College football best bets, locks, favorites, underdogs, over/unders

In Week 8 of the college football season, Liberty's outright win over BYU and Oregon-UCLA game went over the total. Northern Illinois' predicted starting quarterback didn't play and the Huskies lost as a favorite to Ohio. James Madison couldn't keep Marshall off the scoreboard.

No. 2 Ohio State is playing at No. 13 Penn State on Saturday at noon. The Buckeyes have won five straight games in the series, but they are 0-5 against the spread against Penn. Ohio has played just one team in top 25 and won by 31 points. They have two good running backs in Miyan Williams and TreVeyon Henderson. Their defense ranks third nationally in success rate on rushing plays. Penn Staters' defense is 90th in rushing explosiveness allowed. The game should be decided by two-plus touchdowns.

No. 16 Syracuse is playing at Notre Dame on Saturday at noon. The Fighting Irish won last week's game over UNLV 44-21. Syracuse's offense ranks 14th. Notre Notre's defense ranks 112th in expected points added per rush. The Orange lost at Clemson last weekend. They are looking to bounce back. It's a good bet that they will do that. For the game, they're playing against a team that struggles to stop the run.

Rutgers is a double-digit underdog at Minnesota. The Golden Gophers have lost three straight games and failed to exceed 17 points in each of them. Minnesota's quarterback Tanner Morgan is injured and it's not clear if he'll play. Rutgers is 16-6 against the spread on the road in conference play and 6-1 ATS when the total is 45 or lower.

No. 19 Kentucky plays at No. 3 Tennessee at 7 p.m. on ESPN. Kentucky's offense is slow and its defense is good, but the under has gone 6-1 in Kentucky games. Tennessee's defense has held the best offenses it's faced to 17, 22 and 16 points. The Vols are good at pinning opponents inside their own 20-yard line.