College Football Picks Against the Spread: Oregon and 3 Favorites to Avoid

When you're thinking about placing a bet on a sporting event, picking the winner and loser is only a small part of the battle.

You must look at the point spread to figure out if your predicted winner will win in a big way.

These teams are all favored by three touchdowns or more. While they are certainly capable of winning in a blowout, their spreads make them black flags.

The win is not really in question, but their opponents are too good and the spreads are too big to rely on that kind of a win.

All spreads courtesy of Bodog.

Oregon (-24.5 over California)

Cal's defense was one of the few that kept Oregon in check last season. The Bears offense is easily good enough to put up enough points to keep the Ducks from winning by such a big margin.

At 3-1, Cal is a good team. They aren't great, but they are far too good to assume a 25-point defeat. Defensively, I like their chances to contain Oregon. As for Oregon's defense, they aren't anything too spectacular.

The Ducks will win here, but I don't like this spread.

Stanford (-30 over Colorado)

Stanford has been good this year. Actually, they have been really good. They haven't been significantly challenged in any game this year.

But after beating San Jose State by 54 and Duke by 30, Stanford hasn't won a single game by more than 30 points.

Colorado is off to a bad start, but they haven't lost a single game by this big of a margin. I do like Andrew Luck and Stanford to take this one easily, but 30 points is far too much to be giving.

South Carolina (-21 over Kentucky)

South Carolina can't seem to get the offense and defense on the same page. In the early season, their offense was a machine, but they couldn't stop anyone.

Recent weeks have gone in the opposite direction for the Gamecocks. They are generally winning (although they did lose to Auburn), but aren't scoring at anywhere near the level that Steve Spurrier and his teams normally score at.

Kentucky isn't a good team, but I like their chances to do some damage against South Carolina's defense and at least keep South Carolina's offense from making it a blowout.

Predictions:

Oregon 38, California 21

Stanford 40, Colorado 17

South Carolina 27, Kentucky 14