It’s cheeseburger time for Notre Dame as we reflect upon our sins and costly mistakes leading to the loss at BYU last Saturday night. With lots if introspection going on in South Bend the rest of the country marches on for the another week of football. It’s not a great week, though. Winter is coming and this could be a good weekend to enjoy some time outside and occasionally check in on the action. There also isn’t much compelling action in the afternoon timeslots for week 8, either. Some Noon starts and primetime games later on in the day cover our picks today.

2026 Betting Record

Against the Spread: 24-29
Straight Up: 31-22

Nothing to brag about again, just keeping my head above water. Against the spread last week I went 4-4 and it was a better 5-3 straight up. I swear, I don’t think I’ve picked a Texas game correctly this season. Will it happen again on Saturday?

Week 8 Games to Watch

All times are Eastern. Rankings are from the AP Poll.

#6 Indiana [-7] at Michigan
Saturday, October 24, 12:00 PM, Fox

While CJ Carr is experiencing his greatest doubt of his career right now following an up and down game against BYU, his little brother Tommy Carr just came off the bench to lead Michigan in a win over Penn State last week. Reports are that Carr will also start this weekend. Meanwhile, Indiana is coming off an emotional loss to Ohio State and I’ll be curious to see how they respond in this road game. They will have to be careful here. It should be low scoring and Michigan could receive a jolt from having a quarterback who can actually throw the ball.

Indiana 23
Michigan 20

#18 LSU [-7.5] at Auburn
Saturday, October 24, 12:00 PM, ABC

I bet Lane Kiffin was thinking they’d be undefeated at this point of the season and looking forward to Alabama next week. Instead, they already have 2 losses, Auburn is frisky, and the Tide plus Texas and Tennessee await in consecutive weeks. Auburn’s win over Georgia last week was pretty fluky and the advanced stats don’t think they’re that good of a team. I expected a larger spread here, to be honest. LSU lives to fight another day in the playoff conversation.

LSU 32
Auburn 21

#7 Ole Miss [+3.5] at #19 Texas
Saturday, October 24, 7:30 PM, ABC

It looks like the Bryce Underwood era is over at Michigan after less than 20 games. Could we see the end of the Arch Manning era at Texas after a similar amount of starts? Both of these team’s have schedules that ease up a little bit towards the end of the season so this is a huge October hurdle. The Ole Miss defense has been up and down all year. If they are solid, I like them to win on the road. Something just doesn’t seem right about the vibes in Texas right now, but I keep missing on their picks so don’t listen to me.

Ole Miss 39
Texas 35

#16 USC [-3] at Wisconsin
Saturday, October 24, 7:30 PM, NBC

Come on Luke: Lincoln Riley is just 14-9 on the road while USC coach. 

Our third road favorite this week among the picks today. I thought last week was Wisconsin’s chance to make a statement and they fell flat against UCLA. Now, the other Los Angeles school comes to Madison. Traditionally, these are the road games that Lincoln Riley poops all over himself. Coming off a bye, can the Trojans eek out just enough offense to win this one? I think they’ll do it.

USC 27
Wisconsin 21

#14 Houston [+6.5] at #10 Utah
Saturday, October 24, 10:15 PM, ESPN

This is a huge game for the Big 12 conference. Houston already has one loss in the league (a 2 point defeat to Texas Tech) but their schedule is smooth sailing after this weekend where they should be 10+ point favorites the rest of the way. Are the Cougars a legit playoff team? Meanwhile, Utah has played a terrible schedule thus far so fraudulent alarms are going off for me. I’m sure they’d like to get to the Holy War in a couple weeks while still undefeated but I don’t see it happening.

Houston 34
Utah 28