College Football Betting: Week 16 Under-the-Radar Plays
The college football season moves into Week 16… but it’s not only a regular-season weekend in the sport. In addition to the conference championship games, there is a bowl game being played on Saturday. There are some other games in various conferences which were arranged this past Sunday. The Big Ten and Pac-12 both created scheduling plans in which added games would be played on Dec. 19 depending on the order of finish in the regular season, plus other scheduling variables. These are some of the off-radar games for the coming weekend. Let’s take a look.
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SMU Mustangs (-7.5) vs. UTSA Roadrunners (Frisco Bowl)
This is the one bowl game being played on Saturday, all while college football finishes the regular season for everyone else. The SMU Mustangs are quarterbacked by Shane Buechele, a transfer from Texas who has played multiple seasons for SMU and will try to close his college career on a high note. UTSA has certainly made improvements as a program, but decent defenses have been able to contain the Roadrunners, Army being one example earlier this season. SMU, of the American Athletic Conference, has more speed and size than UTSA. Over the course of four quarters, those differentials are likely to emerge in full. SMU will kick off the bowl season – and end its own journey through pandemic football in 2020 – with a victory.
Florida State Seminoles at Wake Forest Demon Deacons (-7)
This game is not a game you want to pick based on what you saw this past weekend. Florida State defeated Duke by 21 points, 56-35, while Wake Forest lost to Louisville by 24 points, 45-21. Based solely on those results, you would think Florida State has an excellent chance of winning this upcoming contest. Yet, Wake Forest had not played a game in roughly one month, and the Demon Deacons had not been able to practice with any sort of regularity due to COVID-19 complications. Wake Forest was simply not in a good position to play against Louisville. It was hard to know how the Deacons would be affected, but it was clear the team was rusty after a month of uncertainty and inactivity. Now that Wake Forest has played a game, the Demon Deacons should be able to regain a sense of coherence and connectedness as a team. Florida State did win by 21, but Duke is one of the worst teams in the ACC this season; only Syracuse is worse. Florida State is not a good team, and Wake Forest is going to play markedly better than it did a week before. Wake looks like a great play here.
Boise State Broncos (-6.5) vs. San Jose State Spartans (Mountain West Championship Game)
The Boise State Broncos and San Jose State Spartans will meet in Las Vegas for the Mountain West title. Boise State’s one loss was not in a conference game. The Broncos lost to BYU, a nationally-ranked team. San Jose State came from behind to beat Nevada to win the Mountain West’s West Division and earn its first-ever berth in the Mountain West Championship Game. Boise State just played a snow game against Wyoming, so while it scored only 17 points, the elements had a lot to do with that. Expect Boise State’s offense – playing in far more pleasant conditions in Las Vegas – to accumulate a lot of points and beat San Jose State in what figures to be a high-scoring contest.
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Dave Golokhov is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Dave, check out his archive and follow him @davegolokhov.