One more weekend and we’re into the final month of the regular season. While the future 24-team playoff is on the horizon, this might be the last (somewhat) normal regular season we’ll see in these final weeks of 2026. Cherish them, if you can. This Saturday we have a bunch of periphery matchups on Halloween. Nothing looks like it’ll shake up the top of the rankings too much (although the Gators would like it to be so) but who knows what kind of spooky season befalls unsuspecting teams in a couple days!

2026 Betting Record

Against the Spread: 26-32
Straight Up: 33-25

Once again, I missed the Texas prediction. They jumped out to a solid lead against Ole Miss and held on to win when I called for the underdog outright victory. A slide backwards in week 8 saw me go 2-3 both against the spread and straight up.

Week 9 Games to Watch

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

#22 Arizona [+3.5] at #13 Texas Tech
Saturday, October 31, 12:00 PM, ESPN

Are we all sleeping on Arizona this year? I know I may be! They won 9 games last year and have started 5-1 with an 11-point loss to BYU (which I’m pretty sure that game was closer than the score) and have won all other games by double digits. Quarterback Noah Fifita has shown glimpses of bright talent in his career and sits 8th nationally in passer rating right now. Part of me likes the bounce back game for Texas Tech coming home but I’m going with the outright upset by the visiting Wildcats and the accompanying discourse around the Red Raiders ‘moment’ as a NIL juggernaut being on hold for a while.

Arizona 32
Texas Tech 30

#25 Wisconsin [+3.5] at Iowa
Saturday, October 31, 12:00 PM, Fox

Heartland Trophy on the line!

Any guesses on the over/under for this game? It’s 36.5 points, does that seem too high? This has the look of a game where one team is definitely scoring in single digits. This is a big, big game for Wisconsin (and Notre Dame’s schedule). Win here, and 10-2 looks quite possible with a remaining 4 games from teams in the lower tier of the Big Ten. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be that lucky.

Iowa 16
Wisconsin 9

#17 Florida [+11.5] vs. #3 Georgia (Atlanta, GA)
Saturday, October 31, 3:30 PM, ABC

It’s the 20th anniversary of “Don’t call this the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” rivalry memo. Due to ongoing construction at the Jaguars’ EverBank Stadium, this game is being played at the Mercedes Benz Stadium this year and at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa next year. Both teams are coming off a bye week and Florida is expecting to get quarterback Aaron Philo back into the lineup. The Dawgs have won 5 straight (and 8 out of the last 10) games in this rivalry. I feel like they will probably run away with it late but a backdoor cover for Florida feels right too.

Georgia 27
Florida 19 

#20 Northwestern [+3.5] at Oregon
Saturday, October 31, 3:30 PM, Peacock

It’s Halloween weekend and Northwestern is withing shouting distance of the Big Ten Championship Game. Meanwhile, pre-season no. 2 Oregon is a complete mess right now. They’ve fired their offensive coordinator and recently announced quarterback Dante Moore is not expected to return this season following his ugly concussion suffered against USC. I think this will be a proper season from Hell for the Ducks and they are going to finish 7-5 or even 6-6.

Northwestern 39
Oregon 34

#6 Utah [-6.5] at Cincinnati
Saturday, October 31, 3:45 PM, ESPN

This is a tough matchup to gauge. We’re a week away from a top 10 Holy War showdown in Salt Lake City. Can the Utes avoid the upset traveling back eastward? The Bearcats just upset Texas Tech, can they make it back-to-back and become a chaos agent within the Big 12? I can’t see a very average team like Cincinnati doing that again but a relatively close spread has me guessing Utah will struggle most of the day.

Utah 30
Cincinnati 24

#2 Ohio State [-6.5] at USC
Saturday, October 31, 7:30 PM, NBC

He’s going to ruin a Heisman campaign.

Yes, the focus is on whether USC is going to fire Lincoln Riley now in the middle of year 5 with the Trojans. He’s 41-20 with the program and 14-9 in Big Ten play since switching conferences. They also have road games against current top 10 opponents coming after this weekend too, so 7-5 is looking like the most likely outcome. The $70 million buyout looms large. Still, Ohio State is rolling with a short, lowly 3-star true freshman quarterback who looked like Andrew Hendrix against Indiana in limited action. If he’s terrible, I genuinely think USC skates past the Buckeyes here and we’re looking at Ohio State losing 4 or 5 games–there are no lay ups for them down the stretch.