Best Bets for College Football Group of Five Week 8

Week 8's Group of Five best bets starts Saturday night when the South Florida Bulls face the Houston Cougars.

The No. 21 South Florida Bulls are 7-0 straight up so far in 2018 but are just 2-5 against the spread over that stretch. The Bulls will face their toughest test of the season this Saturday afternoon when they visit the Houston Cougars.

South Florida is a 7-point underdog on the college football odds in this matchup at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. While they deserve credit for taking care of business through their first seven games, the Bulls have in large part been the beneficiaries of a very soft schedule. That is about to change with road games at Houston, Cincinnati and Temple on the horizon, followed by a regular season finale at home against UCF.

Houston ranks third in the nation with 555 total yards per game and second in the nation in scoring with 48.7 points per game. This Cougars squad has scored at least 41 points in each of its seven games this season across a 6-1 SU and 4-3 ATS start. South Florida will score its share of points too, but look for the Cougars to eventually pull away for a win and cover as 7-point favorites.

The SMU Mustangs started their season off with a disappointing 0-3 SU and 1-2 ATS record, but that stretch came against some solid teams in North Texas, TCU and Michigan. The Mustangs have found their rhythm on offense since then with 35.3 points per game and are 3-1 SU and 2-2 ATS over their last four games according to the OddsShark College Football Database.

SMU is a 10-point underdog at home against Cincinnati this Saturday. While the Bearcats are a superior team and will likely find a way to win outright, they are coming off a devastating overtime loss on the road to Temple last Saturday that brought their perfect season to an end. Getting up for this game will be tough, and the door should be open for SMU to cover as 10-point dogs.

Finally, look for the UAB Blazers and the UTEP Miners to go UNDER the posted total of 49 points. UAB ranks eighth in the nation allowing only 15.1 points per game and the UNDER is 13-2 over the team's last 15 games. UAB's last two games against UTEP were 28-7 and 21-6 wins, and a similar score is probably in the cards this Saturday.