As the college football season moves into its second half, the playoff picture is just beginning to come into focus, and that means plenty of key games to look at for my Week 8 parlay picks.
The Miami Hurricanes are looking to qualify as a conference winner, while the Oklahoma Sooners and Illinois Fighting Illini are both on life support, likely needing to win out to keep their playoff hopes alive. Meanwhile, both the Tennessee Volunteers and the Alabama Crimson Tide remain in the thick of the race.
I’ll look at all of these teams and how we can target them in parlays as part of my free college football picks for Week 8.
Best college football parlays for Week 8
- Parlay
Miami -5
Oklahoma moneyline
Illinois +3.5
(+568 at DraftKings) 
SGP 
Tennessee moneyline
Under 56.5
Dylan Sampson anytime TD
(+366 at FanDuel)
Best Week 8 parlay
Miami -5
Oklahoma moneyline
Illinois +3.5
The Miami Hurricanes looked untouchable in the early part of the season but struggled in two close wins against the Virginia Tech Hokies and California Golden Bears prior to their bye last week. In both of those games, the Hurricanes failed to cover as double-digit favorites.
This weekend, Miami is just a 5-point favorite on the road against the Louisville Cardinals. Louisville hasn’t covered in any of its last three games, losing two of those contests outright to the SMU Mustangs and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Hurricanes will be the best team Louisville has seen this year — particularly on the offensive side of the ball — and Miami should be able to both remain undefeated and cover the spread.
The Oklahoma Sooners look like a solid football team this year, but not one that can seriously contend with the top teams in the country. That was proven twice in the last month in losses to the Tennessee Volunteers and the Texas Longhorns, neither of which were particularly close. But they should be able to handle the South Carolina Gamecocks, who have lost three of four.
Don’t get fooled by a surprisingly close loss to an Alabama team that wasn’t playing well — South Carolina isn’t up to the task of beating the Sooners in Oklahoma.
Finally, I’ll take the Illinois Fighting Illini to cover the always tempting 3.5-point spread as they host the Michigan Wolverines. The Illini have been strong on defense even against their toughest competition, while Michigan still hasn’t found any comforting answers at quarterback this year.
I expect Illinois to score enough to likely hold off the Wolverines at home — but I’m still taking the points to be safe.
Best Week 8 SGP
Tennessee moneyline
Under 56.5
Dylan Sampson anytime TD
- Tennessee moneyline
- Under 56.5
- Dylan Sampson anytime TD
Even though the SEC could easily get four teams in the College Football Playoff field, there’s still not a whole lot of room for losses along the way. That makes Saturday’s game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Tennessee Volunteers critical for both sides, as either team taking a second loss might put its back against the wall for the rest of the season.
Both sides have had moments of brilliance, with the Crimson Tide knocking off the Georgia Bulldogs and the Volunteers looking untouchable for the first four weeks of the season. Both have since looked very vulnerable, with surprising conference losses and closer-than-expected wins last weekend.
Of the two, I’m more concerned about Alabama. The Tide had an awful loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores and were lucky to survive some stunning mental errors to get out of South Carolina with a win over the Gamecocks. Both sides here have plenty to worry about, but both have struggled far more on the road. If you’re going to give me Tennessee with plus money at home, I’m taking the Volunteers to win outright.
How can Tennessee win this game? The Volunteers will have to keep the scoring down, relying on a defense that is allowing just 4.0 yards per play (fourth best in the nation) and 10.7 points per game (sixth in the nation) to slow down Jalen Milroe and an explosive Alabama offense averaging 41.7 ppg. There’s no guarantees that Tennessee will be successful, but if they win, it will be in a lower-scoring game. That’s exactly the kind of correlation we’re looking for in a good SGP.
If you want something closer to a guarantee, let’s finish off this parlay by betting on Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson to score a touchdown on Saturday.
Sampson has already scored 15 times in six games — no, that’s not a typo — including six times in his three SEC contests. That’s especially impressive considering the Volunteers only have 67 points total in those three games. A Sampson touchdown is a great value-add for any SGP on this game, even if you’re taking Alabama to win or cover.
Not intended for use in MA.
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