2020 Week 5 College Football Opening Odds and Spreads

• LSU and Oklahoma look to rebound from conference opening upsets against winnable opponents
• Memphis and SMU has the look of a game that could shatter any potential point total
• Spreads and totals for Week 5 games are listed below

Following college football’s first big slate of games this season, several teams enter Week 5 with dramatically different expectations than they had heading into this past weekend.

The two biggest stories from Saturday were the upset losses of LSU over Mississippi State and Oklahoma over Kansas State, respectively. The Tigers figure to bounce back on Saturday evening in Nashville against lowly Vanderbilt, but the Sooners have a trickier situation awaiting them in Ames when they travel to take on Iowa State.

Below is the complete list of opening lines for Week 5, and be sure to keep up with movement on the College Football odds as the week goes on.

Week 5 College Football Opening Odds

Odds taken on Sept. 27 from FanDuel and DraftKings & William Hill (Table will be updated)

Saturday Woes for LSU and Oklahoma

Oklahoma closed as a 28-point favorite over K-State but didn’t have the look of a team that addressed many of the defensive problems that plagued it a season ago.

The Wildcats turned the game into an unlikely shootout with plays that gashed the Sooners’ front seven and took advantage of busts in the secondary. Running back Breece Hall and the Iowa State offense will look to do the same thing next week in Ames.

WHAT IS HE DOING!!!

when the play-by-play guy bet Iowa State and reacts like all of us would

then immediately prays he was down 😂https://t.co/0ATFzmQyGd

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) September 26, 2020

Iowa State has a reputation of being a tough place to play at night, but since Matt Campbell took over as head coach in 2016, the Cyclones are 3-2 outright as well as against the spread in those games. During Campbell’s tenure, Oklahoma is 2-0 outright at Iowa State, but 0-2 ATS. The first of those two games came in 2016 under the lights. 

LSU figures to be the more appealing bounce-back option, after a rough loss to the Bulldogs to open the season. The Commodores covered as one of the week’s biggest underdogs against Texas A&M on Saturday.

However, working against the motivation of a defending national champion coming off a disappointing loss to start the season seems like a disastrous scenario for Vandy’s true freshman quarterback, Ken Seals, to navigate in just his second presumed start. 

LSU has only played Vanderbilt once since Ed Orgeron took over as head coach in 2016. The Tigers beat Vandy in that game last season, 66-38, and easily covered the 24.0-point spread.

Can Texas A&M Deliver Another Huge Upset?

The biggest matchup of the week comes at 3:30 PM EST when Texas A&M plays at Alabama. Although the Aggies looked like they were stuck in third gear for the majority of their 17-12 win against the Commodores on Saturday, it’s conceivable that head coach Jimbo Fisher spent a fair amount of his preseason preparation gearing his team up for this week’s game rather than last weekend’s.

Texas A&M opened as 14.5-point underdogs, but the Aggies have one of the SEC’s most talented rosters and Fisher will no doubt try to keep things as close as he can for a shot to try and win things late.

Last season was A&M senior quarterback Kellen Mond’s best effort against the Crimson Tide. He completed 57-percent of his passes for 264 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also ran for 90 yards and a touchdown, but likely needs to provide even more than that for A&M to have a legitimate chance here.

Nick Saban is 3-1 outright against Texas A&M at home while at Alabama and 2-2 ATS in those games. With Mond as the starting QB, Texas A&M is just 1-7 outright, but 5-3 ATS as a road underdog.

Memphis and SMU Poised to Obliterate Another Total

Memphis at SMU has all the makings for a fun game that should provide the week’s highest point total. The Tigers have had a bumpy start to the season working around obstacles related to COVID-19, but have a good one lined up against the 3-0 Mustangs, who have scored 146 points in their first three games.

SMU senior quarterback Shane Buechele is off to the best start of his career, having completed 68-percent of his passes for 852 yards, 7 touchdowns, and just two interceptions. In the one game that Memphis has been able to play this season, senior quarterback Brady White picked up where he left off last year, with a 280-yard, 4-touchdown performance against Arkansas State.

Both are top-20 teams nationally in total offensive plays run per game to start the season, and both are in the top-30 in third-down conversion percentage. Last season, Memphis finished with the eighth-most drives that averaged over ten yards-per-play, and SMU finished eighteenth. Conversely, both are in the bottom half — or worse — of teams this season in opponent third-down conversion percentage, yards-per-game, and plays-per-game.

Since Sonny Dykes took over as head coach at SMU, the Mustangs are 15-11-1 at hitting the over, and Memphis is 15-11 during that same period. The last meeting between the two was on November 2, 2019, and Memphis outlasted SMU 54-48 while the two smashed through the 71.5-point total.

The opening 4.5-point line seems a probable candidate to shrink as the week goes on, but keep an eye out for a similar total all the way to 75 to snatch up the over.