Bettors and analysts are circling Ohio State at USC, Northwestern at Oregon and Wisconsin at Iowa as the marquee lines of the week.
College football Week 9 has analysts and bettors sizing up a card heavy on ranked teams playing on the road. No. 2 Ohio State is favored by 6.5 points at USC in its first full game without Julian Sayin. No. 20 Northwestern travels to an Oregon team that just lost Dante Moore for the season and fired its offensive coordinator. No. 25 Wisconsin gets 3.5 points at Iowa, a place the Badgers haven't won since 2018.
Several outlets note six of seven highlighted best bets this week back the road team, with four of those games also drawing under picks on the total. One pick sheet points to Notre Dame against a service academy opponent as an expected blowout, noting the Fighting Irish have beaten service academies by no less than 35 points in recent years and are looking to regroup after an idle week following a loss at BYU.
Elsewhere, Wisconsin already delivered on one marquee number this season, having beaten then-No. 16 USC 24-7 for the Badgers' first regular-season win over the Trojans in program history. That result is being cited as context heading into another heavy slate of ranked matchups this weekend.