Week 8 College Football Picks: Ohio State, Baylor Contenders, Utah Pretender

The top three college football teams in the country will all be in action on Saturday, hoping to continue to impress the pollsters so they can cement spots in the College Football Playoff field this December.

It’s only about halfway through the season, but this is the time of year that the contenders separate themselves from the pretenders. Week 8 is the beginning of that process, and two of those teams are big favorites, while the third is a small underdog at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

The oddsmakers are usually right when they set point spreads, which is why it should not be too surprising to see the third-ranked Utah Utes (6-0) as consensus 3.5-point road underdogs visiting the underachieving USC Trojans (3-3).

The Trojans no longer have head coach Steve Sarkisian on the sidelines to blame for their problems following his firing. Offensive coordinator Clay Helton is the interim head coach and will have USC ready to roll in this revenge spot after losing at Utah 24-21 last year as a one-point road favorite.

The Trojans have won the last two home meetings with the Utes by a combined 25 points and will hand them their first loss.

The top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes (7-0) and second-ranked Baylor Bears (6-0) remain on a collision course to meet for the national title, and unlike Utah, they will continue to take care of business and cover the spread.

Defending national champ Ohio State is coming off its first cover since the season opener in a 38-10 rout of the Penn State Nittany Lions last Saturday. This week, the Buckeyes visit the Rutgers Scarlet Knights as 21-point road favorites and will beat them by at least four touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Baylor was left out of the four-team College Football Playoff field last season and is doing everything in its power to make sure that doesn’t happen again this year.

The Bears have covered four straight and outscored their opponents by 41 points during that stretch, according to the Odds Shark college football database. They host the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday as 37-point home chalk and will keep up that trend in another rout by more than 40.