Welcome back to our CFB picks and college football best bets for Saturday's Week 7 CFB schedule. We went 1-2 with last week's picks as UCLA came through on the moneyline over Washington State. Despite the losing record, we did give out multiple winners on the Bettor Sports Betting show – so don't miss those free selections as well. Let's now dive into the college football Week 7 odds. In this CFB best bets article, we'll start with the Ohio State vs Purdue matchup and then focus on the Auburn vs LSU SEC showdown. Enjoy these CFB picks and college football predictions as you tune into the Week 7 games. Plus, keep an eye out for the CFB DFS Playbook for top Week 7 college football daily fantasy picks. Let's now get to the college football best bets and CFB betting picks for Saturday, October 14th.

If you want some more free CFB picks, check out the Bettor Sports Betting show from Thursday:

 

College Football Week 7 Best Bets 

Ohio State at Purdue

Saturday, 12 pm ET

If you’ve read our CFB Best Bets before, you know we like underdogs facing teams in prime lookahead spots. Well, that’s exactly what we have here with Purdue hosting Ohio State on Saturday afternoon. The Buckeyes have a marquee matchup on deck against Penn State with tons of implications for the College Football Playoff and Big Ten league standings. After surviving against Notre Dame a few weeks ago, Ohio State’s only two true tests remaining are next week vs the Nittany Lions and then at Michigan to end the regular season. 

With that in mind, can you blame the Buckeyes for looking a bit past Purdue this weekend? The Boilermakers are having a down year following an offseason coaching change that’s seen Jeff Brohm have plenty of success at Louisville. Their 2-4 record looks even worse when you realize the two wins came against bad Illinois and Virginia Tech teams. Against the spread, it isn’t much better with a 2-4 mark on that front as well. 

Even so, Purdue can catch Ohio State off-guard here and cover as a three-score home dog. The Buckeyes started very slow last week and actually trailed Maryland at one point in the third quarter. They ended up barely covering the spread and needed a late field goal to get there. Ohio State’s offense hasn’t been as explosive or efficient this season as we were used to with C.J. Stroud under center in recent years. The running game has struggled to get going and the passing attack has its warts with Kyle McCord still trying to find his rhythm. 

The Buckeyes are also dealing with multiple injuries to top playmakers. In last week’s win, stud wideout Emeka Egbuka left early with a leg injury. It’s not considered serious, but Egbuka could sit out this week with Penn State coming up. Plus, star running back TreVeyon Henderson sat out the last game with an injury of his own. Then there’s Marvin Harrison Jr., who sprained his ankle against Notre Dame and didn’t make many plays until the second half of last week’s victory.

Another interesting wrinkle to all of this is that Penn State gets a cupcake matchup against UMass after coming off its bye week. The Nittany Lions will be well-rested for next week’s showdown with Ohio State by benefiting from not only the week off, but also pulling starters in a likely blowout victory. The Buckeyes could get out to an early lead against Purdue, though it may look to rest some guys late – especially with those aforementioned injuries. 

This sets up for a prime backdoor cover situation for a Boilermakers team that should be playing hard all the way with a bye week of its own coming next week. Ohio State should take its foot off the gas late, assuming they even have a comfortable lead. OSU is also 0-2 ATS in its two road games so far, needing that last-second score to beat Notre Dame. 

Finally, Purdue has played Ohio State tough at home over their recent history. When the Buckeyes last faced the Boilermakers on the road back in 2018, they were upset in a 49-20 blowout as the No. 2 team in the country. OSU has actually lost three of their last four trips to West Lafayette as well. 

PICK: Purdue +19.5 (-110 on FanDuel)

Auburn at LSU

Saturday, 7 pm ET

Auburn travels to Death Valley on Saturday night to face LSU in an SEC rivalry matchup. The last time we saw Auburn in action, it played Georgia tough two weeks ago in a 27-20 loss. The Tigers covered as 14-point underdogs in that game and made the two-time defending champs work for it. Auburn can carry confidence from that close loss into this road test vs LSU – and it’ll also benefit from the week off. 

Meanwhile, LSU just played another high-scoring game against Missouri and barely survived. Yes, the Tigers covered as road favorites, but it also needed a late pick-6 to do so – and stop Mizzou from driving right down to score and win, for that matter. The LSU defense is a major worry as it’s allowing 34.8 points (102nd in FBS) and 465 total yards (110th) per game in conference play. Their poor defense nearly cost the Tigers the win last week and it did cost them against Ole Miss two weeks ago in a 55-49 loss. Due to its inability to stop opposing offenses, LSU has now played in three straight back-and-forth, high-scoring battles vs SEC opponents. It’s playing with fire every week and the defense has been on the field a ton three weeks in a row.

Auburn, fresh off its bye week, can take advantage of LSU trying to recover from yet another tightly-contested track meet. The Auburn offense isn’t the best, but its run-focused attack should have success against a defense that’s allowing 5.19 yards per carry and 166 rushing yards per game in SEC play. On the other side, the Auburn defense is only allowing 18.2 PPG this season (25th in FBS). Of course, LSU’s high-powered offense can light up the scoreboard in any matchup – but Auburn’s defense will be hungry after holding Georgia to only 27 points last time out. Plus, LSU QB Jayden Daniels appeared to get banged up late in last week’s game and could be limited here. 

Finally, the Auburn vs LSU rivalry has featured a ton of close games in recent years. In fact, six of the last seven matchups have been one-score results. Last year, Auburn led LSU 17-0 at one point before the latter came back to win 21-17. Auburn still covered as 8-point underdogs despite losing the game, but the final result could have the visiting Tigers even more motivated to win this year’s rematch. Two years ago, in Death Valley, Auburn won outright as 3-point road underdogs. 

PICK: Auburn +11.5 (-110 on DraftKings)

Other CFB Week 7 Bets:

(from Thursday's Bettor Sports Betting show)

  • USC/Notre Dame UNDER 60.5 (-110 FD)
  • Oregon +3 (-115 DK)
  • Pittsburgh +7.5 (-110 DK)
  • South Carolina ML (-130 FD)