2 College Football Best Bets for Thursday, October 26

The NFL will once again be on centerstage this Thursday but don’t sleep on college football. The ACC and the Sun Belt are giving us 2 intriguing matchups to digest on October 26.

Need help betting on these games? You’ve come to the right place! Here are 2 best bets that we love!

Georgia State +1.5 @ Georgia Southern (Caesars)

The Panthers trail only #25 James Madison in the East Division of the Sun Belt. Their loss to Troy was their only loss of the season as they sit at 6-1. Their latest win came on the road against Louisiana.

Leading 20-7 at the half, the Panthers were unable to score again the rest of the way and were lucky enough to hold Louisiana to just 10 points in the 2nd half to win 20-17. Darren Grainger completed over 77% of his passes and cashed in on 2 touchdowns without throwing a pick.

Marcus Carroll did his job on the ground going for 110 yards on 26 carries. The defense was stout against the pass and held the Ragin’ Cajuns to just 124 yards through the air.

Nipping at the heels of the Panthers are the Georgia Southern Eagles, who are 5-2 on the year with their 2 losses coming to James Madison and Wisconsin. They are coming off a high-scoring home victory over Louisiana-Monroe 38-28. They held ULM to just 28 yards on the ground but gave up 400 through the air.

Each team turned the ball over 4 times but the Eagles were 50% on 3rd down while ULM was just 25%. Jalen White scored twice on 26 carries and accumulated 164 yards. Davis Brinn was held to his lowest total yardage through the air with just 240 yards. On the season, the Eagles are 15th in the country averaging 318.7 passing yards per game.

These teams are nearly identical in every statistical category. Their main difference resides on the offensive side where the Eagles are more of a pass-heavy offense compared to the Panthers who prefer to keep the ball on the ground and grind out drives.

We have already seen the opening line of -3 drop to -1.5 for the Eagles here. It is likely to finish as a pick so we are good with grabbing the point and the hook here. The Panthers rushing attack has been more consistent than the Eagles passing game which has seemed to fall off a bit after an aggressive start to the season.

Key Trends:

• Ga St is 12-2 ATS in their last 14 games on the road.
• Ga St is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games.
• Ga Southern is 4-8 ATS in their last 12 games.
• Ga Southern is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games against an opponent in the Sun Belt.

Virginia Tech -2.5 over Syracuse (FanDuel)

After a promising 4-0 start to the season with wins over Purdue and Army, the Orange have since dropped their next 3 games. All 3 were to quality conference opponents in Clemson, #14 UNC, and #4 FSU.

They had a bye last week to lick their wounds and potentially get in a better mindset for the 2nd half of their season. They are middle of the road in all stats with their ability to convert on 3rd down (46%) has them ranked 31st in the country.

Garrett Shrader is coming off his worst outing of the season. He was 9-21 for 99 yards and no touchdowns while getting sacked 3 times. The defense allowed FSU to have their way on the ground (191 yards) and through the air (344 yards).

The Hokies are 3-4 through the 1st 7 games of the season and are coming off a 30-13 impressive win against Wake Forest. The win was a nice way to bounce back after losing in Tallahassee 39-27 to the Noles. Kyron Drones and Jaylin Lane connected 3 times for 102 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Defensively, they held Wake to just 35 yards rushing and forced 3 turnovers. They stopped them on 11 of their 14 third-down conversion attempts. They were on a bye last week and have #18 Louisville on the horizon next week.

It is certainly possible that the Orange used their bye week to correct their mindset after taking 3 straight losses but the fact that they play no other ranked teams the rest of the way may cause them to believe they will coast their way to a bowl game.

The Hokies are home for just the 2nd to last time this season and will have a rabid fan base that will have been prepping all day for the 7:30 p.m. kick. We are confident in the Hokies after the way they took care of business the week after getting beat up by FSU.

Key Trends:

• Syracuse is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games on the road.
• Syracuse is 0-7 ATS in their last 7 games against an opponent in the ACC.
• VT is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games against an opponent in the ACC.
• VT is 4-2 ATS in their last 6 games when playing at home against Syracuse.