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Another of the more heavily bet on games of the weekend, UCLA vs. BYU (Brigham Young University) Week 3 College Football betting odds opened up with BYU as the -9 favorite. This one had dropped to -7 ½ at BetUS.com heading into Saturday afternoon (the game starts at 3:30 pm EST). The line has been drifting back and forth between -7 ½ and -8 at BetUS.
Well over 70 percent of the betting action was on the dog in this one and almost all the money line action was also on UCLA paying $260 for every $100 bet.
There is good reason why all the action is going UCLA's way. Gambling911.com feels the line should easily be set at BYU -3. In fact, the two teams are evenly matched on a neutral field in our opinion. Our prediction on this game is that UCLA should - in theory - have no problem covering the -8 spread.
Obviously, the betting public believes that a line of -7 ½ makes sense since the action was beginning to balance out. That line is still heavily shaded.
UCLA beat BYU by 10 points last year on its own home field and lost by only 1 point more than three months later on the road.
Last week, Jan Jorgensen blocked Ryan Perkins' 35-yard extra-point attempt with two seconds left in the game to preserve BYU's win over Washington in a true nail biter.
BYU's biggest test between now and the regular season finale against rival Utah will be verses UCLA.
UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel and his Bruins tasted unexpected success against Tennessee -- "unexpected" at least from the perspective of outside observers -- and they want more. Now all they have to do is beat a second-consecutive ranked team, this time on the road.
"Are the Bruins, who are coming off a bye week, a one-hit wonder?" Asks Ted Miller of ESPN.com.
"I think we're back to business," Neuheisel said. "It was fortunate we had that [bye] week because there was some residual walking in the clouds that we had to knock out of ourselves during last week's practices."
The fundamental UCLA plan hasn't changed, and likely won't the entire season. Play with the cards close to the vest on offense and hope the defense and special teams keep things close.
"Hopefully, we'll take a page out of what we did against Tennessee and take the game to the fourth quarter," Neuheisel said.
