College football has entered the final month of the regular season. The temperatures get chillier, the skies get darker, and the games take on even more importance as teams can see the end of the road off in the distance.
Week 10 of the regular season doesn’t have nearly as many marquee matchups as Week 9 did, but it will be the first week played after the first College Football Playoff rankings are released Tuesday, and it will help settle division races, conference titles, and bowl bids. Let’s take a look at the early lines for the week’s biggest games. All odds are via Caesars Sportsbook.
No. 12 Auburn at No. 13 Texas A&M (-4.5): Auburn’s win over Ole Miss on Saturday was huge because it left the Tigers as the only one-loss team in the SEC West alongside Alabama. Now Auburn will face the team that handed Alabama that loss. This one is pretty simple for all involved. A win keeps you alive in the SEC West race. A loss will make life a lot more difficult, so you’re better off avoiding it.
LSU at No. 3 Alabama (-28): Life comes at you fast, doesn’t it? Most years, this is one of the biggest games of the regular season. This year, Alabama is favored by four touchdowns as LSU plays out the string under Ed Orgeron, and nobody is even sure it’ll be able to reach a bowl game. Of course, crazier things have happened, and we shouldn’t take anything for granted in this rivalry.
No. 5 Michigan State (-3) at Purdue: The Spartans look to avoid a letdown after a massive win over rival Michigan. As you can see by the spread, Purdue will not be a pushover for the Spartans. The Boilermakers have picked up impressive road wins over Iowa and Nebraska and gave Notre Dame all it wanted back in September.
No. 6 Ohio State (-15) at Nebraska: Nebraska needs to win out to reach a bowl game, and here comes Ohio State looking to crush those dreams quickly. Don’t be fooled by Nebraska’s 3-6 record. It’s not a good team, but it’s a much better team than its record, and offensively it’s posed problems for this Ohio State defense before. If the Buckeyes can struggle to put Penn State away at home, the Huskers can make things tough too.
No. 7 Oregon (-6.5) at Washington: This is a massive game for the Ducks. With Oregon State losing on Saturday, the Ducks are now alone atop the Pac-12 North, and a win here would vanquish one of their biggest competitors to also-ran status. Also, while the world seems to have forgotten about them following their loss to Stanford, this is still an Oregon team with a chance to reach the playoff.
No. 10 Wake Forest at North Carolina (-2): Wake Forest finally reaches the top 10 of the AP Top 25, and it’s immediately an underdog on the road to a 4-4 North Carolina team. The disrespect never stops! Fun note about this game: while both teams are in the ACC, this is not a conference game. The state rivals scheduled a non-conference home-and-home series because they aren’t in the same division and do not play every season. So if Wake Forest does lose this game, it’ll still be undefeated in ACC play.
Liberty at No. 15 Ole Miss (-10.5): Hugh Freeze Revenge Game! The former Ole Miss coach returns to Oxford, Mississippi, to face an Ole Miss team coming off a loss to Auburn. There’s absolutely nothing Freeze would love more than for Malik Willis and the Flames to come to town and upset the Rebels. An Ole Miss team that’s still alive in the hunt for a major bowl game will look to keep it from happening.
Best of the Rest
Missouri at No. 1 Georgia (-38)
Tulsa at No. 2 Cincinnati (-23.5)
Navy at No. 8 Notre Dame (-21)
Indiana at No. 9 Michigan (-19.5)
No. 11 Oklahoma State (-3) at West Virginia
No. 14 Baylor (-5.5) at TCU
No. 16 UTSA (-12) at UTEP
Tennessee at No. 18 Kentucky (-3)
No. 19 Iowa (-12) at Northwestern
No. 20 Houston (-13) at South Florida
No. 21 Coastal Carolina (-18.5) at Georgia Southern
No. 22 Penn State (-11) at Maryland
No. 23 SMU (-6.5) at Memphis
Boise State at No. 25 Fresno State (-5.5)
