (all games Saturday & Eastern time):
- Oklahoma State (–7) at Texas, noon
- Tennessee (+34.5) at Alabama, 3:30 p.m.
- Syracuse (+14.5) at Miami, 3:30 p.m.
- Michigan (+9.5) at Penn State, 7:30 p.m.
- USC (+4.5) at Notre Dame, 7:30 p.m.
