Our College Hoops Best Bet and CFB Bonus for Friday

Happy Friday Readers! Games have been going in both sports since earlier this afternoon, so I figured why not have a pick for both. As we get closer to Christmas, conference basketball starts and for some of these smaller schools they only have 1 or 2 more chances to upset a bigger school!

Tonight, we also get the first College Football Playoff matchup and with the line movement we continue to see I am doubling down on that action! Read below to see what today’s top plays are!

Can BYU Find A Blowout?

BYU hosts Florida A&M this evening, in what books predict a hefty blowout! Not so fast I say, or perhaps, my model says. My model has this a 25-point game, and if you are an avid user of either Kenpom or Haslametrics, both have this a 27-point game. It will not shock me if this reaches 30, but 35 is a lot of points for anyone!

In 9 games this season, A&M has covered this in 8 straight and only missed the first game of the season. They have also only lost 1 game by 31.5, which was that very first game. What I love about A&M is they have challenged themselves in those 9 games, playing 6 very tough road games against; TCU, SMU, Maryland, Florida, Clemson, and Utah.

They covered in 5 of those 6 games and now face a very good BYU team, without 2 of their players in Richie and Egor. Head Coach Kevin Young has already stated they will likely be out to be ready for conference play next week! According to Kenpom, A&M leads the nation in bench minutes and scoring from the bench.

A&M is also one of the top teams in the nation that allows their top players to play through 2 fouls, giving us another edge ensuring the best players will play as much as possible. BYU has a winning margin of just shy of 19 and I do think A&M will fight in garbage time. They do not want to get blown out by 30+ and they have the players to keep it under.

Notre Dame’s Line Keeps Moving

Look, we already gave this play out in an earlier article, but I am going to double down here with this line movement. Notre Dame is now -6.5 on most books and I will gladly take another bite. I do think Notre Dame can win by 7 and if they do cover that 7, this 6.5 will help profit with our push.

I do expect a lower scoring game here, Under 52 has had my eye all week, but knowing Marcus Freeman is 7-0 against the spread with 1 week to prepare and owns a 17-point winning margin in those weeks, I believe ND can find a 7–10-point win here. Notre Dame has players ready to go to the NFL now in both trenches and playing 4 whole quarters, they should be able to find that extra 3-7 points they need.

Indiana should have trouble moving the ball on this defense. I do expect Cignetti to have plays drawn up that will work, but this Notre Dame pass defense should hold the receivers in check, and I expect this to be a ground game by both squads. I expect heavy volume from Leonard+Love and that 1-2 punch should find enough plays behind Notre Dame’s offensive line.

My Best Bets (2):
CBB: Florida A&M +34.5 (-110)
CFB: Notre Dame -6.5 (-110)