Week 3 College Football Parlay Picks: BYU Makes a Statement

There are a number of games between vaunted Power 5 programs on tap this Saturday, and even a couple of matchups featuring ranked teams. The No. 13 Miami Hurricanes will visit the No. 14 Texas A&M Aggies, while the No. 12 BYU Cougars take on the No. 25 Oregon Ducks in the two battles between Top 25 programs this week.

We’ll be looking at some of those big games while also digging a bit deeper into the schedule in order to make our best college football parlay picks for Week 3.

Week 3 college football parlay picks

• Penn State vs. Auburn Over 47.5 (-110) + BYU Moneyline (+145) = +367
• Syracuse -1.5 (-107) + Rutgers -17.5 (-110) + Pittsburgh -10 (-107) = +614

Click on each pick to jump to the full analysis.

Parlay Pick 1

PARLAY: Penn State vs. Auburn Over 47.5 (-110) + BYU Moneyline (+145) = +367 (at DraftKings)

Penn State vs. Auburn Over 47.5

The Penn State Nittany Lions and the Auburn Tigers both come into this Big Ten vs. SEC matchup with perfect 2-0 records. At the same time, neither team will be completely happy with their performance so far this season.

While Penn State took care of business in a 46-10 win over the Ohio Bobcats last week, they needed a fourth-quarter comeback to get past the Purdue Boilermakers 35-31 in their opener.

Nittany Lions quarterback Sean Clifford has guided the offense to plenty of points early this season, throwing for five touchdowns against just one interception so far this year. Auburn eased past the Mercer Bears 42-16 in its opener but faced a tougher time against the San Jose State Spartans last week. San Jose State led the game at halftime before the Tigers took over for a hard-fought 24-16 win at home.

Last year, Penn State hosted this matchup and held off Auburn for a 28-20 victory. This time around, the game is in Auburn, and another close contest is expected. With both teams scoring plenty of points and hardly playing shutdown defense, the Over looks like a good play here.

BYU Moneyline

The BYU Cougars are off to another strong start this year. An overtime win over the Baylor Bears moved the Cougars to 2-0, as the independent program looks to build on last year’s 10-win season. With a talented roster and games upcoming against the likes of Notre Dame and Arkansas, BYU could threaten to crash the College Football Playoff if they beat the Oregon Ducks on Saturday and run the table from there.

Oregon suffered an embarrassing loss in its season opener, as the Georgia Bulldogs humiliated the Ducks 49-3. Last week, Oregon bounced back with a cupcake win against the Eastern Washington Eagles, but will head right back into serious competition by hosting BYU on Saturday.

While Oregon comes into the showdown as a 3.5-point favorite, that’s based more on reputation than reality. We’ve already seen BYU beat a Power Five contender in Baylor, while Oregon has yet to show that it can even compete with a top-tier opponent. The Cougars are averaging 38 points a game, and BYU quarterback Jaren Hall will find holes in the Ducks' defense both in the air and on the ground.

Oregon is 2-5 against the spread in its last seven non-conference games. That underperformance will continue on Saturday and result in a second loss for the Ducks.

Parlay Pick 2

PARLAY: Syracuse -1.5 (-107) + Rutgers -17.5 (-110) + Pittsburgh -10 (-107) = +614 (at PointsBet)

Syracuse -1.5

After struggling for the past three seasons, the Syracuse Orange look to be back to the form that saw coach Dino Babers lead the team to a 10-3 record in 2018. Syracuse turned away the Louisville Cardinals 31-7 in its opener, then easily dispatched UConn 48-14 last weekend to improve its record to 2-0.

Junior quarterback Garrett Shrader has been particularly impressive for the Orange this season, throwing for five touchdowns and no interceptions on the year. Shrader was so good against UConn — going 20-for-23 with 287 yards passing, three passing touchdowns, and two more scores on the ground — that PFF noted he was their highest-graded player at any position among Power Five schools last weekend. Shrader and the Orange face a significant upgrade in competition against the Purdue Boilermakers.

While Purdue couldn’t hold on to beat Penn State at home to start the season, they rebounded nicely with a 56-0 win over Indiana State on September 10. While this game is a bit under the radar, these two teams can both play, and the winner could be in line for a big season — albeit not one with playoff aspirations.

After opening as a slight dog, Syracuse now stands as a 1.5-point favorite at most books, but the Orange are still the pick here. Syracuse is 6-1 ATS in its last seven home games and should remain undefeated on the season with a win over Purdue.

Rutgers -18.5

My Big East nostalgia parlay continues with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, who head to Philadelphia to take on the Temple Owls in Philadelphia. Rutgers has started the year 2-0, posting a 22-21 win at Boston College before blowing out FCS school Wagner last week.

Temple has struggled early in the season. They went on the road to face Duke in their opener, only to get shut out 30-0. The Owls picked up their first win of the season last week, beating FCS school Lafayette by a 30-14 final. Freshman quarterback E.J. Warner — son of Hall of Famer Kurt Warner — led Temple to the victory, and the Owls are listing him as their starter against Rutgers.

There is a gulf in talent between these two teams far greater than the 18.5-point spread indicates. Temple has gone just 4-15 over the past two years, while the Scarlett Knights are rapidly improving under head coach Greg Schiano. Rutgers may not be world-beaters, but Schianno's team easily handled Temple 61-14 last year at home.

The Scarlet Knights aren’t traveling far on Saturday, and I expect a similar result in the 2022 rematch. Rutgers is 10-2 ATS in its last 12 road games, while Temple is just 2-9 ATS in its last 11 at home.

Pittsburgh -10.5

Let’s round out our three-leg parlay of Big East alumni by betting against the Pittsburgh Panthers against the Western Michigan Broncos. Pittsburgh has already tested itself against two capable teams, first beating the West Virginia Mountaineers 38-31 at home before dropping a 34-27 overtime decision to the Tennessee Volunteers last week.

Western Michigan also comes in at 1-1, as they rebounded from a loss at Michigan State by beating the Ball State Cardinals 37-30 last weekend. The Broncos are looking to repeat last year’s upset when they beat the Panthers 44-41 in Pittsburgh. However, Western Michigan needed a second-half rally to overcome a nine-point deficit at Ball State. Western Michigan has lost much of the offensive personnel that helped the Broncos beat Pittsburgh in 2021.

New redshirt freshman quarterback Jack Salopek is still settling into the starting role for the Panthers, having thrown only one touchdown in two games. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi is playing it close to the vest as to whether starting quarterback Kedon Slovis can play on Saturday after leaving the Tennessee game with an upper-body injury.

My bet is that Slovis is in the lineup. If that’s the case, Pittsburgh should take revenge for its loss to the Broncos last year, and the game shouldn’t be close.

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